RESTful Web Services – Methods

Web services have become an integral part of our daily lives, whether we realize it or not. RESTful web services allow developers to create applications that can communicate with each other via web-based protocols. RESTful web services are easy to use and provide better performance than other web services. In this article, we will focus on the methods used in RESTful web services.

What are RESTful Web Services?

RESTful web services are web-based application programming interfaces (APIs) that use HTTP methods to communicate with each other. REST stands for Representational State Transfer. RESTful architecture is a way of designing web services that allow resources to be accessed and manipulated using HTTP methods.

HTTP Methods in RESTful Web Services

In RESTful web services, HTTP methods are used to perform different actions on resources. The four basic HTTP methods used in RESTful web services are GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE. In this section, we will discuss each HTTP method in detail.

GET

GET is used to retrieve data from the server. GET requests are used when we want to retrieve a representation of a resource. For example, if we want to retrieve a list of products, we would use a GET request.

import requests

response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/products')

print(response.content)

POST

POST is used to send data to the server to create a new resource. POST requests are used when we want to create a new resource on the server. For example, if we want to create a new product, we would use a POST request.

fetch('https://api.example.com/products', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    name: 'Product X',
    price: 10.99,
    description: 'A great product!',
  }),
})
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(data => console.log(data));

PUT

PUT is used to update an existing resource on the server. PUT requests are used when we want to update an existing resource on the server. For example, if we want to update the price of a product, we would use a PUT request.

import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;

public class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      URL url = new URL("https://api.example.com/products/1");
      HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
      conn.setRequestMethod("PUT");
      conn.setDoOutput(true);

      String input = "{\"price\":13.99}";

      OutputStream os = conn.getOutputStream();
      os.write(input.getBytes());
      os.flush();

      if (conn.getResponseCode() != HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
        throw new RuntimeException("Failed : HTTP error code : "
            + conn.getResponseCode());
      }

      BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
          (conn.getInputStream())));

      String output;
      System.out.println("Output from Server .... \n");
      while ((output = br.readLine()) != null) {
        System.out.println(output);
      }

      conn.disconnect();

    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {

      e.printStackTrace();

    } catch (IOException e) {

      e.printStackTrace();

    }
  }
}

DELETE

DELETE is used to delete a resource on the server. DELETE requests are used when we want to delete a resource from the server. For example, if we want to delete a product, we would use a DELETE request.

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
  CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.example.com/products/1',
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'DELETE',
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);

echo $response;

Conclusion

In conclusion, RESTful web services allow developers to create applications that can communicate with each other via web-based protocols. HTTP methods are used in RESTful web services to perform different actions on resources. GET is used to retrieve data from the server, POST is used to send data to the server to create a new resource, PUT is used to update an existing resource on the server, and DELETE is used to delete a resource on the server. By understanding these methods, developers can create powerful and efficient applications that meet their clients’ needs.