Introduction

Maturity Models have popped up from time to time, and they attempt to measure a system's (or part of a system's) adherence to some standard, like the RESTful architectural style.

This page tries to detail different ways of measuring how well a client matches up on different axis.

Details

| Axis | Level 0 | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | |:-----|:---------|:--------|:--------|:--------| | URLs | HTTP RPC (mints URLs) | Fragile, Fragmented | Supple | Reactive (uses links) | | Media Types | Unused | ? | ? | Drives the client | | Caching | No caching | Respect caching directives | Conditional requests | "Browser" cache | | Stateless | Stores state | ? | ? | Stateless | | Code-on-demand | No code-on-demand | ? | ? | Does code-on-demand | | Uniform interface | ? | ? | ? | Adheres strictly to to the uniform interface | | Authentication | Proprietary? | Cookies? | OAuth? | BASIC/DIGEST? | | Other axis | ? | ? | ? |? |

About each axis

URLs

If the client mints all of its URLs itself, or if it uses links found in responses to achieve its goals. If it uses links, then its

Media Types

Does the client know or care about media types?

Level 0

Client doesn't know or care about media types, always parses the response according to a hard coded set of rules based on what the goal of the request was.

Level 3

All responses are understood according to their media type, regardless of what state the client component might be in. The client component handles all responses with the same grace.

Uniform Interface

Is the client using custom headers or custom methods?

Level 0

Uses proprietary headers to achieve certain goals.

Level 3

Operates strictly within the set of documented and de facto standards. Uses HTTP extension headers when these are standardized

Caching

What does the client do when it comes to caching?

TODO: maybe split this up into two "axis" one for request headers, and the other for the client side cache?

Level 0

The client itself employs no caches, and does not care about any caching headers

Level 3

The client contains a browser cache that remembers the state of the client component to provide "back button" functionality. The Cache-Control and Expires headers are honored.