[comment {-*- tcl -*- doctools manpage}] [vset VERSION 1.5] [manpage_begin rest n [vset VERSION]] [moddesc {A framework for RESTful web services}] [titledesc {define REST web APIs and call them inline or asychronously}] [require Tcl 8.5] [require rest [opt [vset VERSION]]] [description] There are two types of usage this package supports: [term {simple calls}], and complete [term interfaces]. In an [term interface] you specify a set of rules and then the package builds the commands which correspond to the REST methods. These commands can have many options such as input and output transformations and data type specific formatting. This results in a cleaner and simpler script. On the other hand, while a [term {simple call}] is easier and quicker to implement it is also less featureful. It takes the url and a few options about the command and returns the result directly. Any formatting or checking is up to rest of the script. [section {Simple usage}] In simple usage you make calls using the http method procedures and then check or process the returned data yourself [comment {= = == === ===== ======== ============= =====================}] [comment {= = == === ===== ======== ============= =====================}] [list_begin definitions] [call [cmd ::rest::simple] [arg url] [arg query] [opt [arg config]] [opt [arg body]]] [call [cmd ::rest::get] [arg url] [arg query] [opt [arg config]] [opt [arg body]]] [call [cmd ::rest::post] [arg url] [arg query] [opt [arg config]] [opt [arg body]]] [call [cmd ::rest::patch] [arg url] [arg query] [opt [arg config]] [opt [arg body]]] [call [cmd ::rest::head] [arg url] [arg query] [opt [arg config]] [opt [arg body]]] [call [cmd ::rest::put] [arg url] [arg query] [opt [arg config]] [opt [arg body]]] [call [cmd ::rest::delete] [arg url] [arg query] [opt [arg config]] [opt [arg body]]] [para] These commands are all equivalent except for the http method used. If you use [cmd simple] then the method should be specified as an option in the [arg config] dictionary. If that is not done it defaults to [const get]. If a [arg body] is needed then the [arg config] dictionary must be present, however it is allowed to be empty. [para] The [arg config] dictionary supports the following keys [list_begin definitions] [def [const auth]] [def [const content-type]] [def [const cookie]] [def [const error-body]] [def [const format]] [def [const headers]] [def [const method]] [comment {-- TODO -- describe the meaning of the various keys -- }] [list_end] [para] Two quick examples: [para] Example 1, Yahoo Boss: [comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}][example { set appid APPID set search tcl set res [rest::get http://boss.yahooapis.com/ysearch/web/v1/$search [list appid $appid]] set res [rest::format_json $res] }][comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}] [para] Example 2, Twitter: [comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}][example { set url http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json set query [list status $text] set res [rest::simple $url $query { method post auth {basic user password} format json }] }][comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}] [list_end] [section {Interface usage}] An interface to a REST API consists of a series of definitions of REST calls contained in an array. The name of that array becomes a namespace containing the defined commands. Each key of the array specifies the name of the call, with the associated configuration a dictionary, i.e. key/value pairs. The acceptable keys, i.e. legal configuration options are described below. After creating the definitions in the array simply calling [cmd rest::create_interface] with the array as argument will then create the desired commands. [para] Example, Yahoo Weather: [comment {--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---}][example { package require rest set yweather(forecast) { url http://weather.yahooapis.com/forecastrss req_args { p: } opt_args { u: } } rest::create_interface yweather puts [yweather::forecast -p 94089] }][comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}] [comment { -- TODO -- figure out what these are ! standard methods ? ::${name}::set_static_args [opt args]] }] [comment {= = == === ===== ======== ============= =====================}] [comment {= = == === ===== ======== ============= =====================}] [list_begin definitions] [comment {= = == === ===== ======== ============= =====================}] [call [cmd ::rest::save] [arg name] [arg file]] This command saves a copy of the dynamically created procedures for all the API calls specified in the array variable [arg name] to the [arg file], for later loading. [para] The result of the command is the empty string [comment {= = == === ===== ======== ============= =====================}] [call [cmd ::rest::describe] [arg name]] This command prints a description of all API calls specified in the array variable [arg name] to the channel [const stdout]. [para] The result of the command is the empty string. [comment {= = == === ===== ======== ============= =====================}] [call [cmd ::rest::parameters] [arg url] [opt [arg key]]] This command parses an [arg url] query string into a dictionary and returns said dictionary as its result. [para] If [arg key] is specified the command will not return the entire dictionary, but only the value of that [arg key]. [comment {= = == === ===== ======== ============= =====================}] [call [cmd ::rest::parse_opts] [arg static] [arg required] [arg optional] [arg words]] This command implements a custom parserfor command options. [list_begin arguments] [arg_def dict static] A dictionary of options and their values that are always present in the output. [arg_def list required] A list of options that must be supplied by [arg words] [arg_def list optional] A list of options that may appear in the [arg words], but are not required. The elements must be in one of three forms: [list_begin definitions] [def name] The option may be present or not, no default. [def name:] When present the option requires an argument. [def name:value] When not present use [const value] as default. [list_end] [arg_def list words] The words to parse into options and values. [list_end] [para] The result of the command is a list containing two elements. The first element is a dictionary containing the parsed options and their values. The second element is a list of the remaining words. [call [cmd ::rest::substitute] [arg string] [arg var]] This command takes a [arg string], substitutes values for any option identifiers found inside and returns the modified string as its results. [para] The values to substitute are found in the variable [arg var], which is expected to contain a dictionary mapping from the option identifiers to replace to their values. [emph Note] that option identifiers which have no key in [arg var] are replaced with the empty string. [para] The option identifiers in [arg string] have to follow the syntax [const %...