About - TheWebShop/sp2010-rest-emulator GitHub Wiki
If you're new to developing for the web using tools like GitHub and Node.js then welcome! Hopefully there will be resources here to help people of all levels of familiarity with javascript/SharePoint.
What is SharePoint REST?
The REST (Representational State Transfer) interface in Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 provides access to lists and libraries as a relational data service. The REST interface uses flexible URL conventions for querying data, which enable you to filter, sort and select information from SharePoint Foundation lists directly from the browser.
Full description on the MSDN SharePoint Foundation REST Interface.
What does the emulator do?
The goal of the emulator is to provide an environment for developing rich web interfaces without requiring a live SP environment.
Since lists provide a great way of storing data in SP, REST is a natural fit for extracting it for use with 3rd party tools and libraries. This can help speed the development cycle, and lead to highly reusable design patterns. However, in order to work locally, each project requires some form of "mock" data, and certain aspects of an application (add/update) are difficult, if not impossible, to simulate without working directly on the server.
Who are we targeting?
Web developers who need to interact with SharePoint lists, and would like to do it using widely used tools and techniques like jQuery's Ajax utilities.
What are we aiming to deliver with V1?
For complete details on our goals with version 1.0, see the the road to 1.0.
TheWebShop
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, get in touch with us and we'll do our best to help.