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 passed 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. It can be obtained from Endpoints. For example, The endpoint of IAM in the CN-Hong Kong region is iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com.
• resource-path: API access path. Obtain the value from the URI of an API. For example, the resource-path of the API used by the administrator to create an IAM user is /v3.0/OS-USER/users.
• query-string: Query parameter, which is optional for APIs. 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 are allowed.

For example, if you want to create an IAM user, use the endpoint of any region because IAM is a global service. The endpoint of the CN-Hong Kong region is iam.cn-north-4.myhuaweicloud.com. iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com. Find resource-path (/v3.0/OS-USER/users) in the URI of the Creating an IAM User API.

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

The HTTP protocol defines the following request methods that can be used to send a request to the server:

• GET: requests a server to return specified resources.
• PUT: requests a server to update specified resources.
• POST: requests a server to add a resource or perform special operations.
• DELETE: requests a server to delete specified resources, for example, to delete an object.
• HEAD: requests a server resource header.
• PATCH: requests a server to update the partial content of a specified resource. If the resource does not exist, a new resource will be created.

Check the URI of Creating an IAM User. The request method is POST, and the request is as follows:

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

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 are provided for specific APIs, if any.
• Authorization: specifies signature authentication information. 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" in 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" in Authentication.
• X-Auth-Token: specifies a user token, which is optional. This field is mandatory when token authentication is used. It is the response to the API used to obtain 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-based authentication.
• X-Domain-ID: specifies 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 Creating an IAM User API, if AK/SK authentication is used, 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. It corresponds to Content-Type in the request header and transfers data except for the request header. If the request body needs to support Chinese characters, set Content-type to UTF-8. For example, Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8.

Request bodies vary with APIs. Some APIs do not require a request body, such as the APIs requested using GET and DELETE methods.

You can obtain the request parameters and parameter description from the API request. For details, see Creating an IAM User. The following provides an example request with a body included. Replace the bold fields with the actual values.

• accountid indicates the ID of the account to which the IAM user belongs.
• username indicates the IAM username to be created.
• email indicates the email address of the IAM user.
• ******** indicates the login password of the 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.