%] where [var ...] may contain any combination of lower-case alphanumeric characters, plus underscore, colon and dash. [comment {= = == === ===== ======== ============= =====================}] [call [cmd ::rest::create_interface] [arg name]] This command creates procedures for all the API calls specified in the array variable [arg name]. [para] The name of that array becomes a namespace containing the defined commands. Each key of the array specifies the name of the call, with the associated configuration a dictionary, i.e. key/value pairs. The legal keys and their meanings are: [list_begin definitions] [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const url]] The value of this [emph required] option must be the target of the http request. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const description]] The value of this option must be a short string describing the call. Default to the empty string, if not specified. Used only by [cmd ::rest::describe]. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const body]] The value of this option indicates if arguments are required for the call's request body or not. The acceptable values are listed below. Defaults to [const optional] if not specified. [list_begin definitions] [def [const none]] The call has no request body, none must be supplied. [def [const optional]] A request body can be supplied, but is not required. [def [const required]] A request body must be supplied. [def [const argument]] This value must be followed by the name of an option, treating the entire string as a list. The request body will be used as the value of that option. [def [const mime_multipart]] A request body must be supplied and will be interpreted as each argument representing one part of a mime/multipart document. Arguments must be lists containing 2 elements, a list of header keys and values, and the mime part body, in this order. [def [const mime_multipart/]] Same as mime_multipart, but the [const Content-Type] header is set to [const multipart/]. [list_end] [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const method]] The value of this option must be the name of the HTTP method to call on the url. Defaults to GET, if not specified. The acceptable values are [const GET], [const POST], and [const PUT], regardless of letter-case. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const copy]] When present the value of this option specifies the name of a previously defined call. The definition of that call is copied to the current call, except for the options specified by the current call itself. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const unset]] When present the value of this option contains a list of options in the current call. These options are removed from the definition. Use this after [const copy]ing an existing definition to remove options, instead of overriding their value. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const headers]] Specification of additional header fields. The value of this option must be a dictionary, interpreted to contain the new header fields and their values. The default is to not add any additional headers. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const content-type]] The value of this option specifies the content type for the request data. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const req_args]] The value of this option is a list naming the required arguments of the call. Names ending in a colon will require a value. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const opt_args]] The value of this option a list naming the arguments that may be present for a call but are not required. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const static_args]] The value of this option a list naming the arguments that are always the same. No sense in troubling the user with these. A leading dash ([const -]) is allowed but not required to maintain consistency with the command line. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const auth]] The value of this option specifies how to authenticate the calls. No authentication is done if the option is not specified. [list_begin definitions] [def [const basic]] The user may configure the [term {basic authentication}] by overriding the procedure [cmd basic_auth] in the namespace of interface. This procedure takes two arguments, the username and password, in this order. [def [const bearer]] The user may configure a bearer token as authentication. The value is the token passed to the HTTP authorization header. [def [const sign]] The value must actually be a list with the second element the name of a procedure which will be called to perform request signing. [list_end] [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const callback]] If this option is present then the method will be created as an [term async] call. Such calls will return immediately with the value of the associated http token instead of the call's result. The event loop must be active to use this option. [para] The value of this option is treated as a command prefix which is invoked when the HTTP call is complete. The prefix will receive at least two additional arguments, the name of the calling procedure and the status of the result (one of [const OK] or [const ERROR]), in this order. [para] In case of [const OK] a third argument is added, the data associated with the result. [para] If and only if the [const ERROR] is a redirection, the location redirected to will be added as argument. Further, if the configuration key [const error-body] is set to [const true] the data associated with the result will be added as argument as well. [para] The http request header will be available in that procedure via [cmd {upvar token token}]. