OK, so you’ve made your JSON-over-HTTP API. Then someone told you that it’s not “really” REST unless it’s hypertext-driven. So now all your responses contain links, and you’re defining mediatypes properly and all that stuff. But I’m here to tell you that you’re still not doing it right. What you’re doing now is just “HYPE”.…

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Neil Madden

REST's core principle of Representational State Transfer is often misunderstood and overlooked in modern API discussions. Unlike traditional object-oriented approaches where clients send commands to manipulate server state, REST involves the server sending state representations to clients, who then modify them locally and send updated representations back. This declarative approach contrasts with the imperative style seen in most APIs today, even those claiming to follow REST principles with hypertext-driven designs.

No, no, no. You’re still not doing REST right!

Me with 4 hrs. of sleep is definitely not RESTing properly.

It’s linguistic drift in technical terminology…

I do this with one of my newer apps, it reduces the amount of api calls and is genuinely amazing. Always used to think i should put all the logic on the api service and keep the front visual, but now i keep sensitive logic on the server and the rest can be handled by the front.

I can recall some APIs designed with this approach in mind. Practically it’s very hard to use them without detailed and up-to-date documentation. With imperative approach you just can guess how it all intended to work with more ease.