# REST web service clarification

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-web-service-clarification/138636>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 26, 2008, 6:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-web-service-clarification/138636 "2008-05-26T06:44:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sameera](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@sameera](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sameera)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 6:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-web-service-clarification/138636/1 "2008-05-26T06:44:55Z")

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Hi All,

I’m new to REST and RESTFul web services. Looking forward for a  
clarification,

My question is, Are the only REST methods  
GET  
POST  
PUT  
DELETE  
or can we have a method name like getUserFullName in REST ?

please guide me, coz i’m planing to develop and API with REST so i need  
to have an idea what kind of methods i can use

thankx in advance

cheers  
sameera

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**Author:** ![sameera](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@sameera](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sameera)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 10:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-web-service-clarification/138636/2 "2008-05-26T10:39:20Z")

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> My question is, Are the only REST methods  
> GET  
> POST  
> PUT  
> DELETE  
> or can we have a method name like getUserFullName in REST ?

these are REST verbs, the common REST methods are:

index (get)  
show (get)  
new (get)  
create (post)  
edit (get)  
update (put)  
destroy (delete)

those you’ll use in most cases.  
but you can still use as many other methods as you want. you should only  
think if it’s really necessary in a given case.

think you have a user controller.  
index will show a list of all users  
show will show a single users detailed data  
new will show a form to enter new users  
create will create user based on the posted new form  
edit will get the edit form for an existing user  
update will update an existing user (from submitted edit form)  
destroy will delete an user

but you may want to export a csv list of selected users or import them  
from a vcard file or whatever, you cann still write an action like  
export\_csv or import\_vcard

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sameera](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@sameera](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sameera)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 9:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-web-service-clarification/138636/3 "2008-05-28T09:12:13Z")

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Hi Mueller,

Sorry for late replay, but thank you very much for your reply. Its clear  
and to the point.

thankx again

cheers  
sameera