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Now a days I hear different terms like Web-service, API, Rest, RestFulAPI, SOAP etc. We write a RestApi by using google cloud end points for our mobile application. Even though we are implementing RestAPI, I have a lot of confusion about the terms which I have mentioned. Can I call my RestAPI (using google cloud end points) as a Web-service? I googled about it a lot but I did not get any clarification. Can I assume RestAPI and RestFulAPI are the same?

Amit Dash
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M.S.Naidu
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2 Answers2

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There are basically two differnt type of Webservices

RESTFul and SOAP based

Representational state transfer (REST) is a style of software architecture. As described in a dissertation by Roy Fielding, REST is an "architectural style" that basically exploits the existing technology and protocols of the Web. RESTful is typically used to refer to web services implementing such an architecture.

To find difference between RESTFul Webservices and RESTApi check this out

More about REST in this thread

Hope this will give you good insight.

Community
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mitpatoliya
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Web services are services communicating over a network. This is a general term, and they cover services over HTTP or not, RESTful services or not. An example of non-RESTful web services is SOAP. To answer your question: a REST API is a web service. REST and RESTful services mean the same thing. Some prefer not to use the terminology 'web service' when using REST principles and prefer to say 'REST(ful) API' in order to differentiate from 'old school' services, e.g. with RCP or SOAP. To increase confusion even more, some call their APIs 'RESTful', just because they use JSON over HTTP. This is not REST!

YA2O
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  • "some call their APIs 'RESTful', just because they use JSON over HTTP. This is not REST!" why this is not called Rest if you use json – M.S.Naidu Aug 14 '14 at 07:26
  • Just using JSON doesn't make the API Restful, as it should follow the REST architectural style to be called the same. And JSON is just a format for data transfer. – Amit Dash Aug 14 '14 at 08:29
  • Please let me know what are the others points we should consider to make it Rest. As i studied(HTTP over JSON) and resources accessed via uri. – M.S.Naidu Aug 14 '14 at 12:37