HTTP HTTP for APIs List resources

Example

The last common use of HTTP APIs is to obtain a list of existing resources on the server. Lists like this should be obtained using GET requests, since they only retrieve data.

The server should return 200 OK if it can supply the list, or an appropriate error code if not.

Listing our employees, then, might look like this:

GET /employees HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
    'employees': [
        {
            'name': 'Charlie Smith',
            'age': 39,
            'job_title': 'Software Developer',
            'salary': 63985.00
            'links': [
                {
                    'uri': '/employees/1/charlie-smith',
                    'rel': 'self',
                    'method': 'GET'
                },
                {
                    'uri': '/employees/1/charlie-smith',
                    'rel': 'delete',
                    'method': 'DELETE'
                },
                {
                    'uri': '/employees/1/charlie-smith',
                    'rel': 'edit',
                    'method': 'PATCH'
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            'name': 'Donna Prima',
            'age': 30,
            'job_title': 'QA Tester',
            'salary': 77095.00
            'links': [
                {
                    'uri': '/employees/2/donna-prima',
                    'rel': 'self',
                    'method': 'GET'
                },
                {
                    'uri': '/employees/2/donna-prima',
                    'rel': 'delete',
                    'method': 'DELETE'
                },
                {
                    'uri': '/employees/2/donna-prima',
                    'rel': 'edit',
                    'method': 'PATCH'
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    'links': [
        {
            'uri': '/employees/new',
            'rel': 'create',
            'method': 'PUT'
        }
    ]
}