Hypermedia Object Notation

Hypermedia API standards implemented in JSON, like HAL, are cumbersome and difficult for humans to read. Hypermedia Object Notation, or HON, adds a light-weight attribute list to JSON keys that support URL, pagination, and relationship metadata while preserving the readability and implicit data structures that make JSON great.

{
  name: "Todo List",
  items(href: '/lists/1203/items', next_href: "/lists/1203/items?page=2"): [
    item(href: '/items/1'): {
      description: "Pick up pizza",
      status: "completed"
    },
    item(href: '/items/12'): {
      description: "Eat pizza",
      status: "non_started"
    }
  ]
}

A major shortcoming of HON is that its not valid JavaScript, which means new parsers would need to be implemented to read this new format.

Intrigued? Leave your thoughts or ideas in my HON gist or fork it with different use cases.