An overview of the new REST APIs added in the 5.2 release.

1. 5.2 REST APIs
Tech Talk Live
8th February 2017
Gavin Cornwell (@gcornwell), Software Architect

2. Agenda
• REST API Recap
• Documentation
• What’s New
• Enhanced APIs
• Demo
• What’s Coming
• Questions
Agenda

3. REST API Recap

4. REST API Recap
• Not that new ;-)
• v1 “Public” API first added back in 4.2!
• “v1” naming introduced in 5.1
• Next slide shows how to identify a v1 API
• Framework built on top of webscript engine
• Set of internal RESTful guidelines
• Versioned API
• Consistent URLs, parameters & responses
• Proper use of HTTP status codes
• The API for all new clients
Recap

5. URL Structure
…/-default-/public/alfresco/versions/1/sites/{id}/members
Recap
Scope API Name Version Entity RelationshipTenant

6. Documentation

7. API Explorer
• http://api-explorer.alfresco.com
• https://github.com/Alfresco/rest-
api-explorer
• http://artificats.alfresco.com
– GAV: org.alfresco.api-explorer
(5.2.e/5.2.0)
• Source of truth
• Generate client side binding
7

8. Blog Post Series
• http://community.alfresco.com
• Postman collections
• 7 so far, more planned:
– Sites
– Search
– People
– Discovery
– Trashcan
– Permissions & Groups
8

9. New APIs

10. What’s New
• 56 new endpoints!
• Framework enhancements
– fields query parameter
– include query parameter (API specific)
– Operations
• Authentication API
• Discovery API
• Search API
New

11. URL Structure - Operation
…/-default-/public/alfresco/versions/1/nodes/{id}/copy
New
Scope API Name Version Entity OperationTenant

12. Core API
• /nodes/{nodeId}
– Navigation
– Content
– Information
– Associations
– Copy, Move, Lock
• /nodes/{nodeId}/renditions
• /nodes/{nodeId}/versions
New

13. Core API
• /deleted-nodes
• /queries
– Simple pre-canned queries designed for “live” search
– /nodes
– /people
– /sites
• /shared-links
– /shared-links/{sharedId}/email
– Expiration
New

14. Authentication
• /alfresco/api/-default-/public/authentication/versions/1/tickets
– Login
– Logout
– Validate
New

15. Discovery
• /alfresco/api/discovery
– Version information
– License information (Enterprise only)
– Status
• isReadOnly
• isQuickSharedEnabled
• …
– Installed modules
New

16. Search
• /alfresco/api/-default-/public/search/versions/1/search
– Low level search API (effectively exposes Java API)
– AFTS, CMIS, Lucene support
– Faceting
– Spellcheck
– Term highlighting
– Search nodes, versions or deleted-nodes
New

17. Enhanced APIs

18. Enhanced APIs
• /sites
– Create site (no custom preset support yet)
– Update site details
– Delete site
• /people
– List people (no filtering)
– Create person
– Update person
• Enable/Disable (admin only)
Enhanced

19. Demo

20. Postman Collection
• https://www.getpostman.com/collections/e28cf833734602fb4609
• File -> Import -> Import From Link
Demo

21. What’s Coming

22. Coming in 5.2.1
• Groups
• Downloads
• Audit
• Repository Actions
• Enhancements
– Avatar support for person
– Retrieve content & renditions of deleted nodes
– relativePath property for nodes
– score property for /queries/nodes (EA feedback)
Coming

23. Questions

24. Why is the API Explorer released separately?
• We wanted something for 4.2 -> 5.1
• Allowed us to get api-explorer.alfresco.com launched quickly
• Fix spec issues without requiring a product release
• API first approach, not generated
• Weren’t sure if embedding was the best way forward
– Now realised it is!
– Re-use of common models
– Dynamic based on installed modules
Questions

25. What about CMIS?
• Not going anywhere
• Still fully supported
• Great option for homogeneous environments
• We didn’t want to force people to learn/handle two APIs
• Performance first approach
Questions

26. Where’s the AMP?
• Not just a thin layer
• Core services were changed to support requirements
– NodeService
• Canned queries
– LockService
– QuickShareService
• Overriding core services in an AMP is a bad idea!!
Questions

27. Can we extend the API?
• Yes and No
– New APIs can be added using @annotations
– No official extension points
• Consistent, stable, documented, upgrade proof API
• Hopefully flexible enough for most requirements
– If not, please let us know!!
• You can still use webscripts and mimic v1 structure
– /search API is implemented this way
– Extract helpers to aid in building responses
Questions

28. Are you going to expose other services?
• Definitely!
• 5.2.1 should add groups, audit, actions
• 6.0 will add many more
• Again, feedback more than welcome!
Questions

29. Any live questions?
Questions