by Horatiu Dan

According to Richardson Maturity Model [Reference 1], a Level 3 REST architecture introduces the discoverability through hypermedia controls in addition to resources and HTTP verbs, thus making the communication between the involved actors more self-documenting.

Hypermedia enriches the interaction from various perspectives, decreasing the coupling between parties and also allowing them to evolve independently. Moreover, the data enclosed in the exchanged messages is enhanced with links, which makes the overall exchanged information more accurate. On the other hand, developers now need to pay more attention when thinking the design, as the representations have a greater impact.

HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the Engine of the Application State) is an architectural component that allows driving application state (resources’ representations) enhanced with hypermedia support.

Currently, the most common REST AP...