(picture)

October 17, 2002

REST and cache

John B writes:

One advantage that people have claimed about REST is that it can take advantage of caching, but its debatable whether or not this really makes sense in a Web Service.
I wondered the same, when I read one of Roy Fielding's posts:
Why is this important? Because [a REST-ish "network-based API" vs. library-based API] differentiates a system where network intermediaries can be effective agents from a system where they can be, at most, routers.
- there seems to be some contrast between the REST and end-to-end arguments. What are the arguments in favour of active intermediary agents (beyond introducing latency)?