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- .. _rest_services_overview:
- Overview
- ========
- GeoServer uses a library known as `Restlet <http://www.restlet.org/>`_ for all
- REST related functionality. Restlet is a lightweight rest framework written
- in Java that integrates nicely with existing servlet based applications.
- REST dispatching
- ----------------
- In GeoServer, all requests under the path ``/rest`` are considered a call to
- a restful service. Every call of this nature is handled by a *rest
- dispatcher*. The job of the dispatcher is to route the request to the
- appropriate end point. This end point is known as a *restlet*.
- .. image:: rest-dispatch.png
- Restlets are loaded from the spring context, and therefore are pluggable.
- Restlets
- --------
- A *restlet* is the generic entity which handles calls routed by the
- dispatcher, and corresponds to the class ``org.restlet.Restlet``. One
- can extend this class directly to implement a service endpoint. Alternatively
- one can extend a subclass for a specialized purpose. Namely a *finder*, which
- is described in the next section.
- Finders and resources
- ---------------------
- Restful services are often implemented around the concept of *resources*. A
- *finder* is a special kind of restlet whose job is to find the correct
- resource for a particular request. The resource then serves as the final
- end point and handles the request. The appropriate classes from the restlet
- library are ``org.restlet.Finder`` and ``org.restlet.resource.Resource``.
- Representations
- ---------------
- A *representation*, commonly referred to as a format, is the state of a
- particular state or encoding of a resource. For instance, when a request for
- a particular resource comes in, a representation of that resource is returned
- to the client.
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