I'm currently reading "Rest in practice" book . I'm unable to understand the following terminology Hypermedia , hypermedia format, hypermedia controls, Domain application protocol. The author was suggesting need for domain specific hypermedia format. I could hardly understand those. I googled these terms but couldnt find a right answer. Can anyone explain these terminologies and why we need domain specific hypermedia formats instead of application/xml ?
Hypermedia = the fact that client and server are talking in terms of some a uniform representation eg: hyper links.
HyperMedia Control = A resource needs to be have operation done on it. So for example a product is represented by the hyperlink domain/product/001 then resource can be operated (edited and deleted) on by hypermedia control domain/product/001/edit and domain/product/001/delete.
The biggest difference is in the approach. procedural systems first write the operations as state transitions in sequential code (java, etc), then the interactions are manufactured as hyperlinks to deliver HATEOAS.
But systems approached as interactions directly model interactions and hence delivers hyperlinks directly. A sample example is http://www.masterkube.com/hateoas_technology.html is here.
Hope this helps.