Hypermedia Workshop - Sep 17 @ #RESTFest
a new way to think about old things
the general idea of hypermedia has been around for a long time. in 2000, Roy T. Fielding's dissertation noted (emphasis mine):
[The] REST [style] is defined by four interface constraints: identification of resources; manipulation of resources through representations; self-descriptive messages; and, hypermedia as the engine of application state.
although Fielding's work details just one example of using hypermedia (that of driving the state of applications in a distributed network), since so much of what he wrote about relates directly to the way the Web works today, quite a few folks actively discuss this (and other points) on a regular basis.
however, over the last year or so, my focus been on the way hypermedia documents express a defined set of factors that are common throughout the Web, no matter the media-type or client applications being used. i think we greatly improve the quality of content on the Internet when these basic hypermedia factors appear in all types of responses, not just Web pages loaded into browsers to be read by humans.
we can do better
i am also, frankly, annoyed by the recent proliferation of "Web APIs" that emit responses that are devoid of all but the most mundane of the hypermedia factors (e.g. read-only outbound links); APIs that often require consumers to write a new client application for each set of data. especially when doing it better is not so difficult. i think Web developers are missing huge opportunities to produce high-quality information easily available to a wide range of clients. i am also concerned that recent trends that emphasize the data itself at the expense of these important factors is leading us all to a lower-quality user (and developer) experience on the Web.
so this workshop is my way to encourage the use of hypermedia in all aspects of the Web.
not just the head, but also the hands
this workshop will also be a chance for me to get back to doing something i really love: hands-on training. although this is an all-day event, i won't be lecturing all the time. instead, the workshop will be a mix of presentation, discussion, and hands-on coding. my slides are meant to introduce ideas and provoke thought & discussion. the hands-on work allows everyone to experiment with these same ideas and talk about the results. the aim is to engage not just the head, but also the hands.
the workshop
the complete details of the event are available at the REST Fest workshop page, but here are some highlights:
In this one-day workshop, attendees will learn how to implement an alternative to one-off Web APIs using Hypermedia Engines. Topics covered include:
- Hypermedia Past and Present
- Nine Essential Hypermedia Factors
- Selecting the Proper Data Format
- Adding Hypermedia Application Controls to your Responses
- Binding Protocol Methods to your Hypermedia Controls
- Serving Up your Hypermedia
- Writing Clients that Understand your Hypermedia
- Documenting your Hypermedia
- and more...
i'm excited about this workshop because it gives me a chance to share my experience and ideas with others and because if offers the opportunity to engage in a dialog on what i think is a very important subject.