Data uniqued by canonical url for rest application

Abstract

Pieces of an entity's data set can be related with each other using a canonical Uniform Resource Locator (URL). If a server returns pieces of an entity's data record to a client within multiple separate REST-based responses, the client can discern from the canonical URL that those pieces relate to the same entity. In response to each REST-based request from a client, a server returns, with the client-requested data, a canonical URL that uniquely identifies that data's entity. A client can receive the canonical URL with the data that the server returns. If the canonical URLs returned along with data items in separate requests match, then the client determines that those data items pertain to the same entity. If the client determines that separately received data items pertain to the same entity, then the client can merge those data items together into a unified record that the client stores locally.