We’re thrilled to announce the general availability of the HeatWave REST Service – a powerful, fully managed cloud service that lets you instantly create RESTful API endpoints directly from your HeatWave MySQL databases, without writing a single line of backend code.
HeatWave REST Service Highlights
- Full REST Stack Support
- Application stacks can be simplified by eliminating middleware, and sometimes the entire application backend. This lets your applications interact directly and securely with your data through standard HTTP requests.
- Develop powerful Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) by using JavaScript on all layers: inside the MySQL server, the router, and the client.
- Made for Modern AI Application Development
- Take full advantage of HeatWave Generative AI and Machine Learning capabilities to integrate AI features into existing and new applications.
- Develop GenAI apps that rely on in-database LLMs in HeatWave to eliminate the need for additional software or hardware and reduce costs.
- Increase data security by moving all data processing, including LLM and REST handling, into the MySQL server.
- Available Everywhere – In HeatWave, Enterprise- and Community Editions
- Based on the MySQL REST Service (MRS) plugin for the MySQL Router, it is available not only as a managed service in HeatWave MySQL 9.3.1, but part of regular MySQL Router packages for MySQL Enterprise Edition and MySQL Community Editions.
Why We Built the HeatWave REST Service
Modern development stacks are often bloated with layers of complexity: backend frameworks, ORMs, drivers, connection managers, load balancers, security wrappers — all built to help applications talk to the database. But every extra layer is something more to manage, secure, and scale.
HeatWave REST Service simplifies all of that by making your database speak REST natively. This means web apps, mobile apps, and even IoT devices can securely interact with HeatWave using nothing but standard HTTP — no custom middleware required.
This significantly reduces complexity during development and service operations, which can result in considerable cost savings.
Simplifying AI App Development
The HeatWave REST Service streamlines the development of AI-powered applications by offering a standardized, user-friendly interface to the AI and machine learning (ML) features within your database. This allows you to focus on developing your application instead of worrying about integrating AI and ML capabilities.
With the HeatWave REST Service, you can:
- Easily access AI and ML features in your database through REST APIs
- Build AI-powered applications that drive business value
- Reduce the time and effort required to integrate AI and ML capabilities
The HeatWave REST Service breaks down barriers to AI and ML adoption by making it easier to leverage the built-in AI and ML features in your HeatWave database. This enables developers of all skill levels to build more innovative and powerful applications.
JavaScript Everywhere
In addition to facilitating the development of AI-powered applications, the HeatWave REST Service streamlines the creation of application backends and full-stack applications. Leveraging the JavaScript support in MySQL allows you to create robust, scalable application backends that integrate seamlessly with your data. You can use JavaScript to handle business logic and perform complex interactions with your database, making it an ideal platform for building full-stack applications.
Building application backends and full-stack applications with JavaScript in the database offers developers several advantages.
- It increases productivity by enabling developers to work with a single language and platform.
- It improves performance by integrating the application backend with the database.
- It simplifies maintenance by reducing the complexity of managing multiple technologies.
- This unified platform allows developers to concentrate on building their applications instead of worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
JSON In, JSON Out
You don’t need to use or even know SQL to work with your data.
HeatWave REST Service supports automatic endpoint generation for common operations:
• Read: Query JSON objects from relational tables and views (including JOINs), with simple HTTP GET requests
• Write: Transactional insert, update, and delete rows via HTTP POST, PUT, or DELETE with JSON payloads
Behind the scenes, HeatWave maps these REST calls to optimized SQL queries. You never have to write a query unless you want to — and when you do, you can customize endpoints using our declarative specs or our visual endpoint building interface.
GET requests generate JSON objects according to your specifications and rows from joined tables are transparently nested as and lists objects in a way that just makes sense. Similarly, rows can be inserted and updated by submitting a JSON object in a HTTP request. The service will automatically do whatever is necessary to update the database representation of the object to match the copy you have, including updates, deletes and inserts of referenced tables, atomically inside a transaction.
This makes the service ideal for:
- Frontend developers who want to focus on UI/UX
- Backend developers who want to focus on complex business logic
- Rapid prototyping teams
- Citizen developers or data analysts building internal tools
Built-In Features That Just Work
Everything you need is included out of the box:
Secure REST Services
Secure your REST endpoints by restricting access to registered users. Control the endpoints that each user has access to and the operations they can execute through a role based access control system.
Flexible Authentication System
An extensible system allows you to manage user accounts and how they log in the way that best suits your use case. You can use a separately managed, password based native user database or let anyone with a MySQL account to connect to the REST service. Or you can delegate user management to an external identity services, enabling existing application users to access your new REST endpoints.
Web Session Management
Web sessions for logged in users can be handled automatically using cookies or JSON Web Tokens (JWTs).
High-Performance HTTP Server
REST requests are handled by a high-throughput HTTP server. Out of the box HTTP performance, even without optimizations, is comparable or better than popular application frameworks with added scalability options.
Dynamic Web Content
HeatWave REST Service also supports serving static and dynamic HTML content. This allows your HeatWave MySQL instance to act as a lightweight web server, capable of delivering data-driven pages without any external application framework or server.
Perfect for dashboards, reports, admin tools, or lightweight apps — all driven directly from your database.
Progressive Web Apps
The HeatWave REST Services provides you with everything necessary for building Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) without relying on external libraries or third-party components. It offers a cohesive architecture that includes routing, state management, and data management—all natively supported. This eliminates dependency sprawl, simplifies build pipelines, and enhances long-term maintainability. With MRS, teams can deliver fast, reliable, and data-intensive PWAs with full control over the stack, reducing security risks and boosting performance out of the box.
Auto-Generated Client SDKs
To make development even easier, HeatWave REST Service can optionally generate high-level client SDKs for your endpoints.
These SDKs provide:
- Easy-to-use method calls instead of raw HTTP requests
- Built-in data models matching your database schema
- Auto-handled authentication and request formatting
This means your front-end team can integrate your database API with minimal effort — whether you’re using TypeScript, Python, or other supported languages.
The SDK generation helps bridge the gap between backend APIs and client apps, reducing boilerplate and speeding up time-to-market.
Built-In AI with HeatWave GenAI
HeatWave REST Service includes native support for HeatWave GenAI, unlocking REST-based access to advanced AI and ML capabilities:
- LLM Services: Use in-database or cloud-hosted generative AI models via REST endpoints
- Model Training & Inference: Train and query ML models in-database without moving data
- RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation): Power intelligent apps with built-in vector search + LLM workflows
These AI features are exposed as endpoints, making it easy to integrate them into your apps without needing external ML pipelines.
Manage with Familiar Tools
You can manage HeatWave REST Service using the MySQL Shell for Visual Studio extension or the regular MySQL Shell, if you prefer a command line interface. Create, configure, and deploy endpoints using the tools you already know.
Try It Now
Getting started is simple. Just open the HeatWave MySQL Management Console in OCI, upgrade your DB System to 9.3.1, enable the REST Service, and start defining endpoints.
Ready to dive deeper? Take the Quickstart Guide or explore the documentation for full details on how to define, manage, and secure your REST APIs.
Download and install the MySQL Shell for VS Code extension to get started immediately!