Architecture
REST is a style of development for exposing data in such a way that it is easy to consume, easy to produce and makes use of HTTP.
REST is not a replacement for SOAP or WS* but an alternative to solve certain problems better.
HTTP Status Codes
1xx – Informational 2xx – Successful 3xx – Redirection 4xx – Client Error 5xx – Server Error
This class of status code
indicates a provisional
response, consisting only of
the Status-Line and optional
headers, and is terminated by
an empty line
This class of status code
indicates that the client's
request was successfully
received, understood, and
accepted.
This class of status code
indicates that further action
needs to be taken by the user
agent in order to fulfill the
request.
The 4xx class of status code is
intended for cases in which the
client seems to have erred.
Response status codes
beginning with the digit "5"
indicate cases in which the
server is aware that it has
erred or is incapable of
performing the request.
100 – Continue
101 – Switching Protocols
102 – Processing
200 – OK
201 – Created
202 – Accepted
203 – Non-Authoritative
Information
204 – No Content
205 – Reset Content
206 – Partial Content
207 – Multi-Status
300 – Multiple Choices
301 – Moved Permanently
302 – Found
303 – See Other
304 – Not Modified
305 – Use Proxy
307 – Temporary Redirect
400 – Bad Request
401 – Unauthorised
402 – Payment Required
403 – Forbidden
404 – Not Found
405 – Method Not Allowed
406 – Not Acceptable
407 – Proxy Authentication
Required
408 – Request Timeout
409 – Conflict
410 – Gone
411 – Length Required
412 – Precondition Failed
413 – Request Entity Too Large
414 – Request URI Too Long
415 – Unsupported Media
Type
416 – Requested Range Not
Satisfiable
417 – Expectation Failed
422 – Unprocessable Entity
423 – Locked
424 – Failed Dependency
425 – Unordered Collection
426 – Upgrade Required
500 – Internal Server Error
501 – Not Implemented
502 – Bad Gateway
503 – Service Unavailable
504 – Gateway Timeout
505 – HTTP Version Not
Supported
506 – Variant Also Negotiates
507 – Insufficient Storage
510 – Not Extended
For great REST services the correct usage of the correct HTTP status code in a response is vital.
Key
Description
Black
HTTP version 1.0
Blue
HTTP version 1.1
Aqua
Extension RFC 2295
Green
Extension
RFC 2518
Yellow
Extension RFC
2774
Orange
Extension RFC 2817
Purple
Extension RFC 3648
Red
Extension RFC 4918
Examples of using HTTP Status Codes in REST
201 – When doing a POST to create a new resource it is best to return 201 and not 200.
204 – When deleting a resources it is best to return 204, which indicates it succeeded but
there is no body to return.
301 – If a 301 is returned the client should update any cached URI’s to point to the new URI.
302 – This is often used for temporary redirect’s, however 303 and 307 are better choices.
409 – This provides a great way to deal with conflicts caused by multiple updates.
501 – This implies that the feature will be implemented in the future.
Special Cases
306 – This status code is no longer used. It used to be for switch proxy.
418 – This status code from RFC 2324. However RFC 2324 was submitted as an April Fools’
Joke. The message is I am a teapot.
