<ul><li>Spring HATEOAS introduces the concepts of Link and Affordance in REST APIs for enriching API responses with navigable metadata.</li><li>A Link represents a navigable hyperlink, while an Affordance describes possible actions at a linked URI, including HTTP operations and input metadata.</li><li>Links are used for navigation to another resource or read-only endpoints, while Affordances are used when client interaction and action descriptions are required.</li><li>Best practices include starting with Links for navigation, adding Affordances when needed for client interaction, and being intentional with defining relationship types.</li></ul>

When to Use Affordance vs. Link in Hypermedia Controls

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