Following up on previous two posts, we propose a new architecture for combining functional paradigm with RESTful programming. We name it FAST architecture.
Role of each piece of the FAST server is described below:
- REST API provides a mechanism to post, update, delete and get resources.
- Some of these resources could be generated dynamically in which case the REST API might interact with the Lambda Machine internally
- The Lambda machine exposes certain functions to the client
- The client can request resources or function calls. If it is a function call it is routed to Lambda Machine and if it is a resource requirement it is routed to the REST API
The key ingredients of lambda machine are:
- Any calls to lambda machine will not have any side effects
- The state inside lambda machine is immutable. Any mutable state is stores in the REST Server
- User can directly call lambda machine
This architecture allows following calls to the FAST API:
- Regular REST methods on resources: PUT, GET, POST, DELETE
- Apply a function on a set of parameters and get the results
- Apply a function on a resource
- Apply a function on a set of parameters and post it to a resource
- Apply a function on the results of another function
