I have my issues with the AWWW v1. >From a resource modeling perspective, I'd like the option of navigating to a resource through multiple paths, e.g.:
http://www.example.com/parts/sku1234/orders/order56789 http://www.example.com/customers/cust23457/orders/order56789 These are not arbitrary URIs. They also are not especially opaque because the path provides semantic information. Now, as Stefan recommends, both of these URIs should be redirected to a single URL, e.g.: http://www.example.com/orders/order56789 But I much prefer this URL to something truly opaque like: http://www/example.com/123453456234511111 Anne On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 1:59 PM, Steve Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > On 24/04/2008, Stefan Tilkov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Apr 24, 2008, at 7:00 PM, Steve Jones wrote: > > > On 22/04/2008, Nick Gall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > [snip] > > > > For example, the AWWW v1 contains the following practice that is > > > not strictly required by REST: > > > > > > > > > > > > Good practice: Avoiding URI aliases -- A URI owner SHOULD NOT > > > associate arbitrarily different > > > > URIs with the same resource. > > > > > > I've wondered about this phrase. Given that arbitrarily means sort of > > > random or on a whim it is an odd phrase as it implies you can do it > > > deliberately if you want but don't be random about it. Given that > > > URIs can (should?) be opaque its hard to see what it is actually > > > forbidding. > > > > > > > > > > > > The point here is mainly that the abilities for caching are hurt if > > different URIs are used for the same thing. I would consider it > > preferable to rarely use multiple URIs for the same resource, and if > > so, redirect the aliases to the 'canonical' one. > > Now that make sense, but surely then the statement above doesn't need > the words "arbitrarily different" which add nothing except confusion > (IMO) to the definition. It then becomes a much simpler, and > understandable, statement which offers guidance. Its not a MUST NOT > but its a strong guidance. > > Steve > > > > > > Stefan > > -- > > Stefan Tilkov, http://www.innoq.com/blog/st/ > > > > > > > > > > > I've never actually seen a system in which people did random > > > assignment of important objects under different names, except of > > > course in C when people screwed up their pointers. > > > > > > Steve > > > > > > > > > > [snip] > > > > -- Nick > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > >
