Making an API Request
This section describes the structure of a Representational State Transfer (REST) API request, and uses the Identity and Access Management (IAM) API for obtaining a user token as an example to demonstrate how to call an API. The obtained token can then be used to authenticate the calling of other APIs.
Request URI
A request URI is in the following format:
{URI-scheme} :// {Endpoint} / {resource-path} ? {query-string}
Although a request URI is included in the request header, most programming languages or frameworks require the request URI to be transmitted separately.
- URI-scheme:
Protocol used to transmit requests. All APIs use HTTPS.
- Endpoint:
Domain name or IP address of the server bearing the REST service endpoint. The endpoint varies depending on the service and service region.
For example, the endpoint of IAM in the CN North-Beijing1 region is iam.cn-north-1.myhuaweicloud.com.
- resource-path:
Resource path, that is, API access path. Obtain the path from the URI of an API. For example, the resource-path of the API used to obtain a user token is /v3/auth/tokens.
- query-string:
Query parameter, which is optional. Not all APIs have a query parameter. Ensure that a question mark (?) is included before each query parameter that is in the format of Parameter name=Parameter value. For example, ?limit=10 indicates that a maximum of 10 data records will be displayed.
For example, to obtain an IAM token in the CN North-Beijing1 region, obtain the endpoint of IAM (iam.cn-north-1.myhuaweicloud.com) for this region and the resource-path (/v3/auth/tokens) in the URI of the API used to obtain a user token. Then, construct the URI as follows:
https://iam.cn-north-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3/auth/tokens
To simplify the URI display in this document, each API is provided only with a resource-path and a request method. The URI-scheme of all APIs is HTTPS, and the endpoints of all APIs in the same region are identical.
Request Methods
The HTTP protocol defines the following request methods that can be used to send a request to the server:
- GET: requests the server to return specified resources.
- PUT: requests the server to update specified resources.
- POST: requests the server to add resources or perform special operations.
- DELETE: requests the server to delete specified resources, for example, an object.
- HEAD: same as GET except that the server must return only the response header.
- PATCH: requests the server to update partial content of a specified resource. If the resource does not exist, a new resource can be created using the PATCH method.
For example, in the case of the API used to obtain a user token, the request method is POST. The request is as follows:
POST https://iam.cn-north-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3/auth/tokens
Request Header
You can also add additional header fields to a request, such as the fields required by a specified URI or HTTP method. For example, to request for the authentication information, add Content-Type, which specifies the request body type.
Common request header fields are as follows:
- Content-Type: specifies the request body type or format. This field is mandatory and its default value is application/json. Other values of this field will be provided for specific APIs if any.
- X-Auth-Token: specifies a user token only for token-based API authentication. User token is a response to the API for obtaining a user token (only this API does not require authentication).
In addition to supporting token-based authentication, APIs also support authentication using access key ID/secret access key (AK/SK). During AK/SK-based authentication, an SDK is used to sign the request, and the Authorization (signature information) and X-Sdk-Date (time when the request is sent) header fields are automatically added to the request.
The API used to obtain a user token does not require authentication. Therefore, only the Content-Type field needs to be added to requests for calling the API. An example of such requests is as follows:
POST https://iam.cn-north-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3/auth/tokens Content-Type: application/json
Request Body
The body of a request is often sent in a structured format as specified in the Content-Type header field. The request body transfers content except the request header. If the request body contains Chinese characters, these characters must be coded in UTF-8.
The request body varies between APIs. Some APIs do not require the request body, such as the APIs requested using the GET and DELETE methods.
In the case of the API used to obtain a user token, the request parameters and parameter description can be obtained from the API request. Add the message body to the following request. The italic fields in bold must be set based on the site requirements. In the request, username indicates the IAM username, domainname indicates the IAM user account name, ******** indicates the login password, and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx indicates the project name, for example, cn-north-1.
The scope parameter specifies where a token takes effect. You can set scope to an account or a project under an account. In the following example, the token takes effect only for the resources in a specified project. For more information about this API, see obtaining a user token API.
POST https://iam.cn-north-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3/auth/tokens
Content-Type: application/json
{
"auth": {
"identity": {
"methods": [
"password"
],
"password": {
"user": {
"name": "username",
"password": "********",
"domain": {
"name": "domainname"
}
}
}
},
"scope": {
"project": {
"name": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
}
}
}
} If all data required for the API request is available, you can send the request to call the API through curl, Postman, or coding. In the response to the API used to obtain a user token, x-subject-token is the desired user token. This token can then be used to authenticate the calling of other APIs.
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Next Article: Authentication
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