Use of OpenSearch for search capabilities in the hData RESTful API

[Gregorowicz, Andrew J.]

All,

Several different people have approached me asking if hData has the ability to search within sections when using the RESTful API. Providing this sort of search at a generic level can be tricky due to the fact that sections can have different kinds of content depending on what extension they register with (essentially what content profile they conform to). 

I was wondering how people would feel about using OpenSearch (http://www.opensearch.org) to solve this problem. I was thinking that we could take advantage of the autodiscovery mechanism (http://www.opensearch.org/Specifications/OpenSearch/1.1#Autodiscovery_in_RSS.2FAtom) in the Atom feeds we provide for sections. That way, implementers of the RESTful API could put links into the Atom feed that will resolve to an OpenSearch description document. Some hData Content Profiles may even decide to make specific description documents part of their content profile.

Thoughts?

~Andy