</> htmx ~ HATEOAS
This page is a reworking on the Wikipedia Entry on HATEOAS, which uses JSON. Here we use HTML to explain the concept, and contrast it with JSON APIs. It is a more opinionated explanation of the concept than would be appropriate for Wikipedia, but it is more correct in our opinion.
Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State (HATEOAS) is a constraint of the REST application architecture that distinguishes it from other network application architectures.
With HATEOAS, a client interacts with a network application whose application servers provide information dynamically through hypermedia. A REST client needs little to no prior knowledge about how to interact with an application or server beyond a generic understanding of hypermedia.
By contrast, today JSON-based web clients typically interact through a fixed interface shared through documentation via a tool such as swagger.
A user-agent that implements HTTP makes a HTTP request of a REST end point through a simple URL. All subsequent requests the user-agent may make are discovered within the hypermedia responses to each request. The media types used for these representations, and the link relations they may contain, are standardized. The client transitions through application states by selecting from links within a hypermedia representation or by manipulating the representation in other ways afforded by its media type.
