restrelated

Restrelated is a descriptive label used to classify topics, tools, and practices that relate to REST (Representational State Transfer) and RESTful APIs. It is not a formal standard, but it appears in documentation, tutorials, and tagging schemes to signal alignment with REST architecture.

Central to restrelated discussions are the REST constraints: client-server separation, stateless communication, cacheability, a uniform interface, and a layered system, with code-on-demand as an optional extension. Resources are identified by URIs and are manipulated through representations, most commonly JSON or XML, transmitted over HTTP using standard methods such as GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE. Hypermedia as the engine of application state (HATEOAS) is often discussed in restrelated material, though not universal in all APIs.

Restrelated also covers API design and interoperability practices associated with REST, including API description languages and hypermedia formats such as OpenAPI, JSON:API, HAL, and Collection+JSON, as well as authorization and security patterns like OAuth 2.0. The emphasis is on building scalable, loosely coupled services that leverage the semantics of HTTP and resource-oriented design.

Practical applications of restrelated concepts include public web services, microservices architectures, and enterprise integrations that favor simplicity and statelessness. Benefits typically cited for restrelated approaches include discoverability via standard HTTP semantics, interoperability, and cache-friendly interactions; challenges include versioning, handling partial data (over- or under-fetching), and balancing consistency with performance.

Because REST has influenced many API styles, restrelated topics sometimes intersect with other architectural approaches while remaining anchored in the core REST principles.