[mjallday]

Like steveklabnik mentioned, take a look at the Balanced API, here's an example you can run yourself using a test marketplace:

    curl https://api.balancedpayments.com/v1/marketplaces/TEST-MP6IEymJ6ynwnSoqJQnUTacN -u 7b7a51ccb10c11e19c0a026ba7e239a9:

To keep this thread free of tons of code samples I've included the result @ https://gist.github.com/4350290

You can see in our python client how we then parse - https://github.com/balanced/balanced-python/blob/master/bala... - the result of this which then consumes these URIs and turns them into dynamic resources attached to whatever object you're looking at.

This means you can do this:

    debit = balanced.Debit.find(uri)
    debit.account.cards.all()  # get a list of all cards associated with the account that created this debit

And the client does not have to know anything about the fact that debits have an account property, or that accounts have a cards resource underneath them.

[mahmoudimus]

I think we should probably write about https://github.com/bninja/wac and how our Balanced Python client influences it. Gone are the days when your internal services need to sync on some kind of schema.

We make changes to our internal services all the time and HATEOAS allows us to ensure our services are properly functioning without breaking contractual API obligations.

I can see why most developers resist the urge to try hypermedia APIs and it's honestly because the tooling to build services and clients just aren't there.

This is why I'm a big fan of the https://github.com/rails-api/rails-api project. It's essentially accepting this deficiency, has some brilliant minds behind it and as a consequence, I'm sure the tooling to be built around it will be amazing; it's definitely one to follow.

Some more resources:

* https://github.com/rails-api/rails-api

* http://django-rest-framework.org/