Making an API Request

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 send requests. All APIs use HTTPS.
• Endpoint: domain name or IP address of the server bearing the REST service. The endpoint varies between services in different regions. It can be obtained from Regions and Endpoints. For example, the endpoint of IAM in CN-Hong Kong: "iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com".
• resource-path: API access path. Obtain the value from the URI of an API. For example, resource-path of the API used to create an IAM user as the administrator is /v3.0/OS-USER/users.
• query-string: query parameters, which are optional. Ensure that a question mark (?) is included in front of 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 queried.

For example, if you want to create an IAM user, use the endpoint of any region (for example, the endpoint in CN-Hong Kong: "iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com") and the resource-path (/v3.0/OS-USER/users) in the URI of the API used by the administrator to create an IAM user. The following is an example:

 
https://iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3.0/OS-USER/users

Figure 1 Example URI

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

HTTP 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 is not found, a new resource will be created.

For example, in the URI of the API for creating an IAM user as an administrator, the request method is POST. The request is as follows:

 
POST https://iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3.0/OS-USER/users

Request Headers

You can also add additional header fields to a request, such as the fields required by a specified URI or HTTP method. such as Content-Type (defines data type) or authentication headers.

Common request header fields are as follows:

• Content-Type: request body type (format). This header is mandatory, and the default value is application/json. Other values of this header, if any, will be provided for specific APIs.
• Authorization: provides signature authentication information. This field is optional. When AK/SK authentication is enabled, this field is automatically specified for signing the request with SDK. For more information, see AK/SK-based Authentication.
• X-Sdk-Date: specifies the time when a request is sent. This field is optional. When AK/SK authentication is enabled, this field is automatically specified when SDK is used to sign the request. For more information, see AK/SK-based Authentication.
• X-Auth-Token: user token. This field is mandatory only when token-based API authentication is used. The user token is a response to the API for obtaining a user token. This API is the only one that does not require authentication.
• X-Project-ID: specifies subproject ID. This field is optional and can be used in multi-project scenarios. The X-Project-ID field is mandatory in the request header for accessing resources in a sub-project through AK/SK authentication.
• X-Domain-ID: specifies the account ID, which is optional. When you call APIs of global services using AK/SK-based authentication, X-Domain-ID needs to be configured in the request header.

For the API for creating an IAM user as an administrator, if AK/SK-based authentication is enabled, the request with the header is as follows:

POST https://iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3.0/OS-USER/users 
Content-Type: application/json 
X-Sdk-Date: 20240416T095341Z 
Authorization: SDK-HMAC-SHA256 Access=****************, SignedHeaders=content-type;host;x-sdk-date, Signature=****************

Request Body

A request body is generally sent in a structured format as specified in Content-Type. The request body transfers content except the request header. The request body transfers content other than the request header. If the request body contains Chinese characters, set Content-type to utf-8, for example, Content-Type: application/json; charset=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.

The following shows an example request (a request body included) of the API for creating an IAM user. You can learn about request parameters and related description from this example. The bold parameters need to be replaced for a real request.

• accountid: account ID of an IAM user
• username: name of an IAM user
• email: email of an IAM user
• **********: login password of an IAM user

POST https://iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3.0/OS-USER/users 
Content-Type: application/json 
X-Sdk-Date: 20240416T095341Z 
Authorization: SDK-HMAC-SHA256 Access=****************, SignedHeaders=content-type;host;x-sdk-date, Signature=**************** 
 
{ 
     "user": { 
         "domain_id": "accountid", 
         "name": "username", 
         "password": "**********", 
         "email": "email", 
         "description": "IAM User Description" 
     } 
 }

If all data required for the API request is available, you can send the request to call the API through curl, Postman, or coding.