Reviews for RESTful Web Services

1. Best description of REST

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2010

   The authors manage to describe RESTful web services, Resource Oriented Architecture and how it compares with traditional web service standards, like SOAP, in an easy to understand language that still gets into most details. The book is full of examples, and even if you, like me, are not a Ruby developer, you should still be able to benefit from them.
   I felt the book was a little slow to get into the matter, but by the end was blown away. Especially the final chapters on HTTP headers and status codes give you the final bit of information to implement your web services.

2. Disappointing

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2008

   I like some of the ideas of REST but have some issues with this book:
   
   1) Too much code, and too much ruby code.
   2) Doesn't do enough to contrast REST with other approaches and/or explaining where the authors think each approach works well. Of course there was a comparison with a Web services based approach but I would have liked to read more about the wider picture. For example how the authors use REST in addition to SOA/DDD/messaging, assuming that they don't feel that one size fits all.
   3) Examples of social bookmarking are useful but how about examples involving pub/sub within the enterprise, or long running work flows involving multiple systems. If you search hard on the Web you can find examples of using REST in such situations but in all honesty they are few and far between.
   
   So all in all I found the book a bit of a let down, though still worth a read as there really aren't many good alternatives.

3. RESTful but also Rubyful

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2008

   This is a good book on the principles of RESTful web services and a useful reminder of the principles of REST itself.
   
   Clearly written with lots of examples. The authors are clearly passionate about REST and RESTful services and explain their viewpoint well.
   
   However, at times, the passion spills over into polemics, which can distract.
   
   For me, the worst aspect of the book is that the bulk of its examples are written in Ruby. I'm not very familiar with Ruby or Ruby on Rails - and Ruby syntax is hard to grasp for the uninitiated (ie me!). It also works some examples that depend on particular Ruby libraries that don't have counterparts in other languages.
   
   It is particularly disappointing that there are not more examples in JavaScript, addressing the substantial Ajax community - Chapter 11 deals with "Ajax Applications as REST Clients" and covers useful ground, but it would be better to see more.

4. Excellent book on REST

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12nd, 2008

   Very clear, well written, and informative. It includes plenty of clear examples. It's also very readable - which tends to be a rare quality in technical books.

5. An excellent book on REST

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, September 12nd, 2007

   This is probably the only decent book available on using REST, It is an excellent read, short and concise and the most up to date.
   I have read all the book and have found the examples to be excellent and complete. The book covers quite a few languages, which can help if you area contractor like me who comes accross and uses various languages.