REST API design based on our experience and popular articles (cvat-ai…

…#2427)

* Add some ideas for REST API design based on our expirience and popular articles.

* Add a link on stackoverflow with nested vs. flat resources discussion.

* Add Links section

docs/rest_api_design.md

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+# REST API design principles
+
+## REST API scheme
+
+Common scheme for our REST API is `<VERB> [namespace] <objects> <id> <action>`.
+- `VERB` can be `POST`, `GET`, `PATCH`, `PUT`, `DELETE`.
+- `namespace` should scope some specific functionality like `auth`, `lambda`.
+  It is optional in the scheme.
+- Typical `objects` are `tasks`, `projects`, `jobs`.
+- When you want to extract a specific object from a collection, just specify its `id`.
+- An `action` can be used to simplify REST API or provide an endpoint for entities
+  without `objects` endpoint like `annotations`, `data`, `data/meta`. Note: action
+  should not duplicate other endpoints without a reason.
+
+## Design principles
+- Use nouns instead of verbs in endpoint paths. For example,
+`POST /api/v1/tasks` instead of `POST /api/v1/tasks/create`.
+- Accept and respond with JSON whenever it is possible
+- Name collections with plural nouns (e.g. `/tasks`, `/projects`)
+- Try to keep the API structure flat. Prefer two separate endpoints
+for `/projects` and `/tasks` instead of `/projects/:id1/tasks/:id2`. Use
+filters to extract necessary information like `/tasks/:id2?project=:id1`.
+In some cases it is useful to get all `tasks`. If the structure is
+hierarchical, it cannot be done easily. Also you have to know both `:id1`
+and `:id2` to get information about the task.
+_Note: for now we accept `GET /tasks/:id2/jobs` but it should be replaced
+by `/jobs?task=:id2` in the future_.
+- Handle errors gracefully and return standard error codes (e.g. `201`, `400`)
+- Allow filtering, sorting, and pagination
+- Maintain good security practices
+- Cache data to improve performance
+- Versioning our APIs (e.g. `/api/v1`, `/api/v2`). It should be done when you
+delete an endpoint or modify its behaviors.
+
+## Links
+- [Best practices for REST API design](https://stackoverflow.blog/2020/03/02/best-practices-for-rest-api-design/)
+- [Flat vs. nested resources](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20951419/what-are-best-practices-for-rest-nested-resources)