However you like, REST doesn’t dictate anything there. Just be consistent and use hypermedia.
JSON APIs almost never follow REST because they almost never use JSON as hypertext. Worse, no complete stable hypertext JSON standard exists. There’s JSON-HAL, but it lacks a way to represent resource templates (think HTML’s <form>).
Therefore, with JSON APIs ignoring one of the most basic idea behind REST, why would anyone expect them to follow another idea of REST - consistency?
REST is a deceptively simple concept. Any time you build an HTML website a human can navigate without consulting documentation, you’re doing it better than vast majority of swagger documented corporate APIs.
Fun fact, I actually did implement JSON-HAL and peers wondered why I was putting this “silly _links dictionary member” in there.
I’ll say I’ve seen other REST APIs using json and at least honor the concept of hypermedia, but in a useless way. They’ll have links specified, but even within their API no consistency on what dictionary keys would refer to related resources versus data.
However you like, REST doesn’t dictate anything there. Just be consistent and use hypermedia.
JSON APIs almost never follow REST because they almost never use JSON as hypertext. Worse, no complete stable hypertext JSON standard exists. There’s JSON-HAL, but it lacks a way to represent resource templates (think HTML’s
<form>).Therefore, with JSON APIs ignoring one of the most basic idea behind REST, why would anyone expect them to follow another idea of REST - consistency?
REST is a deceptively simple concept. Any time you build an HTML website a human can navigate without consulting documentation, you’re doing it better than vast majority of swagger documented corporate APIs.
Fun fact, I actually did implement JSON-HAL and peers wondered why I was putting this “silly _links dictionary member” in there.
I’ll say I’ve seen other REST APIs using json and at least honor the concept of hypermedia, but in a useless way. They’ll have links specified, but even within their API no consistency on what dictionary keys would refer to related resources versus data.