api strategy workshop - seoul presented by layer 7's principal api architect mike amundsen
TRANSCRIPT
Follow Your Nose vs.
Hold Your Nose
Mike Amundsen@mamund
@layer7 @CAInc
Observations on the state of service description on the Web
The Paper
Observations
Observations
● The Web● Service Descriptions● Something Else
The Web
The Web
The Disney Dog Rule
"I have just met you and I love you!" - Dug
The Disney Dog Rule
"HyperText provides a single user-interface to many large classes of stored information…"
- Berners-Lee / Cailliau, 1990
The Disney Dog Rule
"HyperText provides a single user-interface to many large classes of stored information…"
- Berners-Lee / Cailliau, 1990
The Disney Dog Rule
"We propose the implementation of a simple scheme to incorporate several different servers of
machine-stored information already available." - Berners-Lee / Cailliau, 1990
The Disney Dog Rule
"We propose the implementation of a simple scheme to incorporate several different servers of
machine-stored information already available." - Berners-Lee / Cailliau, 1990
The Disney Dog Rule
"Squirrel!" - Dug
The Disney Dog Rule
"[A] web of nodes in which the user can browse at will." - Berners-Lee / Cailliau, 1990
The Disney Dog Rule
"[A] web of nodes in which the user can browse at will." - Berners-Lee / Cailliau, 1990
The Disney Dog Rule
"[A]bility for humans and crawlers to follow their noses ... makes for a powerfully simple discovery heuristic"
- Ed Summers, 2008
The Disney Dog Rule
"[A]bility for humans and crawlers to follow their noses ... makes for a powerfully simple discovery heuristic"
- Ed Summers, 2008
Linking
Linking
Linking
"[Links are] necessary to connect the data we have into a web, a serious, unbounded web in which one can find all
kinds of things." - Tim Berners-Lee, 2006-09
Linking
"[Links are] necessary to connect the data we have into a web, a serious, unbounded web in which one can find all
kinds of things." - Tim Berners-Lee, 2006-09
Linking
Linking
Linking
The Web
● I love you● Squirrel● Power Law
Service Descriptions
Interface Description Language (IDL)
Legacy IDLs
Web IDLs
Web IDLs
On the Web...
"The interfaces are defined by the data formats and protocols..." - Tim Berners-Lee 1998
Web IDLs
Rarely support multiple formats and almost always use only HTTP.
On the Web...
"[A] web of nodes rather than a hierarchical tree is the basic concept behind HyperText."
- Berners-Lee/Cailliau, 1990
Web IDLs
Almost all Web IDLs define a hierarchy of resources (nodes).
On the Web...
"[O]ne can go from one concept to another..."
- Berners-Lee/Cailliau, 1990
Web IDLs
Clients are led to accept only the pre-defined links from just one service.
Service Description
Service Description
The Web
But there may be something else...
Something Else
Something Else
Something Else
The Solution
The Problem
Modeling the problem domain
The Solution
Serendipity
"Web architecture is all about serendipity." - Stu Charlton, 2007
So let's do this...
Describe the domain without specifying format or protocol...
Allow clients and servers to negotiate format and protocols
Describe the domain as a set of nodes, not a hierarchy.
Allow clients and servers to establish their own workflows
Describe the domain as a scale-free network.
Encourage clients and servers to link however they wish.
Something Else
● Open formats and protocols (I love you…)● Nodes, not hierarchies (Squirrel!)● Open linking for apps (Power Law)
Application-Level Profile Semantics
Application-Level Profile Semantics
Application-Level Profile Semantics
Application-Level Profile Semantics
"I have just met you and I love you!" - Dug
Application-Level Profile Semantics
Application-Level Profile Semantics
"Squirrel!" - Dug
Application-Level Profile Semantics
Application-Level Profile Semantics
"[Links are] necessary to connect the data we have into a web, a serious, unbounded web in which one can find all
kinds of things." - Tim Berners-Lee, 2006-09
So what does this mean?
ALPS Specification Draft
If you build it...
Conclusions
● The Web is great● Service Descriptions are not the Web● ALPS describes problem domains for the Web
Let's build Linked Open Apps (LOA)
Follow Your Nose vs.
Hold Your Nose
Mike Amundsen@mamund
@layer7 @CAInc
Observations on the state of service description on the Web
http://g.mamund.com/follow-v-hold