[Pulp-dev] Pulp 3 REST API Challenges

[Brian Bouterse]

These are good problem statements. I didn't understand all of the aspects
of it, so I put some inline questions.

My overall question is: are these related problems? To share my answer to
this, I believe the first two problems are related and the third is
separate. The classic divide and conquor approach we could use here is to
confirm that the problems are unrelated and focus on resolving one of them
first.


On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 3:18 PM, Austin Macdonald <austin at redhat.com> wrote:

> Folks,
>
> Austin, Dennis, and Milan have identified the following issues with
> current Pulp3 REST API design:
>
>    - Action endpoints are problematic.
>    - Example POST@/importers/<plugin>/sync/
>       - They are non-RESTful and would make client code tightly coupled
>       with the server code.
>       - These endpoints are inconsistent with the other parts of the REST
>       API.
>
> Is self-consistency really a goal? I think it's a placeholder for
consistency for REST since the "rest" of the API is RESTful. After reading
parts of Roy Fielding's writeup of the definition of REST I believe "action
endpoints are not RESTful" to be a true statement. Maybe "Action endpoints
are problematic" should be replaced with "Action endpoints are not RESTful"
perhaps and have the self-consistency bullet removed?

>
>    - DRF is not being used as intended for action endpoints so we have to
>       implement extra code. (against the grain)
>
> I don't know much about this. Where is the extra code?


>
>    - We don't have a convention for where plug-in-specific, custom
>    repository version creation endpoints.
>    - example POST@/api/v3/<where?>/docker/add/
>       - needs to be discoverable through the schema
>
> What does discoverable via the schema ^ mean? Aren't all urls listed in
the schema?

I think of ^ problem somewhat differently. Yes all urls need to be
discoverable (a REST property), but isn't it more of an issue that the urls
which produce repo versions can't be identified distinctly from any other
plugin-contributed url? To paraphrase this perspective: making a repo
version is strewn about throughout the API in random places which is a bad
user experience. Is that what is motivation url discovery?


>
>    - For direct repository version creation, plugins are not involved.
>    - validation correctness problem: https://pulp.plan.io/issues/3541
>       - example: POST@/api/v3/repositories/<repository_id>/versions/
>
> I agree with this problem statement. In terms of scope it affects some
plugin writers but not all.


> We would like to get feedback on these issues being sound and worth
> resolving before we resume particular solution discussion[1].
>
> Thanks,
> Austin, Dennis, and Milan
>
> [1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/pulp-dev/2018-March/msg00066.html
>
>
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>
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