REST client pattern

Service oriented architecture (SOA) is a common architectural practice in large enterprises. There are numerous technologies to support SOA including web services. The IT industry is moving toward REST based design for its simplicity and productivity. Apache CXF, Apache Axis, JBoss RestEasy, and Jersey frameworks support REST based services and client side implementation. Based on our observation in health care, manufacturing, and retail domains a reoccurring solution can be put into practice so as to minimize code duplication. This paper presents such a solution in the form of a design pattern that promotes design re-use. The REST client pattern houses common service operations in the top of class hierarchy so that re-use is promoted by inheritance. The service specific call preparations are implemented by sub-classes. This pattern is being used by three iconic companies in above mentioned domains using three different open source frameworks-CXF, RESTEasy, and Jersey.