[uf-discuss] Microformats for Write APIs

[Ernest Prabhakar]

Hi Gareth,

On Feb 18, 2008, at 3:51 PM, gareth rushgrove wrote:
>> The idea of using Microformats as a replacement for a seperate API
>> layer has been mooted for a while*. But in general this has been a
>> discussion about Read APIs (ie. asking for data) as apposed to Write
>> APIs (ie. adding data).
>>
>> I'm interested in the idea of using microformats to auto-discover
>> Write API functions. So a simple case might be:

Sounds like you want hAtomPub :-)

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5023

-- Ernie P.

>
>
> [this post reposted to discuss after a brief outing on dev -
> http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-dev/2008-February/000447.html 
> ]
>
> A post to this list [ok, I got the wrong list first time round] seemed
> in order after a few discussions at SemanticCamp over the weekend. At
> this stage this is basically a
> pre-idea, floated to see if their is any general interest.
>
> The idea of using Microformats as a replacement for a seperate API
> layer has been mooted for a while*. But in general this has been a
> discussion about Read APIs (ie. asking for data) as apposed to Write
> APIs (ie. adding data).
>
> I'm interested in the idea of using microformats to auto-discover
> Write API functions. So a simple case might be:
>
> 1. Point a parser at a blog post page
> 2. Parser establishes that a form exists
> 3. Parser works out the method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.)
> 4. Parser works out the form parameters, their input types and whether
> or not they are required
> 5. Parser can produce API docs
>
> So for instance taking Flickr as an example. Flickr allows comments on
> Photos from the photo page. eg.
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/garethr/2275608910/
>
> Flickr also allows you to add comments via the API.
> http://www.flickr.com/services/api/flickr.photos.comments.addComment.html
>
> Standardisation might be interesting here as well. For instance back
> to blog comments. Comments from within aggregators would likely be
> simpler where comment form definitions can be established
> programmatically.
>
> Let me know what you think about the general idea.
>
> Gareth
>
> * http://allinthehead.com/retro/301/can-your-website-be-your-api
>
> -- 
> Gareth Rushgrove
> garethrushgrove.com
> morethanseven.net
> getjobsin.com
> isitbirthday.com
> _______________________________________________
> microformats-discuss mailing list
> microformats-discuss at microformats.org
> http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss