Hypermedia As The Engine Of Application State

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What Does Hypermedia As The Engine Of Application State Mean?

HATEOAS, or Hypermedia As The Engine Of Application State, is a design feature of the RESTful software architecture developed by Roy Fielding, in which a client communicates with the network through something called hypermedia. This hypermedia consists of information delivered online in a number of formats.

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Techopedia Explains Hypermedia As The Engine Of Application State

By providing this kind of universal communication, RESTful architecture can achieve certain performance and scalability goals. Some also argue that by creating these consistent standards, it makes it easier for different types of software to interact. Much of the work of implementing HATEOAS and RESTful design involves working with application programming interfaces or APIs that are designed to port information or functionality from one application or piece of software to another. As REST has grown more prominent in digital design, it has led to a big debate about whether a given project is “100% RESTful” or only “partially RESTful,” and how that determines the value and functionality of that project.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.