JSON Hypermedia Api with forms and links

Question

I am in the early stages of planning a REST api, and I would like for it to adhere to the HATEOAS constraint of REST. But I would also like to provide a JSON format. So my q

Answer 1

The JSON Schema standard (particularly "hyper-schemas") definitely allows this. You reference a JSON (Hyper-)Schema (using HTTP headers) and the schema defines rules on how to interpret your data as hyper-text.

The information for constructing your links can be anywhere. The hyper-schema documents how to assemble link URIs from the data (it can be a template), and they also specify HTTP method, encoding type, and so on.

To get form functionality: you can specify a full schema for the data to be submitted along with the request. Required/optional properties, array length constraints, whatever.

As a demo, here's part of a walkthrough for a JavaScript library that understands hyper-schemas and can present an appropriate form for links: jsonary.com.