Re:REST vs. GraphQL – A search for evidence on which is better
by acidbaseextract on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @05:45PM
(#25449817)
> Have you used a web browser? Do you see how it handles known content types from a new website that you haven't previously visited seamlessly without you reading docs and telling it what to do with it?
I want to get my job done with an API, not browse it. I spend most of my time figuring out what order endpoints need to be called in and what data they need to be passed, not what the endpoints are.
The shittiest HTTP APIs I've used had full lists of endpoints but nonexistent documentation of arguments. If HATEOAS solves that I can get behind it, but I don't think it does.
Have you used a web browser? Do you see how it handles known content types from a new website that you haven't previously visited seamlessly without you reading docs and telling it what to do with it?
That is exactly HATEOAS.
In general, understanding REST is often easiest if you think about what browsers do, since REST is the key principal underlying the design of HTTP/1.1 and was largely a rationalization of the evolved behavior of the web per-HTTP/1.1.