REST without hypermedia?

Question

Is REST without the use hypermedia still REST? In other words, is the hypermedia part of the uniform interface constraint of REST required for a true RESTful architecture?

The way I understand it, it is not hypermedia itself that is a constraint of REST but rather the "uniform interface". So could I have a RESTful uniform interface without hypermedia?

Answer 1

Hypermedia is certainly one of the constraints in REST. Roy Fielding makes that very clear: http://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-hypertext-driven.

Try also to search for "hypermedia" inside his thesis: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm

This blog post tries to explain the benefits of hypermedia: http://soabits.blogspot.no/2013/12/selling-benefits-of-hypermedia.html (disclaimer: I wrote it).

Answer 2

Yes. It's required. The only optional constraint is "code on demand," for example a server linking to Javascript to be executed by the client.