AppDB REST API v1.0

AppDB Rest API documentation

This document is intended for developers who want to write applications that interact with the AppDB API over the web using HTTP commands following the REST paradigm. The API endpoint is located at http://appdb-pi.egi.eu and it allows information retrieval and modification from third party applications without having to reside on the rich user interface of the AppDB portal. Thus one is given the opportunity to design one’s own frontends.

Getting started

Operations

Starting with version 1.0, the AppDB API features write access as well, by supporting HTTP verbs such as PUT, POST, and DELETE. Verb mappings to data operations follow a CRUD convention, as depicted in the following table:

Operation	HTTP Verb
Create	`PUT`
Read	`GET`
Update	`POST`
Delete	`DELETE`

The API also supports the Listing operation (CRUDL extension), by passing the parameter listmode=listing in the querystring when performing a GET request. Please note that in order to simplify the access model, Update operations are always partial, meaning that properties of the resource that is being updated which are entirely missing from the representation, are ignored (i.e. their state in the backend does not change). Therefore, in order to unset/remove a property, one has to explicitly specify it as NULL, provided that this is permitted. This is the reason why Create and Update CRUD mappings are inverted with regards to what is usually accustomed. Finally, the API also supports the OPTIONS HTTP verb, which returns a list of the operations that are permitted, in principle, for the resource in question. The base URI for this version of the RESTful API is

http://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/

and requests must be followed by at least one resource name, which may be followed by one or more optional sub-resource names, separated by slashes, as in the examples given bellow:

http://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/applications/
http://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/applications/50/

Response types

Because the API conforms to the REST paradigm, responses to all CRUD operations are always XML document representations of the resource in question. These documents are described by schema files which reside publicly in the web server. All the XML documents are enveloped in a common root element named appdb with attributes that describe request status, such as paging, or errors. These attributes are:

count (number) : the count of the entries found in the applications database. In case of paging, where only a subset of the results gets returned, the attribute is left unaffected.
pagelength, pageoffset (numbers) : paging data in case the response is a list of resources. More information follows in the next section.
datatype (string) : an identifier for the resource data that is enclosed in the response as defined in the XML schema.
type (string) : the type of the response. Possible values are:
- list: A collection of references to entries in the applications’ database. In order to obtain the referenced entry, a request should be made using the entry’s ID.
- entry: Detailed information about an entry in the applications’ database. Paging is never used for this type of response.
version (number) : The version of the API that was accessed.
error (string) : If an error occurs, this attribute will contain the error message.
errornum (number) : If an error occurs, this attribute will contain the error number.
errordesc (string) : If an error occurs, this attribute might contain a more detailed description about the error.
host, apihost (strings) : the URIs of the host that provided the data and API access, respectively.

Paging and Filtering

The paging mechanism that the API provides, as far as Read/Listing operations are concerned, can be used through two query parameters (if allowed) and can be displayed in the attributes of the root element of the response XML document. The query parameters are:

pagelength: defines the count of entries to be displayed in each page.
pageoffset: defines the position in the list of entries from which the page will start.

So if the client wants a list of 50 entries and wants to display the first 10, then the parameters should be set as page length=10 and page offset=0. To view the next 10 entries it should change the page offset to 10, for the next 10, it should set page length to 20, etc. One must remember that paging is not valid for all resources, as documented in the query parameters section in the API reference. A final note about paging is that if the client hasn’t explicitly enable paging, then the server will default to a preset paging value, in order to reduce load; this value can be retrieved from the relevant attributes of the response’s root node. If the paging parameters were set by the client but the page length exceeds that of the server’s default maximum value, then the later is used. Otherwise the page length set by the client will be used. Moreover, some of the API resources support filtering when doing Read/Listing operations; filter expressions may be passed in the querystring by assigning a value to the flt parameter, in order to retrieve just the subset of data that match certain criteria. These filter expressions are strings that may range from simple keywords to complex queries. They are search arguments which will be matched to results that are deemed relevant in the scope of the search target. These expressions can range from the simple and obvious space separated keyword list, to complex operator and field specific queries. In particular, filter expressions are composed of one or more keywords, optionally prefixed by operators and/or specifiers. The syntax in BNF is:

<expression> ::= <keyword>*
<keyword> ::= [<operator>][<specifier>:]some_string
<operator> ::= [<context_operator>]<comparison_operator>
<context_operator> ::= &
<comparison_operator> ::= = | * | ~ | $ | <[=] | >[=] | +[=|*|~|$|<[=]|>[=]] | -[=|*|~|$|<[=]|>[=]]
<specifier> ::= <related_entity>[.property_name] | property_name
<related_entity> ::= application | person | vo | middleware | country | [sub]discipline

