What does the term "HATEOAS" stand for in REST?

The term "HATEOAS" stands for "Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State." This concept is a critical aspect of REST (Representational State Transfer) architecture. It emphasizes that a client interacts with a network application entirely through hypermedia provided dynamically by the server. HATEOAS allows clients to discover and utilize available resources and actions within an application by using hyperlinks embedded in the responses from the server.

When a client receives a response from the server that includes hypermedia links, it can navigate through the application's state without prior knowledge of how to construct requests. This makes the application self-descriptive and improves the decoupling between the client and server, enhancing the overall flexibility and scalability of the system. By adhering to HATEOAS principles, clients can follow links provided by the server to perform actions or access resources, resulting in a more dynamic and intuitive interaction model.

This foundational concept aims to improve the client-server interaction by ensuring that the client is guided by hypermedia to transition through the application’s various states seamlessly.