View Descriptor Protocol (VDP)

View Descriptor Protocol (VDP) is a protocol for server-driven template binding across web, mobile, and desktop platforms. A JSON descriptor tells any client (Android, iOS, Browser, Desktop) which templates to use for which data, using slots and template URIs.

Note: This repository also contains archived content from RVST (Representational View State Transfer), VDP's predecessor. RVST schemas are in schemas/ and old examples in examples/example-*.json. The VDP specification, schema, and examples supersede RVST.

VDP Specification

• Spec: view-descriptor-protocol.md
• Schema: vdp.v0-1.schema.json
• Examples: examples/vdp-*.json

Getting Started

This repository serves as the working draft for the VDP specification. It includes the JSON Schema and example payloads which you can use as a basis for your integration tests.

Key Concepts

VDP descriptors declare:

• A template URI pointing to the UI template to render
• Slots that map named insertion points to nested view descriptors (or arrays of descriptors)
• Transport via inline _view/_views (HAL-compatible) or HTTP Link headers (RFC 8288)

Templates handle all data binding (Qute, JSONPath, HTMT, etc.) — VDP only says which templates to use, not how to bind data.

For archived RVST concepts, see docs/archive/concepts-and-principles.md.

Archived RVST Content

The original RVST standard is preserved in:

• schemas/ — RVST JSON schemas (v1, v1-1, v1-2)
• examples/example-*.json — RVST example payloads
• examples/rvst-hal-draft.json — unfinished draft of a HAL-based RVST variant (not schema-validated)
• docs/archive/ — RVST documentation and diagrams

Contributing

We encourage contributions from the community! Please read our CONTRIBUTING guidelines to learn how you can help improve VDP.

License

View Descriptor Protocol (VDP) is released under the MIT License. For more details, see the LICENSE file.