Rules are as follow:

Each keyword without an operator may partially match any property related to the filtered entity.
If a keyword is prefixed with the = operator, then the keyword may exactly match any related property.
If a keyword is prefixed with the * operator, then any part of a comma-separated set of keywords may exactly match any related property.
Please note that in this case, the keyword NULL takes on the special meaning of a nil value
If a keyword is prefixed with the < or > comparison operator, then the keyword may be greater than or lesser than any related property, respectively.
Optionally prefixing the = operator as well, will make the comparison operator non-strict.
If a keyword is prefixed with the ~ operator, then the keyword will be treated as a regular expression which may match any related property.
If a keyword is prefixed with the $ operator, then the keyword will be treated as a soundex phoneme which may match any related property that sounds alike in the English language.
If a keyword is prefixed with the + operator, then the keyword must match any related property.
If a keyword is prefixed with the - operator, then the keyword must not match any related property.
If a specifier is present, then the keyword applies only to the specified property.
Specifiers referring to related entities may omit the property name, in which case the special property any will be implicit.
In keywords without specifiers, the special specifier any.any will be implicit.
The & context operator makes an entity’s context private when present; this reduces results to the immediate neighbourhood of the target.

Consider the following examples when searching for software:

```
cms atlas
```
will return a software item named CMSSW, another named ATLAS, another belonging to the atlas VO, etc.
```
cms atlas +greece
```
will return only the subset of the previous example’s results that actually mention Greece (e.g. in the description, or by having a researcher from Greece in their contact list, etc.)
```
cms atlas -greece
```
will return only the subset of the first example’s results that do not mention Greece
```
vo:biomed
```
will return software that belong to the VO’s that contain biomed in their name or description
```
=vo.name:biomed
```
will return software that belong to the VO named biomed only
```
<dateadded:2011
```
will return software that have been registered before the year 2011
```
>=name:x
```
will return software whose names begin with x,y, or z
```
person:"john doe"
```
will return software that has someone whose name contains john doe listed as a contact
```
discipline:physics +tag:portal
```
will return software that are filed under disciplines that are related to physics, and that are tagged as portals

For a list of possible specifiers, you can look up the /filter/reflect subresource of any searchable resource (e.g. /applications/filter/reflect), or you can also try using any search box in the portal, and check out the autocompletion list.

Authenticated Access

Some or all operations on certain resources may require authentication, as indicated in the API Reference section below. In order to perform authenticated API calls, users need to create an access token and provide the following parameters in the query string, or POST fields accordingly:

accesstoken: a valid access token. Registered users can generate access tokens from within the AppDB portal, under their profile preferences tab

Access tokens may be assigned netfilters, which will only allow authenticated access from specific sources. Defining netfilters for an access token is not required, but it is strongly suggested, since they can help safeguard its use.

API Reference

Below you may find an exhaustive list of the resources v1.0 of the AppDB RESTful API offers. Details and documentation about a resource’s representation may be found as XSD annotations inside the appropriate schema file, under the schemata base resource. Note that when performing POST operations, the representation must be passed as a URL-encoded string in the query-string under the parameter data, whereas when performing PUT operations, the representation must be passed as a normal text stream. Representations passed to PUT/POST operations must be enclosed within an appdb:appdb root element, with the appropriate XML namespaces declared, the same way that responses are; nevertheless, this will be omitted in all following examples, in order to reduce clutter. Also note that since all Update (POST) operations are partial, XML elements that represent properties with a cardinality 0..* must be either

omitted, in which case the present state in the backend is left untouched,
fully disclosed, in which case entities present in the backend but absent from the POSTed representation are deleted, and vice versa
explicitly declared NULL by passing a single instance of the element, with no node value (is of mixed type) and the single attribute xsi:nil with value true, in which case all instances of the entity are erased from the backend.

This way, it is possible to perform modifications to a resource’s properties without having to re-declare all instances of other properties with 0..* cardinality, lest they were to be erased. Properties of 0..1 cardinality may also be declared NULL in a similar fashion, in which case their value in the backed becomes undefined. Moreover, one should also note that the response of all PUT/POST/DELETE operations equivalent to that of a GET operation, with the state of the resource

after the operation, in case of PUT/POST
before the operation, in case of DELETE

This way, it is possible - as well as advised - to differentiate the response with the input to such operations, in order to verify that the result is what was intended, since properties that are malformed or invalid will not break the operation, but rather be ignored, as long as the representation is well-formed (i.e. passes the XSD compilation).

