[rest] What is REST call and how to send a REST call?

I want to ask some questions about the REST call. I am the green for the REST call and I would like to like what is REST call and how to use the URL to send a REST call to the server. Can anyone give me some basic tutorial or link for my to reference?

Besides, if I want to send a REST call to the server, what should I do? Do I need to set something in the URL? or set something in the server? Thank you.

REST is just a software architecture style for exposing resources.

• Use HTTP methods explicitly.
• Be stateless.
• Expose directory structure-like URIs.
• Transfer XML, JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), or both.

A typical REST call to return information about customer 34456 could look like:

http://example.com/customer/34456

Have a look at the IBM tutorial for REST web services