http://norman.walsh.name/2005/02/21/witw-landmarks 8 28 2005-02-21T15:06:27-05:00 $Date: 2005-09-11 10:27:02 -0400 (Sun, 11 Sep 2005) $ Norman Walsh 2005 Norman Walsh Keeping track of landmarks. William Shakespeare And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. Instead of working on WSDL, which would arguably have been more informative, I've done something fun instead. Registered users can now supply a collection of landmarks. These landmarks will be used (aggregated with other users') in displaying the set of landmarks that are “nearby” for each user. What's more, I think I have a properly RESTful interface to the landmarks data. The landmarks URI is http://norman.walsh.name/2005/02/witw/ami/landmarks. Note that this URI is in the authentication realm for registered users. Performing an HTTP GET on the landmarks URI will return the landmark data for the authenticated user. The resulting data will be valid according to the landmarks schema. Performing an HTTP POST on the landmarks URI will update the set of landmarks. The posted document must be valid according to the landmarks schema. The landmarks provided will be added to the existing collection. If one of the posted landmarks has the same name as an existing landmark, the existing landmark will be replaced by the posted one. Performing an HTTP PUT on the landmarks URI will replace the set of landmarks. The replacement document must be valid according to the landmarks schema.

I don't know if this is a clever trick or an awful hack, but if you GET the landmarks URI with a browser that accepts the application/xhtml+xml media type and understands client-side XSL stylesheets, the transformed result of the landmarks data will include a form. If you complete that form and submit it, you will effectively POST a single landmark to your collection. That means that you don't need to figure out how to POST or PUT data to the landmarks URI in order to add some landmarks.