The Data API and access tokens

RESTfm now supports using the FileMaker Server Data API for connections, and is the default choice for 6.0 and later.  The Data API supports a login/action/logout approach and uses "tokens" to enable the actions part of the interaction with FMS.  

This is different from a lot of REST implementation, which are more often "stateless", meaning there's no carryover data or state that is remembered between connections. So you can submit a single request to do all actions, and multiple "actions" can be included in a single request.  But you don't need to retain info like login tokens, to make it work.

So even though the Data API requires you to remember tokens, RESTfm 6.0 continues to apply the REST architectural constraint of statelessness. The client is not required to keep any session information, and each transaction is completely isolated from another.

This is handled in the DataAPI backend by performing a "login" request first (where a session token is returned), performing any transactions (using the provided token), and finally performing a "log out".  The token is not cached longer than the session between RESTfm and the client. 

Use the RESTfm Bulk Data API to reduce connections

However, by using the RESTfm Bulk API, many backend transactions can occur with the same token (i.e. login and log out are only performed once, but many CRUD operations could occur in between them). The RESTfm Bulk API still appears as a single stateless transaction to the client.  And it will appear as a single "connection" in the FileMaker Server Admin.