I think if there's one thing I'd say to #ActivityPub developers, it's this: it seems like it's going to be easier to just parse Activity Streams 2.0 data as plain JSON, but it's not.

I think if there's one thing I'd say to #ActivityPub developers, it's this: it seems like it's going to be easier to just parse Activity Streams 2.0 data as plain JSON, but it's not. You have to keep track of too many variations. Use a JSON-LD library instead. For JavaScript, try activitystrea.ms:

GitHub - jasnell/activitystrea.ms: Activity Streams 2.0 for Node.js (this package is not actively maintained, if you'd like to help, let me know)

Activity Streams 2.0 for Node.js (this package is not actively maintained, if you'd like to help, let me know) - jasnell/activitystrea.ms

GitHub (github.com)

@evan i would add that there are several other more actively maintained options, at least: https://json-ld.org/#developers

in the most basic case, expanding the document should make it unambiguous:

- all keys are normalized to full identifiers with exactly 1 possible representation instead of infinitely many
- all values are normalized to JSON
arrays of JSON objects
- those JSON objects explicitly say whether they have an id (Reference) or a value (Literal)

@trwnh "more actively maintained"?

The code is long-term but it was built by one author of AS2 and maintained by the other. It works well, and I use it in production systems all the time.

I'm pretty sure @hongminhee has made a similar package, although I'm not sure it's distributed independently.

@evan@cosocial.ca @trwnh@mastodon.social I'm maintaining the @fedify/vocab package which depends on the jsonld package from Digital Bazaar. It's written in 100% TypeScript, and has worked well on production services!

@hongminhee Thanks for doing it!

@evan @trwnh @hongminhee I think he was referring to the GitHub project description: "Activity Streams 2.0 for Node.js (this package is not actively maintained..."

@steve@social.technoetic.com @trwnh@mastodon.social we shouldn't stop using software just because they're no longer maintained.

I believe request is no longer maintained, in favour of native node fetch, but good god would you look at those downloads.

@julian @trwnh Your point isn't clear to me. Of course, people are free to use unmaintained software (even if I personally prefer to avoid software that's been deprecated and not maintained for years). However, in this case, the activitystrea.ms software *is* maintained although it describes itself otherwise.

@steve @trwnh @hongminhee ha! That was the notice that got me to become a maintainer. But I don't have the admin rights to change it!

@jasnell can you give admin rights on the activitystrea.ms repo so I can change the message and also push automatically?