Re: [dispatch] A WG for HTTP API Building Blocks

[Mark Nottingham <[e-mail]>]

Hi Brian,

> On 15 Jul 2020, at 5:59 am, Brian Rosen <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> One question about the charter:  We’re going to see an increasing incidence of defining protocols using json and HTTP in our work.  It would be good if the IETF had some common way these interfaces were defined: not just the schemas but the operations.  This is the domain of OpenAPI, for example, which could be a candidate for what I’m asking about.  Is that something that would be a chartered item?  I’d be willing to work on that.  Not proscriptive, just advisory — there are going to be plenty of interfaces that wouldn’t fit, but things that use an HTTP verb, take some parameters in, possibly including json objects, and return some json response could benefit from some common defined way to describe them.

My .02 - I think it might be eventually, but I'd like to see the WG build some capacity and legitimacy first. I say that because there are some issues (like interface description) that have multiple possible solutions, and I don't think we should be in the business of 'picking winners' unless we are able to demonstrate that we have engagement broadly across the industry. Hence the focus on 'building blocks' rather than complete solutions.

Cheers,

--
Mark Nottingham   https://www.mnot.net/