REST and JSON

Representation State Transfer (REST) is a widely-used architectural style for web services that decouples the presentation of the data from the application programming interface (API) used to access that data. REST uses standard HTTP methods (e.g., GET and POST requests) to access and to modify resources. Many REST services use JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to exchange data, as JSON is a lightweight data serialization format that is both human and machine readable.

Learning Objectives

Create JSON representations of data (particularly arrays and objects)
Compare and contrast JSON and XML as data formats
Describe the benefits of REST as an architectural style
Use and implement a simple REST service

How to Complete this Lesson

Complete the following learning activities: (2.5–3.25 hours total)

Start developing the project website (75–90 minutes)
- Meet with your team to sketch an initial design and to assign development tasks (15–30 minutes)
- Develop the initial implementation of at least one page for the site (60 minutes)
Complete the following parts of W3Schools’s JSON Tutorial: (10–20 minutes)
- Introduction
- Syntax
- JSON vs. XML
- Data Types
- Objects
- Arrays
- Parse
- Stringify
Read Understanding and Using REST APIs (10–20 minutes)
Attend the class meeting (60 minutes)
- Complete the REST API exercises (15–30 minutes)

Due

As a reminder, the following is due this lesson:

PEX: Web Development

Resources

REST API concepts and examples (9 minutes)