Re: What is the correct media-type for a Hydra specification?

On 4/14/15 4:00 AM, Ruben Verborgh wrote:
> Dear all,
>
>> >i am guessing it's two worlds colliding. the REST community typically likes specific media types, so that resources explicitly surface the models that they represent. it makes resources self-describing*through their media type*.
>> >
>> >RDF, on the other hand, typically only exposes its metamodel and uses the media type for serialization variants, assuming that saying "it's RDF" is good enough. this makes resources self-describing*once you process them*.
> I couldn't agree more with the above.
>
> I think it's very important that for all of the specifications in the Hydra Community Group
> that are meant to create specific documents,
> which is currently the Hydra Core Vocabulary and Triple Pattern Fragments,
> we do_not_  define new MIME types.
> RDF already has several MIME types, one for each concrete syntax, and that's enough.
>
> RDF documents are self-describing so there is no need.
> Additionally, specific MIME types corrupt the goal of Hydra:
> it seems a contradiction that generic clients need specific document types.
> The Hydra Core Vocabulary provides generic hypermedia controls;
> we don't see specific media types for different HTML documents either.
>
> Note that this is explicitly mentioned in the TPF spec:
>
>>> >>The server must, however, support at least one RDF-based representation.
>>> >>Servers must indicate the corresponding MIME type when responding
>>> >>with a Triple Pattern Fragment, so clients can correctly parse it.
> —http://www.hydra-cg.com/spec/latest/triple-pattern-fragments/#definition
>
> So no specific document types.

Amen to that too!

>
> I like the idea of profiles however; would be good to have those.
> To what extent ishttps://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6906  sufficiently mature?

Yes, it is an acceptable bridge mechanism that can aid bridging this 
artificial REST vs RDF chasm.

-- 
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Kingsley Idehen	
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