Application List

Resource: applications/
Type: list
Datatype: application
Schema: application
Filtering: yes
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: PUT POST

List of all application entries registered in the database

Examples:

```
GET http://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/applications?flt=metatype:0
```
will return all applications that are listed under the Software Marketplace (i.e. Software)
```
GET http://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/applications?flt=metatype:1
```
will return all applications that are listed under the Cloud Marketplace (i.e. Virtual Appliances)

GET http://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/applications?flt=country:Greece

will return all applications that are related to Greece

```
POST https://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/applications?data={data}&username={username}&passwd={passwd}&apikey={apikey}
```
where {data} is
```
<application:application id="123">
  <application:description>some new description</application:description>
</application:application>
```
will update application with ID 123 setting it description to "some new description" and leaving all other properties as-is.
Similarly, providing
```
<application:application id="123">
  <discipline:subdiscipline xsi:nil="true" />
</application:application>
```
as {data} will remove all subdiscipline associations from the application, and providing
```
<application:application id="123">
  <discipline:discipline id="1"/>
  <discipline:discipline id="5"/>
</application:application>
```
will replace the list of associated disciplines of the application with ID 123, with the disciplines with IDs 1 and 5 (“Life Sciences” and “Earth Sciences” respectively)
Note that providing {data} as
```
<application:application id="123">
  <discipline:discipline xsi:nil="true" />
</application:application>
```
to a POST operation will result in an error, since discipline elements are not defined as nillable in the schemata, meaning that all application entries must have at least on discipline in their complete representation.

echo {data} | PUT https://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/applications?username={username}&passwd={passwd}&apikey={apikey}

with {data} defined as

<application:application tagPolicy="0">
  <application:name>MyGridApp</application:name>
  <application:description>my grid application</application:description>
  <application:abstract/>this is a grid application which performs task X</application:abstract>
  <application:category id="1" primary="true"/>
  <application:category id="2" primary="false"/>
  <discipline:discipline id="1"/>
  <application:status id="6"/>
  <vo:vo id="951"/>
  <application:contact id="189"/>
  <application:contact id="190"/>
  <publication:publication >
     <publication:title>Evidence of Y using novel method X</publication:title>
     <publication:url>http://linkto.my.pub</publication:url>
     <publication:conference>X developments 2012</publication:conference>
     <publication:proceedings/>
     <publication:isbn>ISSN 0000-0000</publication:isbn>
     <publication:startPage>592</publication:startPage>
     <publication:endPage>597</publication:endPage>
     <publication:volume>18</publication:volume>
     <publication:publisher/>
     <publication:journal/>
     <publication:year>2012</publication:year>
     <publication:type id="1">Full Paper</publication:type>
     <publication:author main="true" type="internal">
       <person:person id="189"/>
     </publication:author>
     <publication:author type="external">
       <publication:extAuthor>John Doe</publication:extAuthor>
     </publication:author>
  </publication:publication>
  <middleware:middleware id="1">gLite</middleware:middleware>
  <middleware:middleware id="5">MyGrid</middleware:middleware>
  <application:tag>methodX</application:tag>
  <application:tag>countryZ</application:tag>
</application:application>

will add a new application to the database, with the following properties:

belonging to two categories, of which the one with ID equal to 1 will be the primary
related to one discipline
with an application status with ID 6
listed as supported by the VO with ID 951
having two people in its scientific contact list, those with IDs 189 and 190
having one publication with two authors, one internal (i.e. registered with the AppDB) and one external (not registered, name-only entry)
listed as supported by two middleware, and
with two tags applied

Application Entry

Resource: applications/{id}
Type: entry
Datatype: application
Schema: application
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: DELETE

Detailed description of a specific application entry

Moderated Application List

Resource: applications/moderated
Type: list
Datatype: application
Schema: application
Filtering: no
Public Operations: none
Authenticated Operations: GET PUT

List of applications that have been moderated for some particular reason, and thus hidden from public view until the issue gets resolved. Administrative access only.

