[aur-dev] various implementations of a json api query endpoint for the aur

[elij]

Greetings.

I have implemented stand-alone versions of the aur rpc interface, in 3
languages.
https://github.com/cactus/spew-ruby (ruby + sinatra)
https://github.com/cactus/spew-js (nodejs + coffee-script)
https://github.com/cactus/spew-python (python + tornado)

The ruby version is probably the most complete (and arguably my
favorite of the 3 so far), but each is a usable implementation.
The nodejs version may node be idiomatic node code, as I am still
learning my way around that ecosystem.
The python version dosen't have a good implementation of the '/search'
livesearch example endpoint, but that is just due to laziness on my
part (I could add it easily if anyone else was interested in it
besides me).

Currently all 3 versions utilize the mysql database format that the
AUR itself uses.

One nice aspect of having the rpc interface separated from the php aur
code itself are:
- less api endpoint downtime when performing maintenance on the aur
- decoupled from the aur codebase which could provide an arena for
faster development of new features for api clients
- nicer languages to work with (I am not a fan of php, due to having
used it extensively in the past ;).
- ability to have a more restful interface (utilize http response
codes: 404 for packages not found, 204 for no content, etc)
- provides ability to version the api. this would be a way to support
legacy clients for a while, after changes to the api.
  fake example: /api/v3/maint?q=bob  -> /api/v4/maintainer?q=bob

The api I have currently implemented (v2) supports _search_ and _info_
type queries.
Supporting _maintainer_ queries would be very easy to add to any of
the implementations.
The v2 interface is slightly different than the current rpc interface
(more resftul, supports conditional get support for clients that can
cache and perform conditional get requests -- to reduce bandwidth,
etc).

If there is any interest in utilizing any of the versions listed for
Arch, I would be glad to continue working on the codebase and clean up
any rough edges and add the maintainer feature. Creating an AUR query
interface is one of the projects I use when learning a new language,
so even if no version ever gets used for anything, I do not consider
it a waste of my time -- so don't be concerned that I will feel bad if
the answer is 'no'.

Thanks.