This book puts the "Web" back into web services. It shows how you can connect to the programmable web with the technologies you already use every day. The key is REST, the architectural style that drives the Web. This book:

* Emphasizes the power of basic Web technologies — the HTTP application protocol, the URI naming standard, and the XML markup language
* Introduces the Resource-Oriented Architecture (ROA), a common-sense set of rules for designing RESTful web services
* Shows how a RESTful design is simpler, more versatile, and more scalable than a design based on Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
* Includes real-world examples of RESTful web services, like Amazon's Simple Storage Service and the Atom Publishing Protocol
* Discusses web service clients for popular programming languages
* Shows how to implement RESTful services in three popular frameworks — Ruby on Rails, Restlet (for Java), and Django (for Python)
* Focuses on practical issues: how to design and implement RESTful web services and clients

This is the first book that applies the REST design philosophy to real web services. It sets down the best practices you need to make your design a success, and the techniques you need to turn your design into working code. You can harness the power of the Web for programmable applications: you just have to work with the Web instead of against it. This book shows you how.