Re: [httpapi] Link Hints?

[Evert Pot <[e-mail]>]

On 2023-07-19 17:02, Mark Nottingham wrote:

> Hi HTTP API folks,
>
> A longish time ago, I wrote a spec for 'HTTP link hints' that describe aspects of a HTTP resource in a fashion that's suitable for adorning links. For example, the media type(s) available on the other end, and the HTTP method(s) it might support.
>
>    https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-nottingham-link-hint/
>
> This is to a large degree paving the cowpaths that have been created in HTTP (e.g., the Allow header) and HTML (e.g., the 'type' attribute on links) in a way that they can be used in anyplace a link can. It's also a way of coordinating common link attributes, because RFC8288 makes attributes per-format.
>
> I didn't push for standardisation because I wanted to make sure there was actual need for it / interest in it. I've heard some of that in backchannel recently, and was wondering what the WG thought about adopting this (or something like it).
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> P.S. Chairs I'm happy to chat about this for a few minutes next week if there's time in the meeting. If not, no worries.
We've adopted Link hints many years ago, and used it in several 
projects. Some of those open source:

https://github.com/badgateway/ketting
https://github.com/curveball/browser

We really like it. Great set of tools to build self-describing APIs. 
We've primarily used this to extend the HAL format. Would love to see 
this adopted.

Evert