Remove Zend Framework for Better RESTful API

REST is not RPC. Unfortunately, this module is RPC.

From my understanding of the REST architecture style, the idea is that every object in your system is represented by a unique URL that you can manipulate. For example, in Drupal, an ideal REST server would let you do HTTP GET on:

http://drupal.example.com/rest/node/nid

to get an XML representation of the node. Then if you wanted to edit it, you would first GET it, modify it then do a HTTP PUT on the same URL to save it back again. You could create a new node by doing an HTTP POST on http://drupal.example.com/rest/node/

Obviously, to delete a node, you do HTTP DELETE on the same URL. REST is all about the URLs (really, URIs) representing state objects in your system. The URL represents some logical object (a node, a setting, etc.) not a method. HTTP methods are then used to manipulate the resource.

Zend's "rest server", which this module now relies on, is not REST. It's just a dressed up RPC-style interface using HTTP GET URLs and XML. I am not sure what they are thinking with it, but I suspect it's more marketing than anything else.

My recommendation would be to rethink the API architecture of this module so that it better matches other RESTful systems. Labeling it REST, when it isn't is not very helpful.

For some examples of RESTful APIs done well, take a look at Amazon S3, the ATOM publishing protocol (RFC 5023) or SIP's XCAP (RFC 4825). They're all reasonably well designed APIs that let you use tools like 'curl' to manipulate complex systems. Done well, a RESTful API can let you get away with doing things that one would never expect possible without a lot more legwork.