diff --git a/api-rest.md b/api-rest.md index ef9bfc6..05fe867 100644 --- a/api-rest.md +++ b/api-rest.md @@ -58,80 +58,53 @@ HTTP/1.1 200 OK "780" . ``` -#### Globbing (inlining on GET) +#### Globbing (concatenate RDF files in a container on GET) -We have found that in some cases, using the existing LDP features was not -enough. For instance, to optimize certain applications we needed to aggregate -all RDF resources from a container and retrieve them with a single GET -operation. We implemented this feature on the servers and decided to call it -"globbing". Similar to [UNIX shell -glob](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glob_(programming)), doing a GET on any URI -which ends with a `*` will return an aggregate view of all the resources that -match the indicated pattern. +To optimize certain applications, +you can aggregate all RDF resources within a container +and retrieve them with a single `GET` operation. +We refer to this feature as _globbing_, +since it provides a subset of the functionality +offered by the [UNIX shell glob](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glob_(programming)). +Performing a `GET` on a URL ending in `/*` +will return an aggregate view of all RDF resources of the corresponding container. -For example, let's assume that `/data/res1` and `/data/res2` are two resources -containing one triple each, which defines their type as follows: +For example, consider a container `/data` that contains the following files: +- `file1.ttl` +- `file2.ttl` +- `res3.txt` -For *res1*: +Let's assume that `/data/file1.ttl` and `/data/file2.ttl` +contain one triple each: ```ttl -<> a . + a . ``` -For *res2*: - ```ttl -<> a . -``` - -If one would like to fetch all resources of a container beginning with `res` -(e.g. `/data/res1`, `/data/res2`) in one request, they could do a GET on -`/data/res*` as follows. - -REQUEST: - -```http -GET /data/res* HTTP/1.1 -Host: example.org + a . ``` -RESPONSE: - -```http -HTTP/1.1 200 OK -``` -```ttl - - a . - - - a . -``` - -Alternatively, one could ask the server to inline *all* resources of a -container, which includes the triples corresponding to the container itself: - -REQUEST: +Then a request to `/data/*` +will return the union of the datasets in `file1.ttl` and `file2.ttl`: ```http GET /data/* HTTP/1.1 Host: example.org ``` -RESPONSE: - ```http HTTP/1.1 200 OK ``` ```ttl <> a ; - , . + , . - + a . - + a . ```