hateio

Hateo is a concept related to web development and API design, standing for Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State. It is a constraint within the architectural style of Representational State Transfer (REST). The core idea behind HATEOAS is that a client interacts with a network application through a hypermedia interface. This means that the responses from the server should contain links and forms that guide the client on what actions can be performed next and how to do them.

Instead of the client having hardcoded knowledge of all possible URLs and API endpoints, it discovers them dynamically from the server's responses. Each resource representation returned by the API includes links to related resources and available actions. For example, if a client retrieves a representation of an order, the response might include links to "cancel order," "update shipping address," or "view order items."

The benefits of implementing HATEOAS include increased flexibility and decoupling between the client and the server. The server can evolve its API by changing the URIs or adding new functionalities without breaking existing clients, as long as the hypermedia links remain consistent. Clients are less dependent on server-side implementation details and can adapt to changes more easily. However, implementing HATEOAS can add complexity to both client and server development, and its adoption is not universal in RESTful API design.