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Another benefit of hypermedia, although one that might not be obvious to the typical visitor, is that URIs can change without advertising this to the user. When a user clicks a link, the user normally only cares that they will arrive at the correct destination and not worry too much about the URI that got them there. If the link isn't broken then all is good. Therefore, sites are free to change their URIs as long as they allow the user to find what they are looking for. This introduces another import benefit of hypermedia: client/server independence. That is, web servers should be allowed to change as needed and not worry about breaking any client functionality (i.e., the web browser client) because the server is always providing the client with current URIs. This also goes the other direction.

These two benefits can also apply to web APIs. If our resource objects contain hypermedia, then our APIs become self-documenting. If the system that communicates with our API understands that it will receive hypermedia then we will achieve client/server independence. Our APIs, then, can evolve much easier (as well as the client relying on our APIs). This Martin Nally article doesn't discuss REST or HATEOAS directly, but it does provide a very thoughtful and compelling reason for using hypermedia (aka links) in APIs.

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