REST API Developer Guide

Introducing Lightning Platform REST API
Lightning Platform REST Resources
Using Compression
Using Conditional Requests
Using cURL in the REST Examples
Understanding Authentication
Use CORS to Access Salesforce Resources from Web Browsers
Quick Start
Examples
Reference
PDF

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Introducing Lightning Platform REST API

REST API provides a powerful, convenient, and simple Web services API for interacting with Lightning Platform. Its advantages include ease of integration and development, and it’s an excellent choice of technology for use with mobile applications and Web 2.0 projects. If you have many records to process, consider using Bulk API, which is based on REST principles and optimized for large sets of data.

REST API uses the same underlying data model and standard objects as those in SOAP API. See the SOAP API Developer Guide for details. REST API also follows the same limits as SOAP API. See the Limits section in the SOAP API Developer Guide.

To use the API requires basic familiarity with software development, web services, and the Salesforce user interface.

Use this introduction to understand:
  • The key characteristics and architecture of REST API. This will help you understand how your applications can best use the Lightning Platform REST resources.
  • How to set up your development environment so you can begin working with REST API immediately.
  • How to use REST API by following a quick start that leads you step by step through a typical use case.