5 ms·

URI Template

74 points by soheilpro 14y ago

vy8vWJlco 14y ago
Slightly related (if you hold your head at the right angle) is the (commercial) platform called NetKernel. It brings URIs into conventional programming scenarios, presenting something like a RESTful programming language. (Whatever that might mean...) I haven't done anything with it, but I find it fascinating just to read the documentation: http://docs.netkernel.org/book/view/book:quickstart/doc:quickstart:title http://docs.netkernel.org/book/view/book:quickstart/doc:quic...
ubersoldat2k7 14y ago
Why do RFC's have to be so ugly?
- seliopou 14y ago
  I think this[1] is to blame for it. [1]: http://tools.ietf.org/tools/rfcmarkup/ http://tools.ietf.org/tools/rfcmarkup/
- treerex 14y ago
  Because they originate from a time where plain text was what you had, and the format was created to be consistent and easy to format by hand. I still prefer my specifications to be in plain text so that I can view them easily and quickly.
  - nfoz 14y ago
    I still prefer my everything in plaintext....
  - jrochkind1 14y ago
    It would be easy enough to at least format them in HTML, they use such consistent ascii 'typesetting', it could easily be automated. I mean, they are formatted in HTML now, but as a giant block of monospace text. They could use <hx>s for the headers, let the text flow with browser resize for small screens, heck use bootstrap for good readable web typesetting, etc. I am not sure why the IETF isn't interested in better web typesetting for em. At one point someone had a site that did that, I think it was advertised and discussed here on HN, but I forget what it was called, and I think it faded into non-supported obscurity (since it was obviously a labor of love, unpaid).
- twsted 14y ago
  I really love them. This probably reveals my age...
  - icebraining 14y ago
    Nope, I'm <25 and I love them too.
- byroot 14y ago
  It's just a formating issue. Nothing prevent you to reformat them: http://pretty-rfc.herokuapp.com/RFC2616 http://pretty-rfc.herokuapp.com/RFC2616
  - r00fus 14y ago
    This is very cool. Why is the RFC source not available and what does it take to get it?
    - byroot 14y ago
      The home page states: Note: most RFCs can't be prettified at the moment, as their source files are unavailable to the public and need to be requested from rfc-editor.org. I'm working on this. I suppose that it's just a matter of time.
zacharyvoase 14y ago
I wonder if it'd be worth implementing this in my URLObject library (https://github.com/zacharyvoase/urlobject https://github.com/zacharyvoase/urlobject).
alanho 14y ago
Ruby Gems for this https://github.com/sporkmonger/addressable https://github.com/sporkmonger/addressable
zimbatm 14y ago
For rubyists, the addressable gem has support for it: https://github.com/sporkmonger/addressable/tree/#uri-templates https://github.com/sporkmonger/addressable/tree/#uri-templat...
- soheilpro 14y ago
  And for Node.js: https://github.com/bramstein/url-template https://github.com/bramstein/url-template
steveklabnik 14y ago
GitHub uses URI templates extensively: https://api.github.com/ https://api.github.com/
nicwolff 14y ago
There's a mature Perl module for this as well: http://search.cpan.org/~bricas/URI-Template-0.17/lib/URI/Template.pm http://search.cpan.org/~bricas/URI-Template-0.17/lib/URI/Tem...
buro9 14y ago
This is one of two proposed standards I've been following with some interest, the other being a sane(ish) way to implement PATCH for JSON objects: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6902 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6902
specialist 14y ago
Very helpful, thanks for link. I'm working on my own web app "framework" and had rolled my own URL/URI router. This will reduce my reinvention quotient.
spankalee 14y ago
It's pretty great to have a standard for templates to generate URIs, but it's equally important to parse URIs and extract the variables. It looks like this RFC skimps on that part: In Section 1.4: Some URI Templates can be used in reverse for the purpose of variable matching: comparing the template to a fully formed URI in order to extract the variable parts from that URI and assign them to the named variables. Variable matching only works well if the template expressions are delimited by the beginning or end of the URI or by characters that cannot be part of the expansion, such as reserved characters surrounding a simple string expression. In general, regular expression languages are better suited for variable matching. It'd be better IMO to have a stricter definition of parseable templates and include test cases so that implementations that try to validate templates for parseability don't disagree.

