Why does MarshalToJSONWithURLs only add links for relationships?

[grounded042]

The JSON API format says that a top-level document may contain a links object. However, in api2go when you call MarshalToJSONWithURLs it only adds links to relationships. Could we get links for other objects as well?

[wwwdata]

Hi,
a top level links object is currently used if you use our rest api and not the marshaller standalone. We have another ticket for links here #99

What other links apart from self do you have in mind? Or do you want a more generic feature which allows to add any link you like?

[grounded042]

I'm just using the standalone marshaller. What I was looking for was the self, and also the pagination links. I see that you have implemented them outside of the marshaller.

For now I'm making do by calling jsonapi.Marshal and then adding on a map[string]string to links off the object that is returned.

[wwwdata]

The reason for pagination to be implemented in the routing/api layer was that we wanted to make it as simple as possible.

I think for the standalone marshaller it would be the best if there is an interface for toplevel links too. So you just have to implement a method that returns a map[string]string. Or what do you think?

[grounded042]

Having to implement a method that returns a map[string]string sounds good. The only example In the JSON API format that would not work with that is

"links": {
  "related": {
    "href": "http://example.com/articles/1/comments",
    "meta": {
      "count": 10
    }
  }
}

But 1) I do not think that's a very common occurrence, and 2) I'm not sure if that's a top-level links object.

[wwwdata]

I am thinking about a good solution for this. It is very easy to achieve a toplevel links or toplevel meta object that is included in the marshaled result. For that you just call Marshal which gives you a map[string]interface{} and in that, you can set everything additional that you want.

So for the top level case, what would be best to have?

• A Method that you can call that sets stuff into the map[string]interface[}?
• An additional interface that the Marshal function would check for and if it finds it, also marshal meta or links top level objects?

And then there are relationships which can also have a meta object.

For example here:

// ...
{
    "type": "articles",
    "id": "1",
    "attributes": {
        "title": "Rails is Omakase"
    },
    "relationships": {
        "author": {
            "links": {
                "self": "/articles/1/relationships/author",
                "related": "/articles/1/author"
            },
            "meta": {
                "foo": "bar"
            },
            "data": {
                "type": "people",
                "id": "9"
            }
        }
    }
}
// ...

This is also allowed, see: http://jsonapi.org/format/#document-resource-object-relationships and we currently do not support it. I guess for this, a method (interface) that you have to implement would be best so the marshaler generated everything correctly.

[wwwdata]

for the relationship stuff: we could put it into Reference https://github.com/manyminds/api2go/blob/master/jsonapi/marshal.go#L32

type Reference struct {
    Type        string
    Name        string
    Meta        map[string]interface{}
    IsNotLoaded bool
}

[derekspelledcorrectly]

I'm having the same issue as well. The concept of links is not limited by the spec to just "self", "related", and pagination, and it would be really useful to be able to include arbitrary domain-specific links, particularly on resources. The Twitch API for example has a number of arbitrary links fields.

[derekspelledcorrectly]

Sorry, just realizing I misunderstood the initial issue. I could file this as a separate request, but it broadly seems like links could be improved to be more flexible.

[sharpner]

hi! please open up another ticket, that would make things easier for us

[wwwdata]

why another ticket i don't get it he means the same right? to just add meta stuff into relationships

[derekspelledcorrectly]

No, I'm talking specifically about allowing arbitrary keys and values in the links objects, which have nothing to do with relationships. The current implementation really only allows for links to contain self and related as far as I can tell, but the spec doesn't restrict links to these two concepts. I will open another ticket.

[derekspelledcorrectly]

You're talking about a meta field; I am talking about the links field.

[derekspelledcorrectly]

e.g. this should be possible

"author": {
    "links": {
        "self": "/articles/1/relationships/author",
        "related": "/articles/1/author",
        "arbitrarylink": "/some/other/resource",
    }
}