en-US/making-api-request.xml

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<section id="making-api-request">
        <title>Making API Requests</title>
        <para>All &PRODUCT; API requests are submitted in the form of a HTTP GET/POST with an associated command and any parameters. A request is composed of the following whether in HTTP or HTTPS:
        </para>
        <itemizedlist>
            <listitem><para>&PRODUCT; API URL: This is the web services API entry point(for example, http://www.cloud.com:8080/client/api)</para></listitem> 
            <listitem><para>Command: The web services command you wish to execute, such as start a virtual machine or create a disk volume</para></listitem>
            <listitem><para>Parameters: Any additional required or optional parameters for the command</para></listitem>
        </itemizedlist>
        <para>A sample API GET request looks like the following:</para>
        <programlisting>http://localhost:8080/client/api?command=deployVirtualMachine&amp;serviceOfferingId=1&amp;diskOfferingId=1&amp;templateId=2&amp;zoneId=4&amp;apiKey=miVr6X7u6bN_sdahOBpjNejPgEsT35eXq-jB8CG20YI3yaxXcgpyuaIRmFI_EJTVwZ0nUkkJbPmY3y2bciKwFQ&amp;signature=Lxx1DM40AjcXU%2FcaiK8RAP0O1hU%3D
        </programlisting>
        <para>Or in a more readable format:</para>
        <programlisting>
1. http://localhost:8080/client/api
2. ?command=deployVirtualMachine
3. &amp;serviceOfferingId=1
4. &amp;diskOfferingId=1
5. &amp;templateId=2
6. &amp;zoneId=4
7. &amp;apiKey=miVr6X7u6bN_sdahOBpjNejPgEsT35eXqjB8CG20YI3yaxXcgpyuaIRmFI_EJTVwZ0nUkkJbPmY3y2bciKwFQ
8. &amp;signature=Lxx1DM40AjcXU%2FcaiK8RAP0O1hU%3D
        </programlisting>
        <para>The first line is the &PRODUCT; API URL. This is the Cloud instance you wish to interact with.</para>
        <para>The second line refers to the command you wish to execute.  In our example, we are attempting to deploy a fresh new virtual machine.  It is preceded by a (?) to separate itself from the &PRODUCT; API URL.</para>
        <para>Lines 3-6 are the parameters for this given command.  To see the command and its request parameters, please refer to the appropriate section in the &PRODUCT; API documentation.  Each parameter field-value pair (field=value) is preceded by an ampersand character (&amp;).</para>
        <para>Line 7 is the user API Key that uniquely identifies the account.  See Signing API Requests on page 7.</para>
        <para>Line 8 is the signature hash created to authenticate the user account executing the API command.  See Signing API Requests on page 7.</para>            
    </section>