Falcor vs REST: What are the differences?

Introduction

This Markdown code provides a comparison between Falcor and REST, highlighting their key differences.

1. Server Round Trips:

Falcor allows batch requests and reduces server round trips by fetching multiple data points in a single request, enhancing performance and efficiency. In contrast, REST typically requires multiple requests to retrieve different data points, resulting in more server round trips.

2. Granularity of Data Requests:

In Falcor, clients have fine-grained control over the data they request, allowing them to specify exactly what they need. On the other hand, REST endpoints often return fixed data structures, making it more difficult for clients to retrieve only the required data. This fine-grained control reduces unnecessary data transfer and improves efficiency.

3. Over-fetching and Under-fetching:

With REST, developers often face the challenge of over-fetching or under-fetching data. Over-fetching occurs when the server returns more data than necessary, leading to performance issues. Under-fetching happens when the server does not provide enough data, resulting in additional requests. Falcor addresses this by allowing clients to specify their data requirements precisely, preventing these issues.

4. Ease of Client-Side Caching:

Falcor offers built-in client-side caching, allowing clients to store and manage fetched data easily. This caching mechanism reduces network requests and improves performance. In contrast, REST does not inherently provide caching mechanisms, requiring developers to implement custom solutions to achieve similar results.

5. Efficient Network Payload:

Falcor optimizes network payload by sending only the required data, minimizing the amount of transmitted data. REST, on the other hand, usually sends complete resources, which can be inefficient for certain scenarios, especially when dealing with large datasets or mobile networks with limited bandwidth.

6. Relationship Management:

Falcor simplifies relationship management between data entities by providing support for graph-based data structures. Clients can navigate the relationships between entities seamlessly. REST, however, requires additional requests to fetch related data, resulting in additional server round trips and complexity.

In Summary, Falcor offers advantages such as reduced server round trips, fine-grained data requests, prevention of over-fetching and under-fetching, built-in client-side caching, efficient network payload, and simplified relationship management compared to REST.