# Non JSONAPI-compliant and download urls

**URL:** <https://discuss.jsonapi.org/t/non-jsonapi-compliant-and-download-urls/248>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [December 7, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/t/non-jsonapi-compliant-and-download-urls/248 "2015-12-07T16:31:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![groyoh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.jsonapi.org/groyoh/32/156_2.png) [@groyoh](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/u/groyoh)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/t/non-jsonapi-compliant-and-download-urls/248/1 "2015-12-07T16:31:18Z")

</div>

Hey guys!

I would like to have a clarification on how/where should be serialized urls that are not compliant to JSONAPI (legacy APIs) or download urls.

This is from the spec:

> Links  
> Where specified, a links member can be used to represent links.

The spec is not very clear as to what a “link” is or should be and if other keys than `self` and `related` are allowed. So I could not figure out if it is allowed to add these urls as a custom `link` as follow:

```json
{
  "data":{
    "id": "1",
    "type": "user",
    "links": {
      "my_old_api_url": "http://www.example.com/old_api/user/1",
      "profile_picture": "http://www.example.com/pictures/100"
    }
  }  
}

```

I would be really thankful if you could clarify this as for now we serialize these urls within the `meta` objects but would rather do it in `links` if that’s allowed.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ethanresnick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/45deac/32.png) [@ethanresnick](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/u/ethanresnick)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://discuss.jsonapi.org/t/non-jsonapi-compliant-and-download-urls/248/2 "2015-12-15T00:37:42Z")

</div>

Hey @groyoh,

Sorry for the delayed response.

For now, `"meta"` is your best bet. In the future, you’ll be able to use `"links"` to include custom links, but that isn’t supported just yet.
