RESTful Web Services Part 6 - Maturity Model

    The Richardson Maturity Model is a way to grade your API according to the constraints of REST. The better your API adheres to these constraints, the higher its score is. The Richardson Maturity Model knows 4 levels (0-3), where level 3 designates a truly RESTful API. 

Level 0 – The Swamp of POX

    The starting point for the model is using HTTP as a transport system for remote interactions, but without using any of the mechanisms of the web. Essentially what you are doing here is using HTTP as a tunneling mechanism for your own remote interaction mechanism, usually based on Remote Procedure Invocation.

Level 1 – Resource

    The first step towards the Glory of Rest in the RMM is to introduce resources. So now rather than making all our requests to a singular service endpoint, we now start talking to individual resources.

Level 2 – HTTP Verbs

    Level 2 moves away from this, using the HTTP verbs as closely as possible to how they are used in HTTP itself.

Level 3 – Hypermedia Controls

    The final level introduces something that you often hear referred to under the ugly acronym of HATEOAS (Hypertext As The Engine Of Application State). It addresses the question of how to get from a list open slots to knowing what to do to book an appointment.