REST API

Overview

The REST API for DSpace is provided as part of the "server" webapp ([dspace-source]/dspace-server-webapp/).  It is available on the `/api/` subpath of that webapp (i.e. ${dspace.server.url}/api/), though a human browseable/searchable interface (using the HAL Browser) is also available at the root path (i.e. ${dspace.server.url}).

The REST API only responds in JSON at this time.

REST Contract / Documentation

The REST Contract is maintained in GitHub at https://github.com/DSpace/RestContract/blob/main/README.md 

This contract provides detailed information on how to interact with the API, what endpoints are available, etc.  All features/capabilities of the DSpace UI are available in this API.

Technical Design

The REST API & Server Webapp are built on Spring Boot and Spring HATEOAS, using Spring Security. It also aligns with Spring Data REST (though at this time it doesn't use it directly because of incompatibility with the DSpace data model).

The REST API is stateless, aligns with HATEOAS (Hypertext as the Engine of Application State) principles, returning HAL formatted JSON.  This allows the REST API to be easily browseable/interactable via third-party tools that understand HAL & HATEOAS, such as the HAL Browser.  JSON Web Tokens (JWT) are used to store state/session information between requests.

More information can be found in the REST Contract at https://github.com/DSpace/RestContract/blob/main/README.md#rest-design-principles