Waka is an application protocol intended as "a binary, token-based replacement for HTTP." It is "designed to match the efficiency of the REST

Representational State Transfer

Representational state transfer is a style of software architecture for distributed hypermedia systems such as the World Wide Web. The term representational state transfer was introduced and defined in 2000 by Roy Fielding in his doctoral dissertation...

 architectural style."

History

Waka was conceived by Roy Fielding

Roy Fielding

Roy Thomas Fielding is an American computer scientist, one of the principal authors of the HTTP specification, an authority on computer network architecture and co-founder of the Apache HTTP Server project....

, known for defining the REST

Representational State Transfer

Representational state transfer is a style of software architecture for distributed hypermedia systems such as the World Wide Web. The term representational state transfer was introduced and defined in 2000 by Roy Fielding in his doctoral dissertation...

 architectural pattern, and described in a 2002 ApacheCon presentation. It is still under development.
As of August 2006, waka was "all done in my head, it's not on paper though. ... I'm almost to the point where I can make it an open project."

Distinctives

Some of waka's features include:

• New request semantics (new methods for monitoring and authoring resources)
• Self-descriptive (explicit type, scope, binding of response to request)
• Allow unsolicited responses
• Uniform syntax regardless of type and direction
• Extensible via URIs
• Client-side macros

The waka protocol is named after a type of Maori canoe

Waka (canoe)

Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes up to long...

.

External links

• WS-Transfer, WAKA and the Web