# So what is REST? I don't get how it fits in Rails **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [July 12, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/so-what-is-rest-i-dont-get-how-it-fits-in-rails/98076 "2006-07-12T13:41:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pergesu)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/so-what-is-rest-i-dont-get-how-it-fits-in-rails/98076/1 "2006-07-12T13:41:42Z")
Does someone have an actual example of this? I saw DHH’s slides where he said that you could have your app automatically respond with HTML, XML, atom, whatever. So far I’ve found tons of discussion on REST and CRUD in Rails, but I haven’t seen anything that actually shows me what it all is. There’s simply\_restful, which apparently makes things easier…I don’t know what though. I’ve done a lot of reading, so I know what REST is, I just don’t know how people use it in Rails. If anyone has some examples and explanations, I’d really appreciate it. Pat ---
**Author:** ![pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pergesu)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/so-what-is-rest-i-dont-get-how-it-fits-in-rails/98076/2 "2006-07-12T14:46:24Z")
Hi Pat, I’m not going to be much help for you, but I did come across a link to Mat Griffith’s site that might be helpful: [http://mattgriffith.net/PermaLink.aspx?guid=c8e38fa3-1b07-4d3d-ba1e-f8fb7a2846dc](http://mattgriffith.net/PermaLink.aspx?guid=c8e38fa3-1b07-4d3d-ba1e-f8fb7a2846dc) (Do you want to play with the latest REST stuff in Rails?[http://mattgriffith.net/PermaLink.aspx?guid=c8e38fa3-1b07-4d3d-ba1e-f8fb7a2846dc](http://mattgriffith.net/PermaLink.aspx?guid=c8e38fa3-1b07-4d3d-ba1e-f8fb7a2846dc) ) HTH JY ---
**Author:** ![pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pergesu)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/so-what-is-rest-i-dont-get-how-it-fits-in-rails/98076/3 "2006-07-12T14:52:50Z")
> Does someone have an actual example of this? I saw DHH’s slides where > he said that you could have your app automatically respond with HTML, > XML, atom, whatever. So far I’ve found tons of discussion on REST and > CRUD in Rails, but I haven’t seen anything that actually shows me what > it all is. > \<…\> Well, if you saw DHH slides, then you should have seen what it all is about. Maybe DHH’s talk will help? URL is here: [http://tinyurl.com/opl7c](http://tinyurl.com/opl7c) ## Regards, Rimantas [http://rimantas.com/](http://rimantas.com/) ---
**Author:** ![pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pergesu)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/so-what-is-rest-i-dont-get-how-it-fits-in-rails/98076/4 "2006-07-12T17:29:05Z")
Sounds like you’re wondering about REST in general, not just in rails. If so, here’s a few links: [http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm](http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm) (that’s the dissertation that started it all) [http://www.xfront.com/REST-Web-Services.html](http://www.xfront.com/REST-Web-Services.html) [http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/08/11/rest.html](http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/08/11/rest.html) and there’s lots more out there! b ---
**Author:** ![pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pergesu)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/so-what-is-rest-i-dont-get-how-it-fits-in-rails/98076/5 "2006-07-22T13:31:59Z")
I have a question about REST security. Let’s say I have a URL like this [http://www.mycompany.com/clients/statements/show](http://www.mycompany.com/clients/statements/show) This URL shows the stament for a particular client. The client logs in, I know who the client is, I show them their statement. Let’s say I want to expose this as a REST service so the client can pull the statement in XML. How should the client identify themselves? Should it be [http://username:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid/](http://username:removed_email_address@domain.invalid/)… Or should be in the form of GET params? Some other way? ---
**Author:** ![pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pergesu)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 9:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/so-what-is-rest-i-dont-get-how-it-fits-in-rails/98076/6 "2006-07-22T09:25:25Z")
On 7/12/06, Rimantas L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > Does someone have an actual example of this? I saw DHH’s slides where > > he said that you could have your app automatically respond with HTML, > > XML, atom, whatever. So far I’ve found tons of discussion on REST and > > CRUD in Rails, but I haven’t seen anything that actually shows me what > > it all is. > > \<…\> > > Well, if you saw DHH slides, then you should have seen what it all is about. > Maybe DHH’s talk will help? URL is here: [http://tinyurl.com/opl7c](http://tinyurl.com/opl7c) Not really…I read the slides and watched his talk. Read a bunch of articles as well. I’d really just like to see some actual example code. Maybe someone could take the 15 minute blog and make it restful. I attempted to in order to learn this for myself, but couldn’t figure it out. Pat ---
**Author:** ![pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@pergesu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pergesu)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 1:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/so-what-is-rest-i-dont-get-how-it-fits-in-rails/98076/7 "2006-07-22T13:56:28Z")
REST is a protocol like SOAP or XML-RPC. A good source on REST with a few examples is on [http://ajaxpatterns.org/RESTful\_Service](http://ajaxpatterns.org/RESTful_Service) Doesn’t explain how Rails is going to make it easyer to make REST but shoud explain the protocol. On 7/12/06, Pat M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > * * * > > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) –