Examples:

echo {data} | PUT https://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/applications/moderated?username={username}&passwd={passwd}&apikey={apikey}

where {data} is

<application:application id="123">
   <application:moderationReason>copyright violation</application:moderationReason>
</application:application>

will moderate the application with ID 123, providing "copyright violation" as the reason

Application Publication List

Resource: applications/{id}/publications
Type: list
Datatype: publication
Schema: publication
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: PUT POST

List of scientific publications related to an application entry. Publications can be individually managed from this resource (and its sub-resources), or collectively defined directly from application/{id} resources

Application Publication Entry

Resource: applications/{id}/publications/{id}
Type: entry
Datatype: publication
Schema: publication
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: DELETE

Detailed description of a publication related to an application entry

Resource: applications/{id}/tags
Type: list
Datatype: tag
Schema: application
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: PUT

List of tags applied to an application entry. Tags can be individually managed from this resource (and its sub-resources), or collectively defined directly from application/{id} resources

Examples:

echo {data} | PUT https://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/applications/123/tags?username={username}&passwd={passwd}&apikey={apikey}

where {data} is

<application:tag>C++</application:tag>

will apply the tag C++ to the application with ID 123

Application Tag Entry

Resource: applications/{id}/tags/{id}
Type: entry
Datatype: tag
Schema: application
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: DELETE

Detailed description of a tag applied to an application

Resource: applications/{id}/relatedapps
Type: list
Datatype: relatedapp
Schema: application
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of applications related to an application entry

Application Rating Report

Resource: applications/{id}/ratingsreport
Type: entry
Datatype: ratingreport
Schema: appratingreport
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Report on all user ratings of an application entry

External Application Rating Report

Resource: applications/{id}/ratingsreport/internal
Type: entry
Datatype: ratingreport
Schema: appratingreport
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Report on user ratings of an application entry made by registered users

Internal Application Rating Report

Resource: applications/{id}/ratingsreport/external
Type: entry
Datatype: ratingreport
Schema: appratingreport
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Report on user ratings of an application entry made by anonymous users

Application Rating List

Resource: applications/{id}/ratings
Type: list
Datatype: rating
Schema: apprating
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of user rating entries applied to an application entry

Application Rating Entry

Resource: applications/{id}/ratings/{id}
Type: entry
Datatype: rating
Schema: application
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Detailed description of a rating entry applied to an application entry

Application State History List

Resource: applications/{id}/history
Type: list
Datatype: history
Schema: history
Filtering: no
Public Operations: none
Authenticated Operations: GET

List of previous states of an application entry. Administrative access only.

Application State History Entry

Resource: applications/{id}/history/{id}
Type: entry
Datatype: history
Schema: history
Filtering: no
Public Operations: none
Authenticated Operations: GET

Detailed description of a previous state of an application entry. Administrative access only.

Bookmarked Application List

Resource: people/{id}/applications/bookmarked
Type: list
Datatype: application
Schema: application
Filtering: yes
Public Operations: none
Authenticated Operations: GET PUT

List of application entries bookmarked by a user

Examples:

```
GET http://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/people/123/applications/bookmarked?flt=discipline:chemistry
```
will return all application entries with a discipline related to chemistry and which have been bookmarked by the user with ID 123

Bookmarked Application Entry

Resource: people/{id}/applications/bookmarked/{id}
Type: entry
Datatype: application
Schema: application
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: none
Authenticated Operations: DELETE

Detailed description of an application entry bookmarked by a user

Examples:

DELETE https://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/people/123/applications/bookmarked/111?username={username}&passwd={passwd}&apikey={apikey}

will delete the application with ID 111 from the list of bookmarked applications of the user with ID 123

Editable Application List

Resource: people/{id}/applications/editable
Type: list
Datatype: application
Schema: application
Filtering: yes
Public Operations: none
Authenticated Operations: GET

List of application entries that a user has permission to edit

Owned Application List

Resource: people/{id}/applications/owned
Type: list
Datatype: application
Schema: application
Filtering: no
Public Operations: none
Authenticated Operations: GET

List of application entries that a user holds ownership of

Associated Application List

Resource: people/{id}/applications/associated
Type: list
Datatype: application
Schema: application
Filtering: no
Public Operations: none
Authenticated Operations: GET

List of application entries that a user is associated to, as a member of the application’s contact list

People List

Resource: people/
Type: list
Datatype: person
Schema: person
Filtering: yes
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: PUT POST

List of users (people) that have registered with the database

```
GET http://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/people/?flt={flt}
```
where {flt} is the URL-encoded representation of >=registeredon:2012-02 +=vo.name:SEE -country:Greece
will return a list of all people who have registered after or in Feb 2012, have a relation to the VO named SEE and that are not related with Greece

