Re: Bookmark 'stability'

On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 2:23 PM, Jan Algermissen
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On Sep 28, 2012, at 2:57 PM, Ruben Verborgh wrote:
>
>>> It invalidates the term 'entry point' entirely. If you are allowed to
>>> bookmark any resource (posts, comments, etc) then any resource is an
>>> entry point, at which point stating that your blog index is an entry
>>> point is meaningless.
>>
>> But what’s the point then of giving those non-entry resources a URI?
>>
>> I’d argue that the definition of “entry point” depends on the client.
>> If the client never visited the blog, the index is the only entry point.
>> If it has, then other entry points come available.
>
> Yep - any URI can be an entry point if the client wants to.
>
> Some URIs make better ones than others, of course.
>
> Bute surely, any product-URI at Amazon is as good to enter a purchase as is the Amazon homepage.
>

Yes there is a lot of bookmarking on the human web, and lots of entry
points. Humans also happen to be naturally very good at dealing with
failure so the risks are far lower in a web app than in an 'API' since
the odds of recovery are higher i.e. this is more of a concern when
the consumers of your app are automatons.

Saying something in your API is bookmarkable makes it an entry point,
and brings a cost. If you decide that cost is worth it for a
particular set of resources that is absolutely fine, and for some
applications it might be decided that is a majority of the resources..
but that doesn't mean that all resources in every API should be
bookmarkable, it depends on the API and what you are trying to
achieve.

Cheers,
M


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