Difference between PUT and POST in REST WebService in Java

If you remember REST WebServices uses HTTP methods to map CRUD (create, retrieve, update, delete) operations to HTTP requests. Even though both PUT and POST methods can be used to perform create and update operation in REST WebServices, Idempotency is the main difference between PUT and POST. Similar to the GET request, PUT request is also idempotent in HTTP, which means it will produce the same results if executed once more multiple times. Another practical difference PUT and POST method in the context of REST WebService are that POST is often used to create a new entity, and PUT is often used to update an existing entity. If you replace an existing entity using PUT than you should be aware that if only a subset of data elements is passed then the rest will be replaced by empty or null.

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Restlet HelloWorld Example in Java and Eclipse

The Restlet is one of the first open source frameworks to create and deploy RESTful web service in Java. After the release of JAX-RS (Java API for RESTful Web Services) JSR - 317, Restlet also supports JAX-RS annotation and provides a consistent way to create both RESTful Server and Client. HelloWorld program is the traditional way to start with a new technology and continuing to the tradition, we'll write our first Restlet program as HelloWorld. Since Restlet can be used to create on both client and server side, we'll first expose a resource as RESTful web service using Restlet server and then consumer the same RESTful web service by creating a RESTful client. I'll use Maven and Eclipse to create this RESTlet HelloWorld example, if you are not familiar with Maven, it's a build automation tool like ANT for Java projects but also provides dependency management i.e. you don't need to download Restlet JAR manually, Maven will do it for you. To learn more about Maven see here.

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What are Idempotent and Safe methods of HTTP and REST

In order to efficiently work with REST and RESTful web service, good knowledge of HTTP is really helpful. Even though REST seems easy, designing a uniform and consistent RESTful API is a tough job. One of the tricky tasks is choosing right the HTTP method for right job e.g. when to use PUT vs POST. Once you know the meaning and purpose of different HTTP methods, it helps to choose the right method for the right job. You can divide HTTP methods into two main categories safe and idempotent. Safe methods are HTTP methods that do not modify the resource e.g. a GET request  is safe because it doesn't modify the resource you are requesting e.g. data of a Book. Another safe HTTP method is HEAD, which doesn't change the resource representation on the Server, but all other HTTP methods e.g. POST, PUT, or DELETE are non-safe.

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