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Calling a REST service is done by URL. This means that all the information that the server needs to process your request is part of the URL (this is not entirely true due to HTTP headers, but close enough). Here is an example of a REST web service that allows you to receive live information on American airports:

httphttps://servicessoa.smext.faa.gov/asws/api/airport/status/IAD?format=xmlxlm

Go ahead, click on it to see what the current conditions at Washington Dulles Airport are. Your answer may look something like this:

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Now, lets look again at the URL:

httphttps://servicessoa.smext.faa.gov/asws/api/airport/status/IAD?format=xml

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• The first part is the location of the webservice (httphttps://servicessoa.smext.faa.gov)
• The next part is a fragment (/asws/api/airport/status/IAD). Fragments are used to supply information to the web service. This particular fragment indicates that you want to retrieve the airport status from the airport with code IAD. You can request information on a different airport by changing the URL, for example: httphttps://servicessoa.smext.faa.gov/asws/api/airport/status/JFK?format=xml.
• Everything after the '?' are arguments. They essentially are also just information for your request. In this example the argument determines the answer format. It was set to XML in the example above. Try a JSON format by following this URL: http://services.faa.gov/airport/status/JFK?format=json