# Clarification on relationship links for resources which belong to other resources **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [April 18, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/t/clarification-on-relationship-links-for-resources-which-belong-to-other-resources/433 "2016-04-18T21:30:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![backus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.jsonapi.org/backus/32/267_2.png) [@backus](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/u/backus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/t/clarification-on-relationship-links-for-resources-which-belong-to-other-resources/433/1 "2016-04-18T21:30:47Z")
Say I have an `Article` resource. An `Article` has many `Comment` resources. ```http GET /articles/1 Accept: application/vnd.api+json { "data": { "type": "articles", "id": "1", "attributes": { "title": "Clarification on relationship links for resources which belong to other resources" }, "relationships": { "comments": { "links": { "self": "http://example.com/articles/1/relationships/comments", "related": "http://example.com/articles/1/comments" }, "data": [ { "type": "comments", "id": "5" }, { "type": "comments", "id": "12" } ] } } } } ``` If I can access a `Comment` via `GET http://example.com/articles/1/comments/5` should that return a relationship for the `Article` which owns the comment? ```http GET http://example.com/articles/1/comments/5 Accept: application/vnd.api+json { "data": { "type": "comments", "id": "5", "attributes": { "body": "Did you read the spec?" }, "relationships": { "article": { "links": { "self": "http://example.com/articles/1/comments/12/relationships/article", "related": "http://example.com/articles/1" }, "data": { "type": "articles", "id": "1" } } } } } ``` Also, should `relationships.article.links.self` be another relationships endpoint specific for the comment like I included? Or alternatively should there not be a relationships URL in this case? Sorry if this is obvious but I’m struggling to glean a clear answer to this from the spec. ---
**Author:** ![maark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.jsonapi.org/maark/32/184_2.png) [@maark](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/u/maark)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/t/clarification-on-relationship-links-for-resources-which-belong-to-other-resources/433/2 "2016-04-21T19:10:37Z")
Your example says `GET http://example.com/articles/1/comments/5`, but the body is wrong. The resource object is not inside a `data` top-level member and the ID is 12, not 5 like in the URL. I don’t know if `GET http://example.com/articles/1/comments/5` can be valid. I’ll let someone else comment on that. I’m pretty sure your `self` link `http://example.com/articles/1/comments/12/relationships/article` is wrong. It should be `http://example.com/comments/12/relationships/article`. Your `related` link is also wrong. It should be `http://example.com/comments/12/article`. ---
**Author:** ![backus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.jsonapi.org/backus/32/267_2.png) [@backus](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/u/backus)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/t/clarification-on-relationship-links-for-resources-which-belong-to-other-resources/433/3 "2016-04-21T22:09:31Z")
@maark thank you for responding. I fixed the example JSON thanks for pointing that out > I don’t know if `GET http://example.com/articles/1/comments/5` can be valid. I’ll let someone else comment on that. I’d be quite surprised if it is illegal (or even discouraged) in JSON API to have nested routes. Saying that everything is important enough to warrant a top level route seems very presumptuous. > It should be `http://example.com/comments/12/relationships/article`. Ok but what if I don’t want comments to be a top level route? ---
**Author:** ![maark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.jsonapi.org/maark/32/184_2.png) [@maark](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/u/maark)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/t/clarification-on-relationship-links-for-resources-which-belong-to-other-resources/433/4 "2016-04-21T23:30:56Z")
Ok, I think I understand your idea better now. But I think I should let someone with more experience answer the question. I’ll stick around because I’m interested in the answer. My guess is that while the specification doesn’t explicitly prevent you from doing this, it seems to go against the spirit of the specification. Most clients might not be able to handle such cases. ---
**Author:** ![dnperfors](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.jsonapi.org/dnperfors/32/135_2.png) [@dnperfors](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/u/dnperfors)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 8:05am UTC](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/t/clarification-on-relationship-links-for-resources-which-belong-to-other-resources/433/5 "2016-08-05T08:05:37Z")
The request `GET http://example.com/articles/1/comments/5` is probably allowed, but to me, the more interesting question is what the `5` means, is it the ID of the resource, or is it the index of the related document? (in your example that would return a 404, since you only have 2 comments) In either case I would expect that the relationships from the comment will look like: `http://example.com/comments/5/relationships/article`, otherwise you could end up with urls like `http://example.com/articles/1/comments/5/article/comments/12/article/comments/5/article/comments/12/article` (or even bigger if you want).