What is the Difference Between RESTful and RESTless Web Service

The main difference between RESTful and RESTless Web Service is that the RESTful web service is an application that follows the Representational State Transfer architecture while the RESTless web service is an application that does not follow RESTful principles.

Web services are client and server applications, which communicate over the WWW using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It provides the standards to exchange data between different applications running on various platforms and frameworks. The user sends an HTTP request to a URL with arguments, and the service sends back the result as a response. Moreover, a web service is platform independent.

Key Areas Covered

1. What is RESTful Web Service
     – Definition, Functionality
2. What is RESTless Web service
     – Definition, Functionality
3. What is the Difference Between RESTful and RESTless Web Service
     – Comparison of Key Differences

Key Terms

HTTP, RESTful, RESTless, URL, Web Service

What is RESTful Web Service

REST stands for Representational State Transfer. It is a style of software architecture. The applications that follow the REST architecture are called RESTful web services. Moreover, these services locate the resource by using the URL. It performs actions based on the transport protocol (HTTP –GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).

Figure 1: Web Service

For example, a RESTful web service with the URL, http://{serverAddress}/employees/employeeNo/10, helps to get the employee information by sending a REST call of GET type. The web service will return the details of the employee that has the employeeNo 10. Furthermore, it is possible to use the same service to update the employee details by sending the new values as form data in a PUT request.

What is RESTtless Web Service

RESTless web service does not follow REST. It is SOAP (stands for Simple Object Access Protocol). It sends an XML request over the internet using HTTP protocol and receives an XML response. Therefore, SOAP or Restless web service is XML based.

Every application that sends SOAP requests has a WSDL file. It represents all the methods available in the web service. It also contains the request and response types. In other words, this file describes the association between the service and client. Moreover, it helps to send remote procedure calls to remote objects.

RESTless service is more suitable for applications that require security. However, it has some drawbacks. It is slow and requires more resources and bandwidth.

Difference Between Restful and Restless Web Service

Definition

RESTful web service is an application that conforms to the REST architectural style that provides interoperability between computer systems on the internet. In contrast, RESTless web service is an application that is not based on the principles of REST. Thus, this is the main difference between RESTful and RESTless Web Service.

Type

RESTful web services use REST, but RESTless web services use SOAP.

Data Format

The data format supported by each is another difference between RESTful and RESTless Web Service. REST web services support various data formats such as HTML, JSON, text etc. while RESTless web services support XML format.

Functionality

One other difference between RESTful and RESTless Web Service is that the RESTful services use URL to expose business logic while the RESTless services use the service interface to expose business logic.

Flexibility

Moreover, RESTful services are easier and flexible than RESTless services.

Security

Security is another difference between RESTful and RESTless Web Service. RESTful inherits security measures from the underlying transport protocols; therefore, it is less secure. RESTless defines its own security layer and is more secure.

Resources and Bandwidth

Resources and bandwidth is also an important difference between RESTful and RESTless Web Service. RESTful web services consume less bandwidth and resource while RESTless web services consume more bandwidth and resources.

Conclusion

The difference between RESTful and RESTless Web Service is that the RESTful web service is an application that follows the Representational State Transfer architecture while the RESTless web service is an application that does not follow RESTful principles.

Reference:

1. “Representational State Transfer.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Nov. 2018, Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Webservice” By Klitze2 – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia (Modified)