Lingwo.ws

Lingwo.ws: Now without the delusions of grandeur!

I'm in the middle of an intense refactor of the Python implementation of Lingwo.ws.  Its mainly based on experience I had using the Perl port at work (oh yeah, over the summer, I ported it to Perl so we could use it at work).

Since I've began this project, I've learned alot about REST and building APIs.  One of the main things I've discovered is that I'm not the only one working on this.  Not by a long shot.

Here are just a handful of other REST + JSON specification in the works:

Lingwo.ws with Pylons

This is a short addendum to part 1 of my Lingwo.ws tutorial.

Aaron wanted to know how to run Lingwo.ws on WebFaction.  In talking to him later, it turns out he wants to use it inside of a Pylons application.  I have just the code for him!  I'm using Lingwo.ws inside of Lingwo.flashcards which is built on Pylons.

So, quickly, some background: when you create a Pylons application, you end up with a small library of code named like your application.  For example, in Lingwo.flashcards, that app is actually called "lingwo_flashcards".  Anyway, all your code goes in there.  For the rest of this example, we'll pretend that our application is named "myapp", ok?

First, you need to make a function creating your service with all its containers.  We'll put this in myapp/lib/api.py:

from myapp.server import *

Lingwo.ws tutorial, part 1: Creating a service

This is the first part in a four part series on Lingwo.ws.  In this part, we will:

  • Install the reference implementation.
  • Create a simple example service.
  • Use "curl" to experiment using the service.

What is Lingwo.ws?

Lingwo.ws is an open specification for a way to design RESTful web services.  I've described earlier why this is desirable, but to summarize:

  • Shared expectations: RESTful web services can be just about anything, so long as they follow a few design principles.  So, when someone says a service is RESTful, you will still need to read its documentation and learn how specifically that service works.  If a service conforms to Lingwo.ws, however, this means it conforms to a specific design.
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