Person Entry

Resource: people/{id}
Type: entry
Datatype: person
Schema: person
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: DELETE

Detailed description of a user entry

Regional Information List

Resource: regional/
Type: list
Datatype: regional
Schema: regional
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of countries, regions, and service providers participating in EGI and available to application and user entries

Resource: applications/categories/
Type: list
Datatype: category
Schema: application
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of category types available for application entries

Discipline/Subdiscipline List

Resource: disciplines/
Type: list
Datatype: discipline
Schema: discipline
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of discipline and subdiscipline types available for application entries

Middleware List

Resource: middleware/
Type: list
Datatype: middleware
Schema: middleware
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of grid middleware supported by application entries and VOs

Application Status List

Resource: applications/statuses/
Type: list
Datatype: status
Schema: application
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of status states available to application entries

VO List

Resource: vos/
Type: list
Datatype: vo
Schema: vo
Filtering: yes
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of VOs registered with the EGI Operations Portal and available to application entries

```
GET http://appdb-pi.egi.eu/rest/1.0/vos/?flt={flt}
```
where {flt} is the URL-encoded representation of application:CMS +description:CERN
will return the list of VOs that contain the word CERN in their description, and that are related to any application that mentions CMS in any of its properties

VO Entry

Resource: vos/{id}
Type: entry
Datatype: vo
Schema: vo
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Detailed description of a VO registered with the EGI Operations Portal and available to application entries

User Role List

Resource: people/roles/
Type: list
Datatype: role
Schema: person
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of user roles available, which define base user privileges

Resource: applications/tags/
Type: list
Datatype: tag
Schema: application
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of all tag entries that have been attached at least once on any application entry

Contact Type List

Resource: people/contacttypes/
Type: list
Datatype: tag
Schema: person
Filtering: no
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

List of contact types available to user contact information entries

Application Filter Normalization

Resource: applications/filter/normalize
Type: entry
Datatype: filter
Schema: filter
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Validates and normalizes a filter expression for application searches, defined by the querystring parameter flt

Application Filter Reflection

Resource: applications/filter/reflect
Type: entry
Datatype: filter
Schema: filter
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Returns a nested representation of the filtering expression specifiers available to application searches

Person Filter Normalization

Resource: people/filter/normalize
Type: entry
Datatype: filter
Schema: filter
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Validates and normalizes a filter expression for user searches, defined by the querystring parameter flt

Person Filter Reflection

Resource: people/filter/reflect
Type: entry
Datatype: filter
Schema: filter
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Returns a nested representation of the filtering expression specifiers available to user searches

VO Filter Normalization

Resource: vos/filter/normalize
Type: entry
Datatype: filter
Schema: filter
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Validates and normalizes a filter expression for VO searches, defined by the querystring parameter flt

VO Filter Reflection

Resource: vos/filter/reflect
Type: entry
Datatype: filter
Schema: filter
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: GET
Authenticated Operations: none

Returns a nested representation of the filtering expression specifiers available to VO searches

Dissemination Log List

Resource: dissemination/
Type: list
Datatype: dissemination
Schema: dissemination
Filtering: no
Public Operations: none
Authenticated Operations: GET

List of dissemination messages that have been dispatched to registered users. Administrative access only.

Dissemination Log Entry

Resource: dissemination/{id}
Type: entry
Datatype: dissemination
Schema: dissemination
Filtering: N/A
Public Operations: none
Authenticated Operations: GET

Detailed description of a dissemination message that has been dispatched to registered users. Administrative access only.

Last modified March 8, 2023 by Baptiste Grenier : Import a GitHub action to check spell (#584)

AppDB REST API v1.0

Getting started

Operations

Response types

Paging and Filtering

Authenticated Access

API Reference

Application List

Application Entry

Moderated Application List

Application Publication List

Application Publication Entry

Application Tag List

Application Tag Entry

Related Application List

Application Rating Report

External Application Rating Report

Internal Application Rating Report

Application Rating List

Application Rating Entry

Application State History List

Application State History Entry

Bookmarked Application List

Bookmarked Application Entry

Editable Application List

Owned Application List

Associated Application List

People List

Person Entry

Regional Information List

Application Category List

Discipline/Subdiscipline List

Middleware List

Application Status List

VO List

VO Entry

User Role List

Available Tag List

Contact Type List

Application Filter Normalization

Application Filter Reflection

Person Filter Normalization

Person Filter Reflection

VO Filter Normalization

VO Filter Reflection

Dissemination Log List

Dissemination Log Entry