IETF Internet-Draft JSON serialization for Web Linking

[heidivanparys]

I came across this IETF Internet-Draft: JSON serialization for Web Linking.

This may become relevant if it is approved as an Internet Standard?

1. Introduction

There are many JSON-based standards and formats that require the need to express a link. Examples can be found in [draft-kelly-json-hal], [JSON-API], [WEBTHING], [draft-nottingham-json-home], [COLLECTIONJSON], [SIREN] and many others.

Because there hasn't been an accepted reference for serializing Web Links in JSON, it's typical for authors of new formats to invent their own. This has resulted in many minor differences between serializations, making it difficult to write generic parsers.

This document is an attempt to define a standard JSON serialization for Web linking. A primary goal is to define a format that's relatively uncontroversial and similar to existing serializations.

Furthermore, this specification defines an optional format for groups of links and a recommendation for defining document-wide links.

[cportele]

Thanks for this, @heidivanparys !

It indeed is relevant, if it moves to RFC status. However, we will only be able to use it, if it is consistent with what we have done in the standard as we don't want to break backwards compatibility. So far this seems to be the case including the document-level links, with the exception that we only have href as required in the schema and the draft has rel as required, too. Since we add requirements on rel for all links (I think), we could also make it required, too.

In fact, rel probably should be required anyhow as a result of the dependency to RFC 8288.

[akuckartz]

Please keep compatibillity with JSON-LD in mind!

[cportele]

#358 was created as a result of the discussion. We will keep this issue open to monitor the progress of the IETF draft.