title: How do I implement login in a RESTful web service?
body: <p>I am building a web application with a services layer.  The services layer is going to be built using a RESTful design.  The thinking is that some time in the future we may build other applications (iPhone, Android, etc.) that use the same services layer as the web application.  My question is this - how do I implement login?  I think I am having trouble moving from a more traditional verb based design to a resource based design.  If I was building this with SOAP I would probably have a method called Login.  In REST I should have a resource.  I am having difficulty understanding how I should construct my URI for a login.  Should it be something like this:</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://myservice/" rel="noreferrer">http://myservice/</a>{username}?p={password}</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: The front end web application uses the traditional ASP.NET framework for authentication.  However at some point in the authentication process I need to validate the supplied credentials. In a traditional web application I would do a database lookup. But in this scenario I am calling a service instead of doing a database lookup.  So I need something in the service that will validate the supplied credentials.  And in addition to validating the supplied credentials I probably also need some sort of information about the user after they have successfully authenticated - things like their full name, their ID, etc.  I hope this makes the question clearer.</p>
  
  <p>Or am I not thinking about this the right way?  I feel like I am having difficulty describing my question correctly.</p>
  
  <p>Corey</p>