Making an API Request

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 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. The endpoint varies between services in different regions. It can be obtained from Regions and Endpoints.

  For example, the endpoint of BCS in the CN North-Beijing1 region is bcs.cn-north-1.myhuaweicloud.com.

• resource-path

  Access path of an API 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. 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 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 through password authentication. Then, construct the URI as follows:

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https://iam.cn-north-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3/auth/tokens

Figure 1 Example URI

NOTE:

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 HTTPS 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 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 will be created.

For example, in the case of the API used to obtain a user token through password authentication, the request method is POST. The request is as follows:

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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 HTTPS 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. The user token is a response to the API used to obtain a user token. This API is the only one that does not require authentication.

NOTE:

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.

For more information, see AK/SK-based Authentication.

The API used to obtain a user token through password authentication 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:

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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.

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 through password authentication, 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, ******** (login password), and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (project ID) with the actual values. To learn how to obtain a project ID, see Obtaining a Project ID.

NOTE:

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 Through Password Authentication.

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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": {
                "id": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
            }
        }
    }
}

If all data required by a 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.