Rails core - Jun 2006 - Hard Question - ActiveRecord Adapter for a REST service

Hi,

So I''ve been lurking a while, and trying to figure out a hard problem
that I have.

In short, I want to bind an ActiveRecord adapter to a REST service, and
be able to perform the basic CRUD actions via the REST interface.
No schema changes/migrations, just slinging data.

Each REST base URI would be provide a single AR model, which can then be
integrated with the rest of the consumer application in the usual AR
fashion (validations, associations).

I asked in #rubyonrails on Freenode, and somebody there was certain that
he''d seen a prototype demo done by David last week, but wasn''t
certain
if it was what I was looking for. If it is, there''s no mention of it I
find on Google, beyond the ActiveSalesforce SOAP->AR adapter. If
it''s
not, well I guess it''s somewhere that needs the expansion still.

I''ve got the problem figured into two conceptual parts
1. REST consumer module.
2. AR specialization of abstract_controller to hook up the REST consumer.

The consumer module would have to support multiple variations on REST
ideally, but should start with supporting Simply RESTful.

(The paragraph below references this page:
http://microformats.org/wiki/rest/rails)

One issue I''m still stuck with is how to have the REST service declare
what it''s schema is. The most obvious solution to this so far is an
additional URL method /items/schema that spits out an XML Schema (or
another description, based on respond_to?) for the model to be used
remotely. However I think violates some of the principles of REST.

Questions/comments/suggestions/existing implementations?

I''m especially interested in comments about having a non-SQL adapter
that can''t change the DB schema at all.

-- 
Robin Hugh Johnson
E-Mail     : robbat2@gentoo.org
GnuPG FP   : 11AC BA4F 4778 E3F6 E4ED  F38E B27B 944E 3488 4E85


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Hi Robin,

You might want to ask on microformats-rest, as we have a lot of Rails  
gurus there:

http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-rest
http://microformats.org/wiki/rest

Best,
-- Ernie P.

On Jun 21, 2006, at 3:12 AM, Robin H. Johnson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> So I''ve been lurking a while, and trying to figure out a hard
problem
> that I have.
>
> In short, I want to bind an ActiveRecord adapter to a REST service,  
> and
> be able to perform the basic CRUD actions via the REST interface.
> No schema changes/migrations, just slinging data.
>
> Each REST base URI would be provide a single AR model, which can  
> then be
> integrated with the rest of the consumer application in the usual AR
> fashion (validations, associations).
>
> I asked in #rubyonrails on Freenode, and somebody there was certain  
> that
> he''d seen a prototype demo done by David last week, but
wasn''t certain
> if it was what I was looking for. If it is, there''s no mention of
it I
> find on Google, beyond the ActiveSalesforce SOAP->AR adapter. If
it''s
> not, well I guess it''s somewhere that needs the expansion still.
>
> I''ve got the problem figured into two conceptual parts
> 1. REST consumer module.
> 2. AR specialization of abstract_controller to hook up the REST  
> consumer.
>
> The consumer module would have to support multiple variations on REST
> ideally, but should start with supporting Simply RESTful.
>
> (The paragraph below references this page:
> http://microformats.org/wiki/rest/rails)
>
> One issue I''m still stuck with is how to have the REST service
declare
> what it''s schema is. The most obvious solution to this so far is
an
> additional URL method /items/schema that spits out an XML Schema (or
> another description, based on respond_to?) for the model to be used
> remotely. However I think violates some of the principles of REST.
>
> Questions/comments/suggestions/existing implementations?
>
> I''m especially interested in comments about having a non-SQL
adapter
> that can''t change the DB schema at all.
>
> -- 
> Robin Hugh Johnson
> E-Mail     : robbat2@gentoo.org
> GnuPG FP   : 11AC BA4F 4778 E3F6 E4ED  F38E B27B 944E 3488 4E85
> _______________________________________________
> Rails-core mailing list
> Rails-core@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails-core

On 6/21/06, Robin H. Johnson <robbat2@gentoo.org>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> So I''ve been lurking a while, and trying to figure out a hard
problem
> that I have.
>
> In short, I want to bind an ActiveRecord adapter to a REST service, and
> be able to perform the basic CRUD actions via the REST interface.
> No schema changes/migrations, just slinging data.
Look at ActiveResource, announced at RailsConf.  It''s not finished,
but I think it''s what you''re looking for.


-- 
Rick Olson
http://techno-weenie.net