Mastering ASP.NET Web API

Level 3

In level 3, hypermedia is introduced into our responses, commonly referred to as HATEOAS (Hypertext As The Engine of Application State).

Let's go back to the POST example:

    POST : diet/ate  
    Response: 
    { 
      "id":"12789", 
      "links":[{ 
        "rel":"self", 
        "href":"http://yoursitename/diet/12789 
      }, 
      { 
        "Rel":"self", 
        "href":"http://yoursitename/diet/12789" 
      }, 
      "rel":"rating", 
      "href":"http://yoursitename/diet/12789/rating/" 
      ] 
    } 

The point of the link is that it lets the consumer know what actions it can carry out.

Although both endpoints look the same, the consumer will figure out that one is DELETE and the other is PUT.

The last link is the resource to rate the meal you added.