rest(n) 					       A framework for RESTful web services						   rest(n)

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NAME

       rest - define REST web APIs and call them inline or asychronously

SYNOPSIS

       package require Tcl  8.5

       package require rest  ?1.0?

       ::rest::simple url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::get url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::post url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::head url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::put url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::delete url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::save name file

       ::rest::describe name

       ::rest::parameters url ?args?

       ::rest::parse_opts static required optional string

       ::rest::substitute string ?var?

       ::rest::create_interface name

       describe

       uplevel token token

       upvar body body

       uplevel token token

       uplevel token token

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DESCRIPTION

       There  are  2  types  of usage this package supports: simple calls, and complete interfaces. In an interface you specify a set of rules and
       then the package builds commands which correspond to the REST methods. These commands can have many options such as input and output trans-
       formations  and data type specific formatting. This results in a cleaner and simpler script. On the other hand, a simple call is easier and
       quicker to implement but less featureful. It takes the url and a few options on the command and returns the result directly. Any formatting
       or  checking  is  up  to  rest  of  the script.	Simple usage In simple usage you make calls using http method procedures and then check or
       process the returned data yourself

       ::rest::simple url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::get url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::post url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::head url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::put url query ?config? ?body?

       ::rest::delete url query ?config? ?body?

       The above commands are all equivalent except for the http method used. If you use simple then the method should be specified as	an  option
       in the ?config? dict, otherwise it defaults to get. If a body is needed then the config dict must be present, however it may be empty.

	   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]

	   set res [rest::simple http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json  [list status $text]  {
		 method post
		 auth {basic user password}
		 format json
	       }
	   ]

       the  options  supported	in the config dict are as follows headers cookie auth format method content-type Interface usage An interface to a
       REST API consists of a series of definitions of REST calls contained in an array. The array name becomes a namespace containing the defined
       commands.  Each	array  element	defines the name of the call and takes the form of a dict, aka key/value pairs. These keys are the defined
       configuration options below.  After creating the definitions simply call rest::create_interface on the array to create the commands.

       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]

       ::${name}::basic_auth u p ::${name}::set_static_args ?args?]

       ::rest::save name file
	      saves a copy of the dynamically created procs to a file for later loading

       ::rest::describe name
	      print a description of defined api calls

       ::rest::parameters url ?args?
	      parse a url query string into a dict

       ::rest::parse_opts static required optional string

       ::rest::substitute string ?var?
	      take a string and substitute real values for any option identifiers

       ::rest::create_interface name
	      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.  url the target of the http request description a string which describes the call. used only for

       describe
	      body  indicates  if  arguments  are  required  for  the  request body or not. should be one of none, optional, required, argument or
	      mime_multipart. default is optional.  if argument is used then the option is parsed as a list where the second value is the name	of
	      a  option.  the  body  will then be used as the value for that option.  if the value is mime_multipart then the body is required and
	      interpreted as each argument representing one part of a mime multipart document. each argument should be a  2  item  list  with  the
	      first being a list of header keys and values, and the second being the mime part body.

	      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

	      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]

	      method  The HTTP method to call on the url. The default is GET.  copy this copies the definition of a previously defined call. after
	      copying you can override selected options by defining them again.  unset removes the named option. useful when using copy of another
	      definition.   headers  the value must be another dict containing header fields and their values. The default is to not add any addi-
	      tional headers.  content-type Specifies the content type for the request data.  req_args a list of  the  required  arguments.  names
	      ending  in  a  colon will require a value.  opt_args arguments that may be present but are not required.	static_args arguments that
	      are always the same. no sense in troubling the user with these. A leading - is allowed but not required to maintain consistancy with
	      the command line.  auth should be one of basic or sign. if basic is used you can configure basic auth with the proc auth_basic which
	      takes 2 arguments, the username and password.  if sign is specified then the value must be a list with the second element being  the
	      name of a proc which will be called to perform the request signing.

	      set delicious(updated) {
		  url https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/update
		  auth basic
	      }

	      rest::create_interface flickr

	      flickr::basic_auth username password

	      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
	      }

	      callback	If this option is present then the method will be created as an async call. An async call will return immediately with the
	      value of the http token. The event loop must be active to use this option. The value of this option is the name of a proc  which	is
	      invoked  when  the  HTTP	call  is complete. The proc receives three arguments, the name of the calling procedure, the status of the
	      result (one of OK or ERROR), and the data associated with the result.  the http request header is available via

       uplevel token token
	      cookie a list of cookies to be passed in the http header. this is just a shortcut to the	headers  option  input_transform  commands
	      which  take the variable $query and transform it in some manner before returning a new value. return value must be a dict which will
	      be passed to http::formatQuery the request body is accessible via

       upvar body body
	      format or result defines the format of the returned data. should be one of discard, raw, json, xml, or tdom.  the  default  is  auto
	      which should auto detect between xml and json. rss is formated as a special case of xml.	pre_transform this value takes the form of
	      a proc which should perform some action on $result and return a value. it is run on the  result  before  the  output  (xml/json/etc)
	      transformation is done.  the http request header is available via

       uplevel token token
	      result  may  have the value xml, json, tdom, raw, or auto. the default is auto and should auto detect json or xml results and trans-
	      form them into a tcl list. this is here if you want to specify it explicitly.  post_transform this value takes the form  of  a  proc
	      which  should  perform some action on $result and return a value. it is run on the result after the output transformation but before
	      returning the value to the calling procedure.  the http request header is available via

       uplevel token token
	      check_result this value should be a list of 2 expressions either of which may be empty. the first expression is checks the OK condi-
	      tion, it must return true when the result is satisfactory. the second expression is the error condition, it must return false unless
	      there is an error.

INCLUDED

       functional but incomplete implementations are included for the following services: flickr twitter yahoo boss yahoo weather google  calendar
       facebook del.icio.us read the file or source it and use describe for more information. also see the developers documentation on the respec-
       tive sites.

rest									1.0								   rest(n)