Business Process Programming - From REST APIs to Operation-Oriented APIs

From REST APIs to Operation-Oriented APIs

REST APIs became popular because they provide a simple way to expose resources over HTTP. A REST design usually starts with nouns: customers, orders, products, invoices, and shipments. HTTP verbs then describe what happens to those resources: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE.

REST Thinking

The HTTP verb carries part of the meaning. The URL identifies the resource or resource collection. For example:

    GET  /shipments/TRK-123
    POST /accounts/A-100/deposits

This approach works well for many public web APIs when the system is inherently resource-oriented. However, it becomes less natural when the system is primarily action-oriented: request approval, cost calculation, request submission, deposit, shipment search, transition verification, or business process step completion. In such systems, business operations often need to be adapted to resource-based models which don't always align with the natural business mindset.

RPC Thinking

RPC APIs are action-oriented, not resource-oriented. An RPC request explicitly specifies the requested operation by providing the method name and adding parameters in a structured format. This is well suited for systems that rely heavily on workflows. For example:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "Bank.MakeDeposit",
  "params": {
    "accountNumber": "A-100",
    "amount": 250.00
  },
  "id": "1"
}

Why This Matters for AI

Modern AI integration standards are increasingly moving toward operation-oriented APIs where business actions are represented explicitly by names such as Bank.MakeDeposit. This approach maps naturally to AI-driven tool discovery and invocation.

Table of Content Operation-Oriented APIs and AI Tools Next: JSON-RPC 2.0 Fundamentals

Business Process Programming in .Net
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