When to Use Affordance vs. Link in Hypermedia Controls

Hypermedia as the engine of application state (HATEOAS) brings a new level of discoverability and self-documentation to REST APIs. In Spring HATEOAS, two key concepts play a central role in enriching your API responses with navigable metadata: Link and Affordance. Understanding when to use each—and how they differ—is crucial for building intuitive, flexible APIs that …

May 12, 2025 - 18:09

Hypermedia as the engine of application state (HATEOAS) brings a new level of discoverability and self-documentation to REST APIs. In Spring HATEOAS, two key concepts play a central role in enriching your API responses with navigable metadata: Link and Affordance. Understanding when to use each—and how they differ—is crucial for building intuitive, flexible APIs that …