[occi-wg] Syntax for attributes on links

[Sam Johnston]

On 5/8/09, Benjamin Black <b at b3k.us> wrote:
> Using HTTP URIs and making things globally unique are orthogonal.  You are,
> again, assuming a specific implementation rather than describing the desired
> behavior.  You _could_ produce a system using HTTP URIs that were not
> consistent/unique/etc., just as you could produce a system based on UUIDs
> that changed as the infrastructure changed.  This is allegedly a RESTful
> API, please use the techniques of a good RESTful API, like embedding HTTP
> URIs, and describe the construction and semantics of the pieces as needed.

We were talking before about all URLs appearing in the protocol, which
does make a lot of sense. UUIDs are universally unique already are
resolveable if not retrievable from the entry point that served them,
and don't break when moved or shared. There are pros and cons of both
approaches bit I think we need to understand the full implications
before we decide one way or the other.

> Now, will someone please explain why, exactly, we are not basing this work
> on the Sun API?  I've asked several times now and have either been ignored
> or gotten hand waving.

There have (unsurprisingly) been public and private calls to rubber
stamp various APIs but each have their benefits and drawbacks and
we're trying to pick out the best parts. Single entry points,
discovery, controllers and some of the structure came from Sun^W
Oracle Cloud APIs already... the main thing that hasn't (yet) come
across is JSON.

Sam


Sam


> On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 2:53 PM, Sam Johnston <samj at samj.net> wrote:
>
>> On 5/7/09, Benjamin Black <b at b3k.us> wrote:
>> > On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 8:52 AM, Sam Johnston <samj at samj.net> wrote:
>> >
>> >>
>> >> Good question and good to see people payong close attentipn. We know
>> >> we can find the resources at the root of the entry point so I'm more
>> >> inclined to use the href as an internal pointer than confuse things
>> >> when there are multiple servers potentially talking about the same
>> >> resources. we can use 3xx redirects as a kind of resolution system if
>> >> need be too.
>> >>
>> >> Sam on iPhone
>> >>
>> >
>> > I wish I could assume you were joking here.  Of course they should be
>> HTTP
>> > URIs!  The confusion in the multi-provider case would come _because_ we
>> did
>> > not specify a single entry point.  The logic of exposing some internal
>> > reference and then using redirects to paper over by translating to an
>> > external reference eludes me.
>>
>> Actually it makes a lot of sense. The IDs are UUID based URNs and if
>> we have a feed we want to be able to link resources together without
>> having to futz with URLs. The entry point will either have a resource
>> it gave you or know where to find it anyway so resolution is a
>> non-problem.
>>
>> Say we design a system where individual
>> workstations/servers/clusters/etc each implement OCCI and have a
>> common network resource then we definitely don't want to get different
>> pointers from each of them. Same applies for resources that move (e.g.
>> Live migrations), which would likely be the primary use case dr said
>> redirects.
>>
>> Sam
>>
>