reference implementation
This simple implementation illustrates how to use a low-level HTTP library to provide an object-oriented interface to the 4theFile API functionality. The users of the resulting module don't need to think about REST or HTTP; their interface is practically identical to what they would see if the 4theFile Resource data was stored in a local database on their server.
If you're a perl programmer, you could use this library as is, or modify it to suit your tastes. Or you might want to use the perl implementation as a model for your own development in the language of your choice.
NAME
Lib4theFileAPI - provides a simple object-oriented interface to the
4theFile REST API as described at http://support.4thefile.com
SYNOPSIS
use Lib4theFileAPI;
my $api = Lib4theFileAPI->new(’https://4thefile.com/api_v1’,$username,$apiKey)
││ die "invalid endpoint url or credentials";
$api->test_connect or die "failed api connection with error: ".$api->response->status_line;
# list resources for collection ESuVkqZF that have tag "newtag"
my $clist = $api->collection_resource_list('ESuVkqZF',{tag=>newtag}); # returns ResourceList object
die "API access failed with status code ".$api->response->status_line unless $clist;
print "public URL for 1st resource: ",$clist->resources->[0]->resource_url,"\n";
CLASS METHODS
new(endpoint,username,apiKey);
the endpoint should not end in /. currently all resources (except /)
require username and password. the credentials supplied here will be
used in future calls
returns a new Lib4theFileAPI instance
version()
returns VERSION string for perl library
INSTANCE METHODS
response()
returns an HTTP::Response object resulting from previous API call,
especially useful if previous call returned undef indicating a
problem
test_connect()
attempts a call to the resource_list API method and returns 1 if connection was successful and valid data
received. returns undef if connection failed (use response->status_line to see the error code returned
from the http connection), or returns 0 if the connection was successful but no valid xml was returned by
the server
resource_list([$query])
returns a Lib4theFileAPI::ResourceList object for 4theFile resources
owned by username
$query is an optional hashref containing query parameters as
outlined in the API documentation. keys include page, per_page
resource($rkey)
returns Lib4theFileAPI::Resource object for resource key $rkey or
undef if none found
resource_attachment_list($rkey)
returns a Lib4thFile::AttachmentList object containing a list of attachments (if any)
for the top-level message in Resource, plus a little meta data (e.g. attach-
ment_count)
collection_resource_list($ckey,[$query])
returns a Lib4theFileAPI::ResourceList object for 4theFile resources
in Collection with key $ckey
$query is an optional hashref containing query parameters as
outlined in the API documentation. keys include page, per_page, tag, cdate
collection($ckey)
returns a Lib4theFileAPI::Collection object for collection with key
$ckey or undef
collection_list
returns an arrayref of Lib4theFileAPI::Collection objects for
collections owned by username
collection_resource($ckey,$rkey)
returns a Lib4theFileAPI::Resource object if resource $rkey exists
and is a member of collection $ckey
update_collection_resource($ckey,$rkey,[$query]);
adds resource $rkey to collection $ckey if authorized (username owns
$rkey and $ckey is public or owned by username). can also optionally
set tags on $rkey according to the tags key in optional $query
hashref.
if $rkey is already in $ckey and owned by username, updates the tags
remove_collection_resource($ckey,$rkey)
removes resource $rkey from collection $ckey if owned by username.
does not delete resource from 4theFile.