RE: How much REST should your Web API get?

mike amundsen wrote:
> I'd like to see more work on using the "Taylor School" approach
> to modeling software arch (Properties/Qualities, Requirements,
> and Constraints)

Me too. And that will only be useful if folks are educated on the differences. Therefore...

In this case, the model needs to be fixed. "Mobility" is not a constraint, it's a requirement. Most of the bullet points in that section are requirements. "Off-line application mode" (I would rephrase it to "disconnected operation") would be the constraint. That constraint plus the cache constraint could lead to *an architecure* which syncs caches on reconnection, but that design decision is not part of the style.

Under "Custom Interface", it would be very informative to lay out in detail which of the properties are being traded off when selecting explicit versioning. Not to evangelize them over REST or vice-versa, but to understand in which situations each is appropriate.

Roy himself isn't a REST evangelist. He's an accomplished architect who has created multiple architectures using multiple styles, attempting to make them appropriate for the given requirements, both functional and non-functional (properties). We would all be wise to design our architectures with the same unbiased approach.


Robert Brewer
[email protected]