Native REST Support

Restlet Framework provides a reusable and extensible set of classes and interfaces that serves as a foundation on which you can construct your own web applications more efficiently. Aligned with the REST and HTTP concepts and terminology, the Restlet API can be used for both client and server-side development. Using the same Java API which reduces both the learning curve and the software footprint and facilitate the development of applications acting as server and client at the same time.

Secure and Scalable

You should never have to make a tradeoff between security and scalability for your APIs. Restlet Framework supports standard security and authentication methods. A fully multi-threaded design with per-request resource instances reduces thread-safety issues, and ensures that APIs will scale no matter how many requests.

Broad Use Case Support

APIs you build with Restlet Framework can be deployed to all common environments. An extensible set of representations, support for standards, and numerous connectors lets you build and call any type of web API, and connect to any backend process or data source.

A Complete Web Server

Restlet Framework is not only a framework for building APIs but also for running them. Its built-in web server provides:

• Automated content negotiation based on client preferences.
• Encoding and decoding service that transparently compresses or uncompresses representations exchanged.
• Log service to write all accesses to applications in a standard fully customizable Web log file following the W3C Extended Log File Format.
• Conditional requests automatically supported for resources.
• Partial requests automatically supported for resources to retrieve or update a range of a representation.
• Static file serving, like the Apache HTTP Server, with metadata association based on file extensions and URI-based redirection.
• Optional remote edition of local files served based on PUT and DELETE methods.

Extensive Connectors Set

With its connectors, Restlet Framework covers numerous use cases. Connectors available by default include:

• Multiple HTTP connectors, based on either Eclipse Jetty, JDK HttpURLConnection class or on Apache HTTP Client.
• Client FILE connector supporting GET, PUT and DELETE methods on files and directories, supporting also directory listings.
• Client CLAP connector to access to the Classloader resources.
• Client RIAP connector to access to the Restlet internal resources, directly inside the JVM.

Available Representations

Fully aligned with Web standards, Restlet Framework provides the following representations out of the box:

• Automated marshalling and unmarshalling between POJOs and representations based on an extensible converter service. Uses Jackson for JSON, XML, YAML, CSV and more, as well as Google’s GSON. Also works with a GWT and Java object serialization.
• XML representations (JAXB, DOM or SAX based) with a simple XPath API based on JDK’s built-in XPath engine.
• Integration with the FreeMarker, Velocity and Thymeleaf template engines.
• Integration with Apache FileUpload to support multi-part forms and easily handle large file uploads from browsers.
• Transformer filter to easily apply XSLT stylesheets on XML representations. It is based on JDK’s built-in XSLT engine.
• Extensible set of core representations based on BIO classes.
• Support for Atom standard via a dedicated extension.
• Full RDF reading and writing support make Restlet Framework ready for the Semantic Web (Web 3.0).

Flexible Configuration

Restlet Framework can be entirely configured in Java via the Restlet API. Configuration standards supported include:

• Extensive integration with popular Guice and Spring IoC frameworks.
• Logging based on JULI (java.util.logging) with an extensibility system, including an adapter for SLF4J.