HAL links of embedded resources not consistent with standard representation

[bendavies]

Considering using the demo app: https://github.com/api-platform/demo

Modifying the Book Entity so Reviews are embedded.
A review looks like:

{
    "_links": {
        "book": {
            "href": "/books/3"
        },
        "self": {
            "href": "/reviews/275"
        }
    },
    "author": "Herbert Reinger I",
    "body": "Voluptas hic ipsum cumque aliquid. Vero iusto sit atque hic non voluptate dignissimos velit. In reprehenderit accusamus cum porro. Doloremque eligendi architecto quia omnis eaque vel officiis.",
    "id": 275,
    "publicationDate": "1970-07-11T14:10:52+00:00",
    "rating": 5
}

A book (with embedded review) looks like this:

{
    "_embedded": {
        "reviews": [
            {
                "_links": {
                    "self": {
                        "href": "/reviews/275"
                    }
                },
                "author": "Herbert Reinger I",
                "body": "Voluptas hic ipsum cumque aliquid. Vero iusto sit atque hic non voluptate dignissimos velit. In reprehenderit accusamus cum porro. Doloremque eligendi architecto quia omnis eaque vel officiis.",
                "id": 275,
                "publicationDate": "1970-07-11T14:10:52+00:00",
                "rating": 5
            }
        ]
    },
    "_links": {
        "reviews": [
            {
                "href": "/reviews/275"
            }
        ],
        "self": {
            "href": "/books/3"
        }
    },
    "author": "Prof. Joelle Doyle",
    "description": "Cupiditate quae ut sit illo. Accusamus ex voluptatem et eveniet nemo voluptatibus necessitatibus. Veniam odit ducimus consequuntur voluptatem id quod pariatur distinctio.",
    "id": 3,
    "isbn": "9783899289190",
    "publicationDate": "1996-01-02T00:00:00+00:00",
    "title": "Excepturi quo dolor et officiis minima et consequatur earum."
}

Note that the embedded Review does not have a book in its _links.
How can the embedded representation be made to match the non embedded?
I.e they both should have book link. the representation must be consistent.

Thanks

[Simperfit]

What is the output that you would like to see @bendavies ?

[bendavies]

@Simperfit

I.e they both should have book link. the representation must be consistent.

{
    "_embedded": {
        "reviews": [
            {
                "_links": {
                    "book": {
                        "href": "/books/3"
                    },
                    "self": {
                        "href": "/reviews/275"
                    }
                },
                "author": "Herbert Reinger I",
                "body": "Voluptas hic ipsum cumque aliquid. Vero iusto sit atque hic non voluptate dignissimos velit. In reprehenderit accusamus cum porro. Doloremque eligendi architecto quia omnis eaque vel officiis.",
                "id": 275,
                "publicationDate": "1970-07-11T14:10:52+00:00",
                "rating": 5
            }
        ]
    },
    "_links": {
        "reviews": [
            {
                "href": "/reviews/275"
            }
        ],
        "self": {
            "href": "/books/3"
        }
    },
    "author": "Prof. Joelle Doyle",
    "description": "Cupiditate quae ut sit illo. Accusamus ex voluptatem et eveniet nemo voluptatibus necessitatibus. Veniam odit ducimus consequuntur voluptatem id quod pariatur distinctio.",
    "id": 3,
    "isbn": "9783899289190",
    "publicationDate": "1996-01-02T00:00:00+00:00",
    "title": "Excepturi quo dolor et officiis minima et consequatur earum."
}

[bendavies]

@soyuka any comment? Can you see my point?

[soyuka]

@bendavies I'm really not familiar with HAL, and we should check the specs about that.

If specs are representing data like you said, we can easily add this here.

[bendavies]

I'm unsure about the specs either, but i would imagine that consistency of _links is a good thing, whether items are embedded or not (at level N or at level 0 (root))

[Simperfit]

I think we are following the specs, I have to take a look before doing anything.

[bendavies]

@Simperfit i think the key part is this:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-kelly-json-hal-08#section-4.1.2

Embedded Resources MAY be a full, partial, or inconsistent version of
the representation served from the target URI.

So it seems api-platform does follow the spec, but it would be good to have a way of configuring when specific _links appear, either when the item is embedded, and/or if it is the main serialized resource

[soyuka]

So it seems api-platform does follow the spec, but it would be good to have a way of configuring when specific _links appear, either when the item is embedded, and/or if it is the main serialized resource

Yes but this improvement is allowed by the spec! This example correctly adds the _links for _embedded no?

[bendavies]

Indeed, but i meant it would be good if api-platform allowed configuring this, not the spec :)

[Simperfit]

Yeah I guess we could add them ;) so if someone wants / has the time to do it :)

[soyuka]

@bendavies wdyt we add the links without additional configuration?