Resources are data sources in a RESTful web service. Each resource type contains a set of common parameters that the REST API abstracts to form a resource representation, usually in XML or JSON. Users can view a resource representation, then edit the parameters and send the representation back to the resource's URL within the API, which modifies the resource. Users can also delete individual resources through REST.

A RESTful web service also groups resources into collections. Users can view a representation of all resources in a collection. Users also send resource representations to a specific collection to create a new resource within that particular collection.