Changing the representation to be more consistent in key naming (breaking change). Also starting work on the ability to "enrich" a representation with e.g. more links to other resources, etc...

spring-data-rest-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/rest/core/LinkAware.java

@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+package org.springframework.data.rest.core;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonProperty;
+import org.springframework.util.Assert;
+
+/**
+ * @author Jon Brisbin
+ */
+public abstract class LinkAware<T extends LinkAware<? super T>> {
+
+  @JsonProperty("links")
+  protected List<Link> links = new ArrayList<Link>();
+
+  public List<Link> getLinks() {
+    return links;
+  }
+
+  @SuppressWarnings({"unchecked"})
+  public T setLinks(List<Link> links) {
+    if(null == links) {
+      this.links = Collections.emptyList();
+    } else {
+      this.links = links;
+    }
+    return (T)this;
+  }
+
+  @SuppressWarnings({"unchecked"})
+  public T addLink(Link link) {
+    Assert.notNull(link, "Link cannot be null!");
+    links.add(link);
+    return (T)this;
+  }
+
+}

spring-data-rest-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/rest/core/Links.java

@@ -3,8 +3,6 @@ package org.springframework.data.rest.core;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 
-import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonProperty;
-
 /**
  * @author Jon Brisbin <jbrisbin@vmware.com>
  */
@@ -17,7 +15,6 @@ public class Links {
     return this;
   }
 
-  @JsonProperty("_links")
   public List<Link> getLinks() {
     return this.links;
   }

spring-data-rest-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/rest/core/MapResource.java

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+package org.springframework.data.rest.core;
+
+import java.util.Map;
+
+import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonAnyGetter;
+import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonIgnore;
+
+/**
+ * Abstraction that represents a Map-like REST resource plus a set of links.
+ *
+ * @author Jon Brisbin
+ */
+public class MapResource extends Resource<Map<String, Object>> {
+
+  public MapResource() {
+  }
+
+  public MapResource(Map<String, Object> resource) {
+    this.resource = resource;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  @JsonIgnore
+  public Map<String, Object> getResource() {
+    return resource;
+  }
+
+  @JsonAnyGetter
+  public Map<String, Object> any() {
+    return resource;
+  }
+
+}

spring-data-rest-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/rest/core/PostProcessor.java

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+package org.springframework.data.rest.core;
+
+/**
+ * Implementations of this interface will post-process objects to mutate them in ways meaningful to the context in
+ * which they are called.
+ *
+ * @author Jon Brisbin
+ */
+public interface PostProcessor<T> {
+
+  /**
+   * Possibly perform some mutation on the object as a post-processing step in a flow.
+   *
+   * @param obj
+   */
+  T postProcess(T obj);
+
+}

spring-data-rest-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/rest/core/Resolver.java

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+package org.springframework.data.rest.core;
+
+import java.net.URI;
+
+/**
+ * Implementations of this interface are responsible for turning {@link URI}s into real objects.
+ *
+ * @author Jon Brisbin
+ */
+public interface Resolver<T> {
+
+  /**
+   * Take a {@link URI} and resolve it to an actual object.
+   *
+   * @param baseUri
+   *     The base URI that this resource is relative to.
+   * @param uri
+   *     The URI id of the resource.
+   *
+   * @return The resolved object or {@literal null} if not found.
+   */
+  T resolve(URI baseUri, URI uri);
+
+}

spring-data-rest-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/rest/core/Resource.java

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+package org.springframework.data.rest.core;
+
+import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonPropertyOrder;
+import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonUnwrapped;
+
+/**
+ * Wraps a simple object or a bean plus a set of links.
+ *
+ * @author Jon Brisbin
+ */
+public class Resource<T> extends LinkAware<Resource<T>> {
+
+  @JsonUnwrapped
+  protected T resource;
+
+  public Resource() {
+  }
+
+  public Resource(T resource) {
+    this.resource = resource;
+  }
+
+  public T getResource() {
+    return resource;
+  }
+
+  public void setResource(T resource) {
+    this.resource = resource;
+  }
+
+}

spring-data-rest-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/rest/core/Resources.java

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+package org.springframework.data.rest.core;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonProperty;
+
+/**
+ * Abstraction for representing resources to the user agent.
+ *
+ * @author Jon Brisbin
+ */
+@SuppressWarnings({"unchecked"})
+public class Resources extends LinkAware<Resources> {
+
+  @JsonProperty("content")
+  protected List<Resource<?>> resources = new ArrayList<Resource<?>>();
+
+  public List getResources() {
+    return resources;
+  }
+
+  public Resources setResources(List resources) {
+    if(null == resources) {
+      this.resources = Collections.emptyList();
+    } else {
+      this.resources = resources;
+    }
+    return this;
+  }
+
+  public Resources addResource(Resource<?> resource) {
+    resources.add((null == resource ? new Resource<Object>() : resource));
+    return this;
+  }
+
+}