Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State (HATEOAS) enables a client to interact with a network application through hypermedia that is provided dynamically by an application server. A REST client, who enters through a fixed URL, can take actions that are discovered within a resource representation that is returned from the server. Media types are standardized and there are a standard set of IANA link relations that can be included by the resource. Additionally, a response can include resource-specific link relations as URIs that are not included within the IANA standard. The REST client transitions through these application states by selecting from the links within the representation. For example, these are a few of the standard links that are available within a response: self, next, previous, first and last.

With all resource types, the self link is added to the response. For example:

{"rel":"self", "href":"http://localhost:8380/public/v1/test/orders"}

If an endpoint responds with a ReprentationModel, the framework will automatically add links to the response. These links will include a self link for the request, as well as links for other endpoints in that resource.