[lmm]

This kind of thing is why I'm predicting a return to WS-*, or else a reimplementation of it on top of REST. The XML backlash was mostly correct but having a standard, well-specified way of creating HTTP APIs and generating clients for them from a single endpoint is a baby we threw out with the bathwater.

[msgilligan]

The horribly-named HATEOAS is one possible solution: http://timelessrepo.com/haters-gonna-hateoas

[lmm]

Maybe, if the library support is there. Right now HATEOAS seems to mean replacing your domain-specific action tags with boilerplatey <link rel=...> and not a lot else.

[dragonwriter]

Yes, if HATEOAS were actually done, all you'd need to do is have libraries for handling the content types used in the API, and with a suitable generic client library everything else would come for free.

But virtually no one does that with their APIs, and virtually no one builds client libraries on the assumption that services will do that, so there's something of a chicken-and-egg problem.