RESTfully

RESTfully is a term used to describe the adherence to or implementation of REST (Representational State Transfer) architectural principles when designing and interacting with web services. It signifies a style of software architecture for distributed hypermedia systems, most commonly used for web development. A service that is designed or consumed RESTfully is expected to follow key constraints that promote scalability, simplicity, and maintainability.

The core principles of REST include client-server separation, statelessness, cacheability, a uniform interface, a layered system, and code-on-demand (optional). When a system or an individual interaction is described as RESTful, it implies that these architectural constraints have been applied. For instance, a RESTful API will typically use standard HTTP methods like GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE to perform operations on resources, identified by unique URIs. Data is usually exchanged in common formats such as JSON or XML.

Interacting RESTfully means making requests to such APIs in a way that respects these principles. This often involves understanding how to structure requests, handle responses, and manage state (or rather, the lack thereof) in a distributed environment. The goal of being RESTful is to create web services that are easy to understand, integrate with, and scale independently.