Abstract
It is generally understood that, in the REST architectural style, “hypermedia is the engine of application state” (Fielding 2000). But what does that really mean? What is hypermedia? Can it be identified within a resource representation? How can hypermedia be the “engine of application state?”
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
The words “hypertext”, “hyperdata” and “hypermedia” all have seen active use; sometimes to mean different things. In this chapter, the word “hypermedia” indicates the general concept of links that provide ‘jumps’ or branches in text or any visual display. Therefore, throughout the rest of this chapter “hypermedia” will be used exclusively.
- 2.
It should be noted that these are not the only media types that warrant hypermedia analysis. They are also not selected here as excellent examples of Hypermedia Types, but merely as familiar media types worthy of review.
- 3.
While it is true that media types such as XML and JSON allow designers to define link and control elements using the basic elements of that media type, this does not qualify as providing native support for H-Factors.
- 4.
At the time of this writing, the PHACTOR media type has been submitted to the IANA Media Type registry with the application/vnd.phactor+xml MIME type identifier.
References
Bray, Tim, Ed. et al., Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition), http://www.w3.org/TR/xml/ (2008)
Bush, Vannevar, As We May Think, Atlanic Magazine, July 1945
Conklin, Jeff, Hypertext: An Introduction and Survey in IEEE Computer, 20(9), 17–41, September 1987
Crockford, Douglas, The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4627 (2006)
Dahlstrm, Erik, et al., Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition), http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/ (2011)
Engelbart, Douglas, Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework, October 1962
Engelbart, Douglas, The Demo, http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html (1968)
Fielding, Roy Thomas, Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Irvine, 2000
Fielding, Roy Thomas, REST APIs must be Hypertext-driven, http://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-hypertext-drivencomment-718 (2008)
Fielding, Roy Thomas, Ed. et al., Hypertext Transfer Protocol – HTTP/1.1, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616 (1999)
Gregorio, J., Ed. et al., URI Template, http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-gregorio-uritemplate-04 (2010)
Gregorio, J., Ed. et al., The Atom Publishing Protocol, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5023 (2007)
IANA Protocol Registries, Link Relations, http://www.iana.org/assignments/link-relations/ (2011)
van Kesteren, Anne, XMLHttpRequest, http://www.w3.org/TR/XMLHttpRequest/ (2010)
Marsh, Jonathan, et al., XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 (Second Edition), http://www.w3.org/TR/xinclude/ (2006)
Mealling, M. et al., URI Resolution Services Necessary for URN Resolution, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2483 (1999)
Nelson, Theodor H., Literary Machines. Swarthmore, Pa.: Self-published (1974)
Nottingham, M., Web Linking, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5988 (2010)
Nottingham, M., Ed. et al., The Atom Syndication Format, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4287 (2005)
Raggett, Dave, Ed. et al., HTML 4.01 Specification, http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/ (1999)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Amundsen, M. (2011). Hypermedia Types. In: Wilde, E., Pautasso, C. (eds) REST: From Research to Practice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8303-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8303-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-8302-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-8303-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)