rest/datatypes: Difference between revisions

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** the trailing '.iso8601' MUST be omitted, as '.' is not (always?) valid in CSS class names
** the trailing '.iso8601' MUST be omitted, as '.' is not (always?) valid in CSS class names
** date/time formats SHOULD follow the [http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime W3C profile] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601 ISO 8601]
** date/time formats SHOULD follow the [http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime W3C profile] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601 ISO 8601]
** a more human-readable rendering may be used, with the ISO8601 value in an "abbr"
* if no datatype is specified, an implementation MAY either attempt to infer a datatype from the syntax of the value, or simply assert that the value is a string.  Thus, conforming implementations SHOULD always explicitly label strings.
* if no datatype is specified, an implementation MAY either attempt to infer a datatype from the syntax of the value, or simply assert that the value is a string.  Thus, conforming implementations SHOULD always explicitly label strings.



Revision as of 23:55, 13 February 2006

Datatypes in HTML

One of the challenges of using HTML as a data transport is that everything, by default, is a string. This page explores ways to use microformats -- specifically, class names -- to encode data type information, e.g., for use with xoxo and rest/ahah, in order to allow lossless import/export from various languages. These could also be used with forms to provide rest/descriptions of the type of data expected.

Examples

These are the primary datatypes in a range of different languages and formats. Note that we are only concerned with "primitive" datatypes (loosely defined), as structured datatypes (list/array, hash/dictionary) are handled by xoxo.

Datatype comparison table
Language/format string float integer boolean data date/time null
XML Schema string float, double decimal, integer, etc. boolean hexBinary, base64Binary duration, dateTime, date, time nil
XML-RPC string double i4, int boolean base64 dateTime.iso8601 nil
Mac OS X plists string real integer true, false data date nil
JSON (JavaScript) string number number true, false N/A Date nil
YAML tags str int float bool null (base 64) N/A null
SQL (JDBC) char,varchar float, double, real decimal, numeric bit binary date, time, timestamp ?
C char[] float, double int, long, short bool, int char[] N/A (void*)0
Java char, String float, double int, long, short, byte boolean N/A util.Date null
PHP string float (double) integer boolean array N/A NULL
Perl array scalar scalar scalar array N/A
Python str float, complex int, long bool binascii, base64 time,datetime
Ruby + lib String Float Fixnum, Bignum TrueClass,FalseClass Hash Date NilClass
REBOL string! decimal! integer! logic! binary! date!, time! none!

Analysis

The most common set of datatypes appears to be those represented by XML-RPC, which (perhaps fortunately) also has historical precedence on the web:

  • string
  • double
  • int [i4] - 4-byte integer (32-bit)
  • boolean (0,1)
  • base64
  • dateTime[.iso8601]

Whlle not perfect, these certainly cover the 80% case, and are reasonably well-defined. That said, there are a number of open questions about how to use them:

  1. should 'string' also be explicitly specified, or can it be assumed?
  2. does 'int' always mean 32-bits?
    1. If so, what should be used for 64-bit integers or cryptographic (256-bit+) numbers?
      1. Python's 'long' is simple, but ambiguous.
      2. Ruby's BigNum is clear but much less common.
      3. XML-Schema has so many types it is hard to say.
      4. SQL's "decimal", perhaps?
    2. If not, how should conforming implementations react to longer integers than they can handle?
  3. Is it worth deviating from the standard to allow "dateTime" as an alias? (the one case where XML Schema is actually simpler)

Proposal

The proposal is to adopt XML-RPC scalar values as the class names for typed microformats, with the following caveats:

  • the alias 'i4' for integer SHOULD not be used
  • the name 'long' MAY be used for 64-bit or longer integers
  • for 'dateTime'
    • the trailing '.iso8601' MUST be omitted, as '.' is not (always?) valid in CSS class names
    • date/time formats SHOULD follow the W3C profile of ISO 8601
    • a more human-readable rendering may be used, with the ISO8601 value in an "abbr"
  • if no datatype is specified, an implementation MAY either attempt to infer a datatype from the syntax of the value, or simply assert that the value is a string. Thus, conforming implementations SHOULD always explicitly label strings.

To indicate that a particular micforomat uses typed values, precede that microformat with the class name 'typed', as in:

< div class="typed xoxo">

References