Re: OpenSearch RSS

[Robert Sayre <mint@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tim Bray wrote:
> I wonder, is embedding the OpenSearch RSS stuff in Atom going to  cause 
> any heartburn?  I'm inclined to think not, but would appreciate  others 
> having a look.

I've reviewed this stuff before, and I don't see any barriers to using
this stuff in Atom, other than the extra required elements Atom asks 
for. OTOH, the query spec

<http://opensearch.a9.com/spec/opensearchquerysyntax/1.0/>

says:

  Results

  Search results are expected to be returned in the OpenSearch RSS
  format. For search content providers that do not offer search results
  in OpenSearch RSS format, a wrapper must be authored that can perform
  the transformation.


> I get the feeling that OpenSearch + Atom could be real useful.

There is substantial overlap with Atom Protocol paging, especially
existing gregorio-07 implementations. I quite like their approach to URI
construction and their description document, which allows servers to 
place the query parameters anywhere in their URI space.

http://opensearch.a9.com/spec/opensearchdescription/1.0/

They have a read-only protocol, so they don't have to worry about the
relation of state changes to result sets, but it did give me some
simplicity envy when I first read it.

Robert Sayre