From the course: Learning REST APIs
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How REST relates to HTTP
- Working with REST APIs, you'll most likely send your requests through HTTP. Does that mean REST and HTTP are intrinsically linked? No, but a large percentage of REST APIs are available through the web using the HTTP protocol. So although not all REST APIs use the HTTP protocol, the RESTful ones do. Let me explain. HTTP, short for HyperText Transfer Protocol, is the protocol your web browser uses to access hypertext documents on the world wide web. That world wide web lives on the internet alongside other services like SMTP for email, various instant messaging services, video streaming, and so on. As you have learned, REST is a set of six software architecture design constraints that produce a specific type of service. There's nothing in that definition of REST that stipulates that service must run on HTTP and therefore the web. You could just as easily make a REST service running on FTP or SMTP or some other protocol. REST and HTTP are not linked; they're just a convenient pairing…
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