Learning about resource-oriented architecture

Resource-oriented architecture is a foundation of the semantic web (please refer to the Web 3.0 section of this chapter). The idea of ROA is to use basic, well-understood, and well-known web technologies (HTTP, URI, and XML) along with the core design principles.

As we all know, the primary focus of web services is to connect information systems, and ROA defines a structural design or set of guidelines to support and implement interactions within any connected resources. Any business entity can be represented as a resource, and it can be made accessible through a URI.

For example, in an organization's human resource system, each employee is an entity, and salary, employee details, and profiles are associations (descriptors) of that entity.

The following is a quick comparison table for object-oriented and resource-oriented concepts, and it gives a quick insight as to what ROA is: