API Requests

Request URI

A request URI consists of the following parts:

{URI-scheme}://{Endpoint}/{resource-path}?{query-string}

Although a request URI is included in the request header, most programming languages or frameworks require passing the request URI 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. The endpoint varies between services in different regions. It can be obtained from Regions and Endpoints.

  For example, the endpoint of NES in the AP-Singapore region is bcs.ap-southeast-3.myhuaweicloud.com.

• resource-path

  API access path for performing a specified operation. 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. 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 AP-Singapore region, obtain the Endpoint of IAM (iam.ap-southeast-3.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:

To simplify the URI display, 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 Method

HTTP-based request methods, which are also called operations or actions, specify the type of operations that you are requesting.

• GET: requests a server to return specified resources.
• PUT: requests a server to update specified resources.
• POST: requests a server to add resources 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 partial content of a specified resource. If the resource is unavailable, the PATCH method is used to create a resource.

For example, in the URI of the API for obtaining a user token, the request method is POST. The request is as follows:

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POST https://iam.ap-southeast-3.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. It is a response to the API for obtaining a user token. This API is the only one that 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 a request, and the Authorization (signature information) and X-Sdk-Date (time when the request is sent) header fields are automatically added to the request.

For more information, see AK/SK Authentication.

The API for obtaining a user token does not require authentication, so that only the Content-Type field needs to be added:

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POST https://iam.ap-southeast-3.myhuaweicloud.com/v3/auth/tokens
Content-Type: application/json

Request Message 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.

Request bodies vary with APIs. Some APIs do not require a 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. The following provides an example request with a body included. Replace username, domainname (account name), ******** (password), and ap-southeast-3 (project name) with the actual values. For details, see Regions and Endpoints.

• The scope parameter specifies where a token takes effect. 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 Through Password Authentication.
• For details about how to obtain the token for a non-Huawei Cloud account, see Obtaining a User Token Through Password Authentication.

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POST https://iam.ap-southeast-3.myhuaweicloud.com/v3/auth/tokens
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "auth": {
        "identity": {
            "methods": [
                "password"
            ],
            "password": {
                "user": {
                    "name": "username",
                    "password": "********",
                    "domain": {
                        "name": "domainname"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "scope": {
            "project": {
                "name": "ap-southeast-3"
            }
        }
    }
}

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 target user token. Then, this token can be used to authenticate the calling of other APIs.