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Modeling Microservice Conversations with RESTalk

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Microservices

Abstract

Microservices are characterized by their small size and low degree of coupling. As a consequence, building microservice architectures requires composing multiple microservices and determine how they interact to achieve a given client’s goal. In this chapter we introduce the concept of RESTful conversation, whereby clients or API gateways perform multiple basic HTTP request/response interactions with one or more microservice APIs. To represent possible sequences of interactions, we introduce the RESTalk visual notation, as well as its textual DSL, and the corresponding metamodel, and show how it can be used to complement existing structural approaches to represent RESTful APIs, such as the OpenAPI Specification. To reveal the degree of coupling between clients and microservices, the language supports the concept of hyperlink flow, showing whether, within a conversation, the links embedded into responses provided by a microservice are used by the client/API gateway to form the subsequent requests.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Software Institute, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Lugano, Switzerland

    Ana Ivanchikj & Cesare Pautasso

Authors
  1. Ana Ivanchikj
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  2. Cesare Pautasso
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ana Ivanchikj .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Distributed Adaptive Systems (DAS) Research Unit, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy

    Antonio Bucchiarone

  2. Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Nicola Dragoni

  3. Distributed Systems Group, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    Schahram Dustdar

  4. Dept of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Patricia Lago

  5. Institute of Technologies and Software Development, Innopolis University, Innopolis, Russia

    Manuel Mazzara

  6. Institute of Technologies and Software Development, Innopolis University, Innopolis, Russia

    Victor Rivera

  7. Innopolis University, Innopolis, Russia

    Andrey Sadovykh

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Ivanchikj, A., Pautasso, C. (2020). Modeling Microservice Conversations with RESTalk. In: Bucchiarone, A., et al. Microservices. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31646-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31646-4_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-31645-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-31646-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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