Comments for Nicksda

Comment on Ruby On REST 3: One Model, Multiple Representations! by Michel Lacle

Michel Lacle — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:10:48 +0000

Is there a way to control how collections are transformed to json? I would like to have collections serialized like rails: [ "model" : { props ... }, "model" : {props...}]. Instead of { models : [ {props}, {props} ...] }, which is what I have roar doing now.

Comment on Ruby On REST: Introducing the Representer Pattern by foofam

foofam — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:27:20 +0000

@steve Thanks!

Comment on Ruby On REST: Introducing the Representer Pattern by Steve Klabnik

Steve Klabnik — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:54:07 +0000

@foofam you might be interested in my upcoming book: http://getsomere.st

Comment on Ruby On REST: Introducing the Representer Pattern by foofam

foofam — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:42:29 +0000

@steve the book is an eye-opener so far. I think we’re just scratching the surface here.

@nick in my humble opinion, roar will benefit a lot if you read this book.

Comment on Ruby On REST: Introducing the Representer Pattern by Steve Klabnik

Steve Klabnik — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:33:16 +0000

I do have an affiliation with the author; he’s awesome, and while I haven’t read the book yet, my understanding is that your characterization of node as ‘incidental’ is correct.

Comment on Ruby On REST: Introducing the Representer Pattern by foofam

foofam — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:09:47 +0000

By the way, it is probably worth adding that the use of Node.js and HTML5 in “Building Hypermedia APIs with HTML5 and Node” is mostly incidental, the book is all about building hypermedia APIs (not necessarily REST ones) and therefore relevant to what’s being discussed here.

I can see that Chapter 3 is titled “JSON Hypermedia” but I haven’t yet read that far in the book; I hope it will provide some answers to questions raised here.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with O’Reilly or the book author. I just happen to be interested in the subject of creating REST APIs.

Comment on Ruby On REST: Introducing the Representer Pattern by foofam

foofam — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:49:30 +0000

Actually Steve Klabnik seems to have a valid point. From “Building Hypermedia APIs with HTML5 and Node” (published by O’Reilly, see http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920020530.do):

“A Hypermedia Type is a media type that contains native hyperlinking elements that can be used to control application flow.”

Same book, Chapter 1, page 6: “Unlike plain text, XML, JSON, and other common formats, HTML has native support for hypermedia. HTML is, in effect, a Hypermedia Type. There are other media types that share this distinction; ones that contain native support for some form of hypermedia linking. Other well-known types include SVG (read-only), VoiceXML, and Atom.”

I don’t know where that leaves us in regards to REST in Rails, roar, JSON responses and hypermedia…

@steve, @nick thoughts?

Comment on Ruby On REST: Introducing the Representer Pattern by Steve Klabnik

Steve Klabnik — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:20:32 +0000

@foofam Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Hypermedia is used as a logical extension of the term hypertext in which graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks intertwine to create a generally non-linear medium of information.

Comment on Ruby On REST: Introducing the Representer Pattern by foofam

foofam — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:47:27 +0000

@steve klabnik: you seem to be focusing on what hypermedia isn’t but not on what it is. Can you please give a straight answer to “What’s hypermedia in your understanding?” ? This will hopefully help us understand what you mean.

Comment on Ruby On REST 3: One Model, Multiple Representations! by Steve Klabnik

Steve Klabnik — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:22:10 +0000

Types are kinda silly. This is Ruby, after all.