Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS) is a programming model that provides a mechanism for developing services that follow Representational State Transfer (REST) principles. Using JAX-RS, development of RESTful services is simplified.
JAX-RS is a collection of interfaces and Java annotations that simplifies development of server-side REST applications. By using JAX-RS technology, REST applications are simpler to develop, simpler to consume, and simpler to scale when compared to other types of distributed systems.
The Feature Pack for Web 2.0 includes a Java API for developing REST-based services. The IBM® implementation of JAX-RS provides an implementation of the JAX-RS specification.
To develop RESTful services using IBM JAX-RS, it is assumed that you are familiar with basic REST principles and a basic knowledge of standard technologies, such as HTTP, and XML.
Representational State Transfer, also known as REST, is an architectural style that uses multiple standard technologies like HTTP, XML, ATOM, and HTML. REST is used to define flexible applications based on the notion of resources. A resource is simply any data that you want to share on the Web that you can identify by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).
Wink is a project developed within the Apache Software Foundation that provides a lightweight framework for developing RESTful applications. Wink supports REST services implemented using JAX-RS to describe the resources on the server. However, a client API is also provided by Wink. This client API is specific to the Wink runtime environment because there is no JAX-RS defined client API.