Making an API Request

Request URI

A request URI is in the following format:

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

For example, if you want to create an IAM user, use the IAM endpoint of any region (for example, for CN-Hong Kong, the IAM endpoint is iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com) and combine it with the resource-path (/v3.0/OS-USER/users) in the URI of the API for creating an IAM user (by an administrator account). See as follows:

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

Figure 1 Example URL

To simplify the URI display, each API is provided with only 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-based request methods, which are also called operations or actions, specify the type of operations that you are requesting.

• 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: requests a server resource header.
• PATCH: requests the server to update partial content of a specified resource. If the target resource does not exist, PATCH may create a resource.

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 (Outside China)

Request Header

You can also add additional fields to a request, such as the fields required by a specified URI or an HTTP method. For example, add Content-Type that defines a request body type to request for the authentication information.

Table 2 lists common request header fields.

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 conveys information other than the request header and is generally sent in a structured format defined by the request header field Content-Type. 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 indicates the ID of the account to which the IAM user belongs.
• username indicates the IAM username to be created.
• ********** indicates the login password of the IAM user.

POST https://iam.cn-north-4.myhuaweicloud.com/v3.0/OS-USER/users (China) 
POST https://iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3.0/OS-USER/users (Outside China)
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": "**********", 
         "description": "IAM User Description" 
     } 
 }

By now, all data required for an API request is available. You can send the request to call the API through curl, Postman, or coding.