REpresentational State Transfer (REST), or RESTful, web services provide interoperability between computer systems on the Internet. The Salesforce REST API provides a powerful, convenient, and simple Web services API for interacting with Force.com.
REST API provides a powerful, convenient, and simple Web services API for interacting with Force.com. Its advantages include ease of integration and development, and it’s an excellent choice of technology for use with mobile applications and Web 2.0 projects. However, if you have a large number of records to process, you may wish to use Bulk API, which is based on REST principles and optimized for large sets of data.
A REST resource is an abstraction of a piece of information, such as a single data record, a collection of records, or even dynamic real-time information. Each resource in the Force.com REST API is identified by a named URI, and is accessed using standard HTTP methods (HEAD, GET, POST, PATCH, DELETE). The Force.com REST API is based on the usage of resources, their URIs, and the links between them. You use a resource to interact with your Salesforce or Force.com organization. For example, you can:
- Retrieve summary information about the API versions available to you.
- Obtain detailed information about a Salesforce object such as an Account or a custom object.
- Obtain detailed information about Force.com objects, such as User or a custom object.
- Perform a query or search.
- Update or delete records.
Useful Documentation
