REST APIs are used to interconnect systems, over a network, using HTTP.
API requests are represented as HTTP requests The parameters of the API request are encoded using the HTTP method, query parameters, header and cookie values and the request body API responses are represented as HTTP responses The parameters of the API response are encoded using the response status, header and cookie values, and the response body |
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Read Introduction to REST for a concise overview of REST (REpresentational State Transfer). |
Why are REST APIs of interest
An increasing number of services provide an HTTP based REST API as an interface to other network elements. REST APIs are prevalent in web-based development. For example there exist REST APIs from YouTube, Google Maps and so on. Many of these REST APIs may have utility within the scope of SS7/IMS/VoLTE services.
A number of REST APIs have been used and developed within Metaswitch.
Historically, applications running on Rhino TAS, including Sentinel VoLTE, have had to support REST APIs by using the HTTP Resource Adaptor, and manually constructing the appropriate HTTP messages, which is time-consuming and prone to errors.
Alternatively, it is possible to write a dedicated Resource Adaptor (RA) that presents Rhino applications with a clean Java interface to a REST API. Such development is a lot of work and must be repeated for each REST API that is to be supported. This can result in a proliferation of RAs which are very similar, if each RA only supports one API.