74 points by soheilpro 14y ago

Slightly related (if you hold your head at the right angle) is the (commercial) platform called NetKernel. It brings URIs into conventional programming scenarios, presenting something like a RESTful programming language. (Whatever that might mean...) I haven't done anything with it, but I find it fascinating just to read the documentation: http://docs.netkernel.org/book/view/book:quickstart/doc:quickstart:title http://docs.netkernel.org/book/view/book:quickstart/doc:quic...

ubersoldat2k7 14y ago

Why do RFC's have to be so ugly?

seliopou 14y ago
I think this[1] is to blame for it. [1]: http://tools.ietf.org/tools/rfcmarkup/ http://tools.ietf.org/tools/rfcmarkup/
treerex 14y ago
Because they originate from a time where plain text was what you had, and the format was created to be consistent and easy to format by hand. I still prefer my specifications to be in plain text so that I can view them easily and quickly.
- nfoz 14y ago
  I still prefer my everything in plaintext....
- jrochkind1 14y ago
  It would be easy enough to at least format them in HTML, they use such consistent ascii 'typesetting', it could easily be automated. I mean, they are formatted in HTML now, but as a giant block of monospace text. They could use <hx>s for the headers, let the text flow with browser resize for small screens, heck use bootstrap for good readable web typesetting, etc. I am not sure why the IETF isn't interested in better web typesetting for em. At one point someone had a site that did that, I think it was advertised and discussed here on HN, but I forget what it was called, and I think it faded into non-supported obscurity (since it was obviously a labor of love, unpaid).
twsted 14y ago
I really love them. This probably reveals my age...
- icebraining 14y ago
  Nope, I'm <25 and I love them too.
byroot 14y ago
It's just a formating issue. Nothing prevent you to reformat them: http://pretty-rfc.herokuapp.com/RFC2616 http://pretty-rfc.herokuapp.com/RFC2616
- r00fus 14y ago
  This is very cool. Why is the RFC source not available and what does it take to get it?
  - byroot 14y ago
    The home page states: Note: most RFCs can't be prettified at the moment, as their source files are unavailable to the public and need to be requested from rfc-editor.org. I'm working on this. I suppose that it's just a matter of time.

zacharyvoase 14y ago

I wonder if it'd be worth implementing this in my URLObject library (https://github.com/zacharyvoase/urlobject https://github.com/zacharyvoase/urlobject).

alanho 14y ago

Ruby Gems for this https://github.com/sporkmonger/addressable https://github.com/sporkmonger/addressable

zimbatm 14y ago

For rubyists, the addressable gem has support for it: https://github.com/sporkmonger/addressable/tree/#uri-templates https://github.com/sporkmonger/addressable/tree/#uri-templat...

soheilpro 14y ago
And for Node.js: https://github.com/bramstein/url-template https://github.com/bramstein/url-template

steveklabnik 14y ago

GitHub uses URI templates extensively: https://api.github.com/ https://api.github.com/

nicwolff 14y ago

There's a mature Perl module for this as well: http://search.cpan.org/~bricas/URI-Template-0.17/lib/URI/Template.pm http://search.cpan.org/~bricas/URI-Template-0.17/lib/URI/Tem...

buro9 14y ago

This is one of two proposed standards I've been following with some interest, the other being a sane(ish) way to implement PATCH for JSON objects: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6902 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6902

specialist 14y ago

Very helpful, thanks for link. I'm working on my own web app "framework" and had rolled my own URL/URI router. This will reduce my reinvention quotient.

spankalee 14y ago

It's pretty great to have a standard for templates to generate URIs, but it's equally important to parse URIs and extract the variables. It looks like this RFC skimps on that part: In Section 1.4: Some URI Templates can be used in reverse for the purpose of variable matching: comparing the template to a fully formed URI in order to extract the variable parts from that URI and assign them to the named variables. Variable matching only works well if the template expressions are delimited by the beginning or end of the URI or by characters that cannot be part of the expansion, such as reserved characters surrounding a simple string expression. In general, regular expression languages are better suited for variable matching. It'd be better IMO to have a stricter definition of parseable templates and include test cases so that implementations that try to validate templates for parseability don't disagree.