WAKA: A Little REST and Relaxation in November?

If there's one reason to go to ApacheCon 07 in Atlanta, then it's probably Roy T. Fielding's "A Little REST and Relaxation". Here is the abstract:

Representational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style that I developed while improving the core Web protocols (URI, HTTP, and HTML) and leading them through the IETF standardization process. I later described REST as the primary example in my dissertation. Since then, REST has been used (and sometimes abused) by many people throughout the world as a source of guidance for Web application design. But is the REST that we hear about today the same as what I defined in my dissertation, or has it taken on the baggage that comes with an industry buzzword? This talk will provide a real introduction to REST and the design goals behind its evolution as the Web's arhitectural style. This is not about XML-over-HTTP as an alternative to SOAP, nor about "resource-oriented" frameworks that help simplify CRUD operations, but rather about the design goals and trade-offs that influence the development of network-based applications. I will also describe what happens when we relax some of the REST constraints, and how such relaxation is impacting the design of the waka protocol as a replacement for HTTP.

Now all I have to do is find an excuse for my boss... :)

There isn't a whole lot of information available  on WAKA (that replacement for HTTP Roy mentions in the end of the abstract). Below are a few links I managed to find:

• Roy's 2002 presentation on REST and WAKA (ppt).
• A blog post from Feb. 2007 by Robert O'Brien that talks a little about the new semantics offered by WAKA (such as MONITOR to get notifications if the resource changes)
• A podcast by Jon Udell interviewing Roy T. Fielding (from Aug 2006)
• A blog post by Mark Nottingham briefly contrasting WS-Transfer and WAKA (March 2006)

And there's a few others but not as interesting (to me anyway). Well, as we see this WAKA thing is in the works for a long time now. Also replacing something as ubiquiteus as HTTP is not a small feat. But I guess if anyone can pull this off it would be Roy... As always, only time will tell.

Posted by Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz at 08:55 AM  Permalink