[Owncloud] ownCloud API

[Tom Needham]

On 26 Jun 2012, at 16:06, Michael Gapczynski wrote:

> We've briefly discussed the implementation of a REST API for ownCloud, but 
> haven't formed any distinct plans for it. I believe we need to set something 
> in place now so developers can start using it and have some nice 
> desktop and mobile integration for the next release. Besides desktop and 
> mobile clients, two Google Summer of Code students also require an API to 
> complete their projects.
> 
> What we need is a REST API that can handle user authentication and ownCloud 
> instance to instance communication. My idea is that the API is defined by the 
> apps, in which they register actions and requests for the API to listen to. 
> The API will handle the authentication and pass on the actions and requests 
> back to the apps. To ensure a stable API, I believe that actions and requests 
> should be defined in appinfo/info.xml and registered when the app is enabled. 
> 
> An example of an action to revert a file back to a previous version:
> 
> files_versions/appinfo/info.xml:
> <api>
> 	<action>
> 		<name>revert</name>
> 		<parameter>
> 			<type>string</type>
> 			<name>file</name>
> 		</parameter>
> 		<parameter>
> 			<type>int</type>
> 			<name>revision</name>
> 		</parameter>
> 		<class>OCA_Versions</class>
> 		<function>rollback</function>
> 	</action>
> </api>
> 
> The call to the action by a client using the API:
> POST API/action/revert/ 
> file:test.txt
> revision:1340670981

Should we include the app name in the url, for example, POST API/files_versions/action/revert. Otherwise, what happens if two apps register the same action? Or is it your intention that we do auth with OAuth and so the API will know what app is communicating with it?

> 
> 
> An example of a request to retrieve the recent versions of a file:
> 
> files_versions/appinfo/info.xml:
> <api>
> 	<request>
> 		<name>versions</name>
> 		<parameter>
> 			<type>string</type>
> 			<name>file</name>
> 		</parameter>
> 		<class>OCA_Versions</class>
> 		<function>getVersions</function>
> 	</request>
> </api>
> 
> The call to the request by a client using the API:
> GET API/request/versions?file=test.txt
Likewise for this URL obviously.
> 
> Returns XML or JSON
> 
> 
> The API would also need to handle returning the proper http status codes and 
> converting the data into XML or JSON.
> 
> Our options are to create a REST API as part of remote.php (or a different 
> location such as api.php) that can handle authentication of users or extend 
> the Open Collaboration Services (OCS) API written by Frank. I'm thinking that 
> we shouldn't go through OCS in order to avoid confusion about what the API 
> actually is. 
Yes I'd say api.php would be most logical and least confusing.
> 
> Please share your thoughts.
> 
> 
> Michael
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