Zend_Rest, does
use XML as its format of choice but it is possible to circumvent this if you dig around a bit which we??™ll do
after looking at REST in a bit more detail.
11.4.1 What is REST?
REST stands for Representational State Transfer and was originally outlined in ???Architectural Styles and the
Design of Network-based Software Architectures??? by Roy Fielding, whose role as ???primary architect of the
current Hypertext Transfer Protocol??? explains some of the background to REST. With regards to the use of
XML; ???REST ignores the details of component implementation and protocol syntax in order to focus on the
roles of components, the constraints upon their interaction with other components, and their interpretation of
significant data elements.???. An ???A-ha!??? moment came for me when I read the line in the document that says
???the motivation for developing REST was to create an architectural model for how the Web should work, such
that it could serve as the guiding framework for the Web protocol standards???. In other words, every time we
make an HTTP request we are using a transfer protocol based on the REST concept.
While the key element of RPC is the command, usually accessed via a single point of entry, the key
element in REST is the resource, an example of which could be Places login page whose resource identifier is
the URL http://places/auth/login/.
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