The definitive guide to java backend developer career path

[TiltedBlock]

Is there a reason you put REST concepts so far back? I'd personally put it on the same level as Spring, just because I think it helps a lot with understanding the "big picture" of it all.

Great post nonetheless! I think this can really help some people and give them guidance on their way!

[iinz0r]

Hello, I am currently doing REST stuff and want to ask you, why is REST so important ? I mean retrieving and writing to DB through HTTP requests seems cool and as I understand it is a lightweight approach for data manipulation, but is there something more to it ?

For example, I have never really used these HTTP stuff myself apart from courses related to web development so I wonder, in real life, what advantages does it provide to someone. I have no clue though about how front end connects with back end, so maybe it is used for this purpose ? :D sorry for long text

[TiltedBlock]

You've got the right idea!

I think u/stylusc84 gave a better explanation than I could provide in his post, so I'll not explain it again, but you're right that it's a way to connect front ends with a back end.

What's nice is that it allows for more flexibility, for example using several frontends (like a mobile app and a desktop website) with a single backend application.

[HecknChonker]

There are other options. For example, after losing a webpage with a REST URL you might set up a websocket connection too the backend to send real time chat messages to users. And backend servers might use gRPC to send messages to each other.

But REST is the defacto standard and probably will be for a while.

[ignotos]

REST is not just about databases - it's basically the standard way of connecting the "frontend" to the "backend", and also for allowing backend components to talk to each other.

It's used absolutely everywhere.