Towards an interpretation framework for assessing interface uniformity in REST

Athanasopoulos, M; Kontogiannis, K; Brealey, C

dc.contributor.author	Athanasopoulos, M	en
dc.contributor.author	Kontogiannis, K	en
dc.contributor.author	Brealey, C	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-03-01T02:47:30Z
dc.date.available	2014-03-01T02:47:30Z
dc.date.issued	2011	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://dspace.lib.ntua.gr/xmlui/handle/123456789/33183
dc.subject	API	en
dc.subject	REST	en
dc.subject	Uniform interface	en
dc.subject	Web services	en
dc.subject.other	API	en
dc.subject.other	Architectural style	en
dc.subject.other	As interfaces	en
dc.subject.other	Conceptual frameworks	en
dc.subject.other	Design decisions	en
dc.subject.other	Distinctive features	en
dc.subject.other	Domain specific	en
dc.subject.other	Interpretation frameworks	en
dc.subject.other	Network-based	en
dc.subject.other	Proof of concept	en
dc.subject.other	REST	en
dc.subject.other	Uniform interface	en
dc.subject.other	Web-based service	en
dc.subject.other	Design	en
dc.subject.other	User interfaces	en
dc.subject.other	Web services	en
dc.subject.other	Application programming interfaces (API)	en
dc.title	Towards an interpretation framework for assessing interface uniformity in REST	en
heal.type	conferenceItem	en
heal.identifier.primary	10.1145/1967428.1967440	en
heal.identifier.secondary	http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1967428.1967440	en
heal.publicationDate	2011	en
heal.abstract	Interface uniformity is regarded as one of the most distinctive features of the REST architectural style among other networkbased styles, because of the specific set of restrictions it imposes on the behavior paradigms of interacting components. However, in practice conforming to the REST's uniform interface constraint in Web-based services most often proves to be a difficult task, as identified by a number of researchers and practitioners. This implementation and conformance difficulty can be partly attributed to the lack of a systematic conceptual framework that could be used to interpret abstract architectural restrictions of interface uniformity to practical design decisions and strategies being generalized as interface design criteria. These criteria could be then mapped to domain-specific techniques that provide the context for guiding and/or examining the level of uniformity of a REST-based API. In this paper, we discuss such a conceptual framework and a collection of criteria that can be used to assess in a practical way as to whether a specific REST-based API conforms to the uniform interface constraint. As a proof of concept, we evaluated the proposed framework and its associated methodology by applying it to a collection of indicative public Web service APIs. Copyright 2011 ACM.	en
heal.journalName	ACM International Conference Proceeding Series	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1145/1967428.1967440	en
dc.identifier.spage	47	en
dc.identifier.epage	50	en