Additional functionality for Vanilla API?

zakaluka

Hello,

I'm very new to Vanilla but was attracted to it due to the possibility of a baked-in web services API (http://vanillaforums.org/docs/api). However, this API seems to be for read-only access to the data. Are there any plans to extend the API to allow modification of discussions, user data, etc.? Even if the API will not go all the way to being fully RESTful, just a basic CRUD interface for the main elements (users, categories, discussions, posts) would be great.

EDIT: If there are no current plans for this, can you point me in the right direction to put that functionality in myself?

Thanks,

z.

x00

This a basic idea just messing around as a plugin:

$PluginInfo['ExtendAPI'] = array(
   'Name' => 'ExtendAPI',
   'Description' => "ExtendAPI",
   'Version' => '0.1',
   'Author' => 'me'
);

if (!function_exists('unserialize_xml')) {
	function unserialize_xml($input, $callback = null, $recurse = false){
	    // Get input, loading an xml string with simplexml if its the top level of recursion
	    $data = ((!$recurse) && is_string($input))? simplexml_load_string($input): $input;
	    // Convert SimpleXMLElements to array
	    if ($data instanceof SimpleXMLElement) $data = (array) $data;
	    // Recurse into arrays
	    if (is_array($data)) foreach ($data as &$item) $item = unserialize_xml($item, $callback, true);
	    // Run callback and return
	    return (!is_array($data) && is_callable($callback))? call_user_func($callback, $data): $data;
	}
}

class ExtendAPI extends Gdn_Plugin {
	
	public function PostController_Render_Before(&$Sender){
		if(in_array($Sender->DeliveryMethod(),array(DELIVERY_METHOD_JSON,DELIVERY_METHOD_XML))){
			if ($Sender->Request->RequestMethod()== 'POST') {
				$RawContent = file_get_contents("php://input");
				if($Sender->DeliveryMethod()==DELIVERY_METHOD_JSON){
					$Data = json_decode($RawContent); 
				}elseif($Sender->DeliveryMethod()==DELIVERY_METHOD_XML){
					//dependent on some basic xml parser in this case using SimpleXML.
					$Data =  unserialize_xml($RawContent); 
					
				}
			
				foreach($Data As $NodeName => $NodeValue ){
					SetValue( $Sender->Form->InputPrefix.'/'.($NodeName=='TransKey'?'TransientKey':$NodeName),$_POST,$NodeValue);
				}
		
				 if ($Sender->Form->AuthenticatedPostBack() === TRUE) {
					var_dump($Sender->Form);
					//TO DO validation, save, draft, etc.
					//TO DO output succes/fail, etc
				 }
			}else if ($Sender->Request->RequestMethod() == 'GET') {
				$Sender->SetData(array('DiscussionID'=>'','Name'=>'','Body'=>'','CategoryID'=>'','Close'=>'','Save_Draft'=>''));
				$Sender->SetData('TransKey',Gdn::Session()->TransientKey());//'TransientKey' is strippped out so use 'TransKey'
				$Sender->SetData('RequiredFields',array('Name','Body','CategoryID'));
				
			}
		}
	
	}	

}

Todd

We have tentative, but not firm plans to add POST access to the API. The two things that I want to do to get that in is:

a) Default the Gdn_Form->InputPrefix = '' so that API calls can pass parameters in a straightforward manner. This has been done on a branch, but needs testing with javascript and css and whatnot to make sure it works.

b) Provide an oauth 2.0 endpoint so that users can sign in to the forum through the API. If you want to hack an access_token query string I'd tie into Gdn_Dispatcher_BeforeDispatch_Handler and start a session based on what is passed into that query string parameter.

x00

It is not the best or complete anything, just shows the basic principles. When you move it in the post controller, you are going to have to do it in the discussion and comment methods, look in them for help, and probably a lot of the functionality will be shared, so you can move it into methods.

I don't have time to continue right, but take the baton.

Todd

Nice start @x00. As an fyi: If you have a block of code you want to display then use pre tags instead of code tags.

x00

@Todd I gather. incidentally why is <code> styled as if it is inline. <code> is the correct tag for pre-formated code (splitting hairs)

x00

I should add a requirement is some basic XML parser like SimpleXML, and perhaps some out of the box alternative could be a stand in.

Todd

In standard html code is an inline tag while pre is a block tag. This is standard html. We find it useful to have both be valid and like the border and different background styling.

I suppose we can add a rule for code cascading inside a pre tag for those that are being truly semantically correct.

x00

my bad it is a phrase element according to web standards.

zakaluka

Todd, x00,

Thank you both very much for your help. I've taken the basic plugin you wrote and am working with it. Since I barely know any PHP, it's going to be very interesting. I'll post back once I have better results.

Regards,

z.