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.

For example, to obtain an IAM token in the CN-Hong Kong region, obtain the endpoint of IAM (iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com) for this region and the resource-path (/v3.0/OS-USER/users) in the URI of the API for creating an IAM user. Then, construct the URI as follows:

1

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 resources or perform special operations.
• DELETE: requests a server to delete specified resources, for example, objects.
• HEAD: same as GET except that the server must return only the response header.
• PATCH: requests a server to update a part of a specified resource. If the resource does not exist, a new resource can be created using the PATCH method.

In the URI of the API for creating an IAM user, the request method is POST, so the request is:

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.

Table 2 lists the common request header fields.

In addition to supporting token-based authentication, cloud service APIs also support authentication using the 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" in Authentication.

The API used for creating an IAM user requires authentication using AK/SK. An example of such requests 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 (Optional)

The body of a request is often sent in a structured format as specified in the Content-type header field, such as JSON or XML. The request body transfers content except the request header.

A request body varies between APIs. Some APIs do not require the request body, such as the APIs requested using the GET and DELETE methods.

For an API for creating an IAM user, the required parameter and description are in the request part of the API. An example of such requests is as follows. Use actual values in the bold fields.

• accountid indicates the account ID of the IAM user.
• username indicates the username of the IAM user to be created.
• email indicates the email of the IAM user.
• ********** indicates the 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 by a request is available, you can send the request to call the API through curl, Postman, or coding.