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Thursday, February 22, 2007

REST API for Java - But Will It Be Simple Enough to Actually Be RESTful?

Following Cote's del.icio.us links, I found that there is a JSR proposed for a RESTful Web Services API. It would be ludicrous for this JSR to not be voted in, so let's assume it will go forward and become a massively committee-driven document someday, perhaps even accompanied by a reference implementation. The burning question on my mind is: will it actually be simple enough to use?

Hopefully, the JCP learned it's lesson from the community fallout on WS-* Java APIs. And hopefully it has learned from the RoR community that developer productivity rather than infinite pluggability is actually a key requirement. Think Spring and DI, not commercial black box components and SPIs.

So let's see if they can actually pull off an API that lacks the following:

  • Factory classes for roundabout instantiation
  • Manager classes for implementation abstraction
  • Engine classes for what should be behind the scenes servicing
  • Interface/Implementation pairing ad nauseum (I'm so done with the Bridge pattern)
  • Pluggable runtime providers - how about just provide a good one OOTB and be done with it?

Can they possibly do it without the same old, tired patterns?