LID REST

From lid.netmesh.org

One can say without exaggeration that the Web would not have been possible without the brilliance of the REST architectural principles. (If you are new to REST and have any interest in software architecture, we recommend you read up on it; it is definitely worth your while).

LID wasn't consciously designed to be REST-ful; however, we (the LID authors) must have eaten the REST dogfood for such a long time that LID intuitively became very REST-ful all by itself. Here are some of LID's REST-related architectural principles:

• the identifiers for LID digital identities are URLs.
• LID Relying Parties are individual URLs. While it is often convenient, from an implementation perspective, to implement entire authentication realms that include many URLs on the same server, LID is perfectly suited to implement a policy of one LID Relying Party per URL.
• URLs, in a LID context, are nouns, not verbs (as they would be in a SOAP web services context).

LID, with its Yadis foundation, the LID SSO Profile, the LID 2.0 Format Negotiation Service, the LID 2.0 Traversal Service and others goes somewhat beyond REST, however as it introduces additional conventions that allow to build higher-level functionality and information representation. None of this is conflict with REST, however; LID might offer some capabilities that may extend REST for many other useful applications ...