Can we simplify paths further?

[jugaadi]

Can we simplify paths with the help of nested paths especially now that paths can be referenced?

PS: This is under the assumption that majority of API users follow the below pattern:

Operation	Method	Path
Create a resource Foo	POST	/foo
Fetch Foo collection	GET	/foo
Update Foo object	PUT/PATCH	/foo/{id}
Fetch Foo object	GET	/foo/{id}
Delete Foo object	DELETE	/foo/{id}

foo:
    # primary path
    post:
    get:
    paths:
        '{id}':
            # resource object
           patch:
           delete:
           get:
           paths:
               bar:
               # related resource, etc

[ralfhandl]

I wonder how that would work if each of the nested paths has a different set of possible query options:

foo{?corge,grault}:
    post:
    get:
    paths:
        '{id}{?waldo,fred}':
            # resource object
           patch:
           delete:
           get:
           paths:
               bar{?quux}:
               # related resource, etc

How would those template snippets be combined into full URI templates for each path?

Also paths being a "flat" map of full URI templates makes processing easier, simple loop versus recursion.

[jugaadi]

Since the path parameters are overridden by the operation level parameters, we can adopt the same model here i.e child parameters will override the parent parameters.

[ralfhandl]

Since the path parameters are overridden by the operation level parameters

I think in the current Moonwalk proposal parameters at both levels are specified as JSON Schema constraints, and are evaluated in allOf fashion.

This means one cannot override path-level constraints, one can only add additional constraints on the operation level.

[ralfhandl]

I think the idea of nested paths is one way of making OpenAPI more "resource oriented", see #30.

Another way would be introduce "resource" as a concept, and relate URI templates with resources, allowing to express that both templates foo{?corge,grault} and foo/{id}{?waldo,fred} belong to the resource Foo.

That would allow retaining URI templates as instances of RFC6570 without needing rules on how to combine them from "URI template snippets".