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const cookie]] The value of this option is a list of cookies to be passed in the http header. This is a shortcut to the [const headers] option. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const input_transform]] The value of this option is a command prefix or script to perform a transformation on the query before invoking the call. A script transform is wrapped into an automatically generated internal procedure. [para] If not specified no transformation is done. [para] The command (prefix) must accept a single argument, the query (a dictionary) to transform, and must return the modified query (again as dictionary) as its result. The request body is accessible in the transform command via [cmd {upvar body body}]. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const format]] [def [const result]] The value of this option specifies the format of the returned data. Defaults to [const auto] if not specified. The acceptable values are: [list_begin definitions] [def [const auto]] Auto detect between [const xml] and [const json]. [def [const discard]] [def [const json]] [def [const raw]] [def [const rss]] This is formatted as a special case of [const xml]. [def [const tdom]] [def [const xml]] [list_end] [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const pre_transform]] The value of this option is a command prefix or script to perform a transformation on the result of a call ([emph before] the application of the output transform as per [const format]). A script transform is wrapped into an automatically generated internal procedure. [para] If not specified no transformation is done. [para] The command (prefix) must accept a single argument, the result to transform, and must return the modified result as its result. [para] The http request header is accessible in the transform command via [cmd {upvar token token}] [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const post_transform]] The value of this option is a command prefix or script to perform a transformation on the result of a call ([emph after] the application of the output transform as per [const format]). A script transform is wrapped into an automatically generated internal procedure. [para] If not specified no transformation is done. [para] The command (prefix) must accept a single argument, the result to transform, and must return the modified result as its result. [para] The http request header is accessible in the transform command via [cmd {upvar token token}] [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const check_result]] The value of this option must be list of two expressions, either of which may be empty. [para] The first expression is checks the OK condition, it must return [const true] when the result is satisfactory, and [const false] otherwise. [para] The second expression is the ERROR condition, it must return [const false] unless there is an error, then it has to return [const true]. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [def [const error_body]] The value of this option determines whether to return the response when encountering an HTTP error, or not. The default is to not return the response body on error. [para] See [const callback] above for more information. [comment @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@] [list_end] [list_end][comment {-- end of command list --}] [section Examples] [para] Yahoo Geo: [comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}][example { set ygeo(parse) { url http://wherein.yahooapis.com/v1/document method post body { arg documentContent } } ygeo::parse "san jose ca" # "san jose ca" will be interpreted as if it were specified as the -documentContent option }][comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}] [para] Google Docs: [comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}][example { set gdocs(upload) { url http://docs.google.com/feeds/default/private/full body mime_multipart } gdocs::upload [list {Content-Type application/atom+xml} $xml] [list {Content-Type image/jpeg} $filedata] }][comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}] [para] Delicious: [comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}][example { set delicious(updated) { url https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/update auth basic } rest::create_interface flickr flickr::basic_auth username password }][comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}] [para] Flickr: [comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}][example { set flickr(auth.getToken) { url http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/ req_args { api_key: secret: } auth { sign do_signature } } rest::create_interface flickr proc ::flickr::do_signature {query} { # perform some operations on the query here return $query } }][comment {--- --- --- --- -- ---- --- --- ---}] [section INCLUDED] The package provides functional but incomplete implementations for the following services: [list_begin definitions] [def [const del.icio.us]] [def [const facebook]] [def [const flickr]] [def [const twitter]] [def [const {google calendar}]] [def [const {yahoo boss}]] [def [const {yahoo weather}]] [list_end] Please either read the package's implementation, or use [cmd rest::describe] after loading it for their details. [para] Do not forget developers' documentation on the respective sites either. [section TLS] The [package rest] package can be used with [term https]-secured services, by requiring the [package TLS] package and then registering it with the [package http] package it is sitting on top of. Example [example { package require tls http::register https 443 ::tls::socket }] [include ../common-text/tls-security-notes.inc] [vset CATEGORY rest] [include ../common-text/feedback.inc] [comment { TOKENS the value is substituted into the url at call time. tokens in the form of %name:default_value% will be an optional argument with a default value. }] [manpage_end]