Polydata takes its name from the idea of multiple hierarchies or “poly-archical” structure of related bits of data. In a hierarchical data structure, information can be nested. In a polyarchy, information can be located in multiple hierarchies, in other words, a multidimensional data structure.

This Polydata library defines a domain specific language (DSL) to implement a query-like RESTful api to data residing on a server. Authentication uses the requesting party’s private key to encrypt (not sign) a timestamp. The server and client have public and private key pairs residing on the server. The public keys are discoverable via XRI resolution.

A polydata request is in the form of Endpoint/Authority/Type[/Action/[Requester]].

• Endpoint is generally a web application available at an https url.

• Authority can be an XRI Canonical Id or Iname.

• Type, Query and Action implement the DSL.

• Type can be anything the server and client agree on. The only implementation

extant plays fast and loose with XRIs as described here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XRI

• Query also implements the DSL. See github.com/mmell/polydata/blob/master/lib/polydata/type_segment.rb

• Action is $get or $post with an optional minor action.

• Requester, like Authority, can be an XRI Canonical Id or Iname.

Include the TaskScheduler gem in your Rails application Gemfile:

gem 'polydata'

The Polydata server has not been released.