So-called RESTful services are in widespread use both on the Web, and increasingly, in large enterprises. We say "so-called" because in reality, most of these services are not very RESTful. Those active in the REST community know well where these interfaces fail to meet REST principles, however, true understanding remains only in this relatively small community. Unfortunately, the result is a set of interfaces that are ultimately limited in their use, and the deficiencies are not usually recognized until it is too late to make the necessary changes. Our experience has shown that individuals are not being deliberately neglectful, rather, they simply do not know what they do not know. Everyone thinks they "get REST", after all, using HTTP to move XML or JSON payloads over the network is very simple. We have found that most individuals begin to understand the nuances of REST when they are explained and they almost always ask for resources that further explain these concepts. Certainly, materials are available, however the best ones are rather substantial in size lessening the chance that many people will read them.In this paper we take a fresh approach to explaining the core principles of REST, by describing a World Wide Web that fails to meet these tenets. We look at each key element, resource orientation, the uniform interface, media types and hyperlinking, and imagine the consequences of not abiding by the REST architectural style on the end user or tools developer of the Web. We then do a similar analysis in the context of Web services and programmatic consumers, reexamining each REST characteristic, describing common mistakes and suggesting improvements. We have found that in discussions, the analogy of the World Wide Web has been very effective at explaining REST.

XML has become an important standard for exchanging structured data between applications, but XML increasingly penetrates applications and is thus also becoming an important part of application development. The current state of XML specifications and technologies provides support in many aspects of application development, while other aspects are still only poorly supported. We describe as an example the development of an XML-centric application and identify and describe the areas where today's support for application developers could and should be improved. This case study thus can help developers to focus on the problem areas of today's support for XML-centric application development, and may also serve as an agenda for areas where more research and tools are required to improve the development of XML-centric applications.

For the last several decades the predominant architectural style for the implementation of data-centric applications has had a relational database at the core, procedural code implementing the application services and an object-oriented API. More recently the API has transitioned, via a slight detour through SOAP-based web services, to a RESTful style, however what lies beneath that interface has been slower to take a new approach. In this paper we argue that upgrading that which is under the covers to an XML-centric technology stack will result in a system that is easier to build, test and maintain. Further, these technologies are a step toward making construction of such systems available to nonprogrammers. We present an XML RESTful Services framework that provides mechanisms to address all of the key aspects of systems built in the RESTful architectural style.