Linked resources

HTTP request and response payloads must be easy to handle when invoking URLs. This has to be true on both client and server side. Identifiers are typically used for this purpose in traditional database. This is the natural way to deal with data on server side. The same would not apply on client side. It is indeed very unpleasant for users to have to build themselves resources URLs from identifiers in order to submit HTTP requests. This is the way to deal with linked resources recommended by the Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State principle (HATEOAS). The gamification platform applies this principle and systematically returns URLs as the way to describe linked resources.