Design and Describe REST API without Violating REST: A Petri Net Based Approach

Abstract

As REST architectural style gains popularity in the web service community, there is a growing concern and debate on how to design Restful web services (REST API) in a proper way. We attribute this problem to lack of a standard model and language to describe a REST API that respects all the REST constraints. As a result, many web services that claim to be REST API are not hypermedia driven as prescribed by REST. This situation may lead to REST APIs that are not as scalable, extensible, and interoperable as promised by REST. To address this issue, this paper proposes REST Chart as a model and language to design and describe REST API without violating the REST constraints. REST Chart models a REST API as a special type of Colored Petri Net whose topology defines the REST API and whose token markings define the representational state space of user agents using that API. We demonstrate REST Chart with an example REST API. We also show how REST Chart can support efficient content negotiation and reuse hybrid representations to broaden design choices. Furthermore, we argue that the REST constraints, such as hypermedia driven and statelessness, can either be enforced naturally or checked automatically in REST Chart.