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WWW-REST-Apid-0.07
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/ apid

NAME

apid - Generic REST API Daemon

SYNOPSIS

Usage: apid [ -c file ] [ -f ] { command }
 -c file         Specify configuration file (instead of apid.conf)
 -f              Run in the foreground (don't detach)

Possible commands are:
 start      Starts a new apid if there isn't one running already
 stop       Stops a running apid
 reload     Causes a running apid to reload it's config file.
            Starts a new one if none is running.
 restart    Stops a running apid if one is running. Starts a new one.
 check      Check the configuration file and report the daemon state
 help       Display this usage info
 version    Display the version of apid
 debug      Starts a new apid in the foreground

DESCRIPTION

apid is a generic http(s) daemon which can be used to provide a RESTful web service in front of something which isn't already web aware. If you already have some application server or website with a service running, apid is of no use for you. However, if there's some arcane, weird or just old computing system which is accessible by perl you want to make available online as a web service, then apid might be a solution.

To use apid, you have to write a perl script which maps uris to handlers, so you're totally free in what you want to achieve and how to do it.

FEATURES

  • supports http and https.

  • authentication via POST vars or basic authentication

  • decorators which you can use to enable authentication or input validation per uri.

  • automatically converts incoming data (post vars, json post or query string) to a perl structure for easy access. Handlers return perl structures which will be converted automatically to json as well.

CONFIGURATION

A config file is required for apid to work. The format is very simple, one option per line, the value separated by an equal sign. Empty lines or lines preceeded with '# are ignored.

Possible parameters:

host       = localhost
port       = 4433
map        = my.pm
apiname    = My API
apiversion = 0.0.1
sslcrt     = server.crt
sslkey     = server.key

If sslkey or sslcrt is omitted, apid will speak http, otherwise https. You can configure more aspects of ssl by using IO::Socket::SSL-new()> parameters.

MAP SCRIPT

The map script, in the config specified with the map parameter, controls the behavior of apid. In its simplest form it only contains a couple of handlers, here an example:

get '/date' => sub {
  my $date = scalar localtime();
  return { date => $date };
};

Now, start apid:

apid -c my.conf -f start

And access the api function:

% curl http://localhost:8080/date
{"date":"Wed Oct 22 20:29:50 2014"}

Can't be easier.

AUTHENTICATION

To use authentication, you have to implement a login function and you have to tell apid which kind of auth you want.

Full example:

use Authen::Simple::LDAP;

auth basic => 'my api';

implement login => sub {
  my($user, $pass) = @_;

  my $ldap = Authen::Simple::LDAP->new( 
    host    => 'ldap.company.com',
    basedn  => 'ou=People,dc=company,dc=net'
  );

  if ( $ldap->authenticate( $user, $pass ) ) {
    return 1; # ok
  }

  return 0; # fail
};

request login;
get '/date' => sub {
  my $date = scalar localtime();
  return { date => $date };
};

In this case we are using basic authentication which is backed by LDAP. If successfull, apid will return a cookie with a session id, which can be used in subsequent requests. However, with basic authentication this is optional, you may also leave the session cookie and just put the auth data into every request.

ENABLE BASIC AUTHENTICATION

auth basic => 'my api';

The second parameter to the auth decorator is the realm.

ENABLE POST/REDIRECT AUTHENTICATION

auth redirect => '/login';

The second parameter to the auth decorator is the login uri.

In this mode, an unauthenticated user is being redirected to the specified uri, where the user has to POST the username and password, which can either be posted as a JSON string or as query string. Examples:

Post auth data as JSON string:

curl -d "{\"user\":{\"me\":\"mypass\"}}" http://localhost:8080/login

Post auth data directly:

curl -d "user=me&pass=mypass" http://localhost:8080/login

It is also possible to use a query string

curl "http://localhost:8080/login?user=me&pass=mypass"

LOGIN IMPLEMENTATION

In either case, you must implement the actual login function by using the 'implement' decorator:

implement login => sub { my($user, $pass) = @_; ... };

Inside, you can use whatever you want. I'd suggest using one of the Authen::Simple submodules.

The login handler must return true to indicate authentication was successfull.

AUTHENTICATION DECORATOR

To enable authentication for a specific uri, add the following decorator in front of it:

request login;
get '/date' => sub { .. };

This has to be done for every uri handler. If you leave the decorator for a handler it can be accessed without authentication. Example:

request login;
get '/date'   => sub { .. };

get '/uptime' => sub { .. };

request login;
get '/vmstat' => sub { .. };

In this example, the uris /data and /vmstat require authentication while /uptime can be accessed by everyone.

URI MAPPING

There's only one decorator call you use to map an uri to a handler: get. Apid doesn't distinguish between POST, PUT, DELETE or GET requests. So, however the uri have been called, your handler will always be called. If you need to distinguish between the various request types, you have to do it yourself in your handler.

get '/some/uri' => sub { my $data = shift; ... return {}; };

The handler gets passed the submitted data as its first and only parameter, if present. The data is always a perl structure.

Apid expects the handler to return a perl structure as well, which will be converted to JSON and returned to the client.

There are a couple of variables which are available to each handler:

$req

This is a standard HTTP::Request object. In addition, if authentication was enabled, it contains the username of the authenticated client:

$req->{user}
$res

This is a standard HTTP::Response object. You may modify the HTTP return code or add additional headers to the response as you please.

%cfg

This is a hash containing all options of the configuration file. It has been parsed by Config::General.

INPUT VALIDATION

Apid can validate input data automatically by using Data::Validate::Struct. To enable it, use the validate decorator:

request validate => { expression => 'text' };
get '/ps/search' => sub {
  my $data = shift;
  return &ps2a($data->{expression});
};

The parameter to the decorator is the validator struct required by Data::Validate::Struct. Please refer to the documentation there for details.

If input validation fails, apid will return an error message as JSON and HTTP response code 403.

AUTOMATIC DOCUMENTATION

Usually you'll want to write the documentation for your API yourself. For the lazy ones, there's a documentation decorator, which you can use to generate it.

request doc => 'some text';
get '/some/uri' => sub { .. };

If apid encounters one or more documentation decorators it generates a documentation which is available at /doc/.

Beware, that this documentation is very basic, however it at least explains if the uri requires authentication, what kind or input it expects (if validation were enabled) and if authentication is required.

HELPFUL CURL COMMANDS FOR TESTING

auth to url with login requested:

curl -c cookies -b cookies -k -v --user USER:PASS https://localhost:4443/foo/bar

access url when auth ok:

curl -c cookies -b cookies -k -v https://localhost:4443/foo/bar

post query data:

curl -k -v -d "name=foo&year=2014" https://localhost:4443/foo/bar

post json data:

curl -k -v -d "{\"user\":{\"name\":\"foo\"}}" https://localhost:4443/foo/bar

post json file 'body.json':

curl -k -v -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @body.json https://localhost:4443/foo/bar

post data as query string:

curl -k -v -d "https://localhost:4443/foo/bar?name=hans&age=2014"

get json data:

curl -k -v -d https://localhost:4443/foo/bar

AUTHOR

T.v.Dein <tlinden@cpan.org>

BUGS

Report bugs to http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=WWW-REST-Apid

SEE ALSO

WWW::REST::Apid HTTP::Daemon HTTP::Daemon::SSL Daemon::Generic Config::General Data::Validate::Struct

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2014 by T.v.Dein <tlinden@cpan.org>. All rights reserved.

LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

VERSION

apid Version 0.07.