Things bothering me in this proposal: the need for the relation; the use of "posts/1,2,3" to represent a list of resources; the "resource template". None of these are needed with REST/Hypermedia.
I've been using djangorestframework, and one of the things that I love about it (instead of tastypie) is the "Browsable API" renderer/parser mode. It's an excellent way to see if your API makes sense: if I'm not able to discover/manipulate resources just by clicking on the links or posting forms, it is a sign that the API design is ill-conceived.
I'm sorry, I'm very confused here. Why does hypermedia let you get rid of link relations?
How is a 'resource template' different than a <form> hypermedia control in HTML?
Why does the URI format matter? It's hypermedia, that's basically irrelevant.
It seems you want a "REST"ful API, and that's great. Build that. But then why the first sentence being seemingly upset with some sort of lack of imagined hypermedia support?
I've been using djangorestframework, and one of the things that I love about it (instead of tastypie) is the "Browsable API" renderer/parser mode. It's an excellent way to see if your API makes sense: if I'm not able to discover/manipulate resources just by clicking on the links or posting forms, it is a sign that the API design is ill-conceived.