Page History

h1. DSpace REST API - Bojan Suzic
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{excerpt}Integration, testing, documentation and further development of DSpace REST services for 1.x and 2.0 versions. - Bojan Suzic{excerpt}
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{info:title=Not completed!}
This page is not completed. The work on specifications is ongoing. Everyone is welcome to comment or contribute!
{info}

h1. Details

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|Project Title:| DSpace REST API|
|Student:| Bojan Suzic, University of Technology Graz|
|Mentors:| Aaron Zeckoski, Mark Diggory|
|Contacting author: |_bojan_ AT _student_ . _tugraz_ DOT _at_ - using subject line _DSpace_|
|SCM Location for Project:| http://scm.dspace.org/svn/repo/modules/rest|
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h3. Project description
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The REST approach promotes simplification and decoupling of software architecture, enabling further scalability, portability, granularity and simplified interaction of software systems and components.
The aim of this project is to provide DSpace with REST capable API and underlying component, which will enable developers and end-users to exploit the advantages of such approach.

Some of uses this module is intended to provide could be, for instance:

* interaction between DSpace systems and/or other repositories
* automation of different activities, e.g. submission of packages
* integrating repositories in process workflows of other applications or systems
* interaction with many kinds of systems or web applications, such as CMS, LMS, LCMS, VLS, AMS etc
* providing of other approaches to UI, such as client based/run UI
* crawling of repositories, exposing information in structural way

This project is continuation of last year's activities, supported by Google as part of [GSoC 2009|http://wiki.dspace.org/confluence/display/DSPACE/Google+Summer+of+Code+2009+DSpace+REST+Webapp]. In the first stage the basic support for REST for DSpace is provided, exposing many parts of DSpace functionality to the clients. 

In this year's GSoC the following activities should be primarily addressed:

* integration of existing code in the system
* alignment of REST API with currently available DSpace features/functionality, e.g. adding of new features
* extending of existing code, in order to provide better handling of management and injection functions
* providing more detailed documentation and examples for end users
* testing activities, e.g. cooperation/coordination with other GSoC 10 project [Unit testing|http://fedora-commons.org/confluence/display/DSPACE/GSOC10+-+Add+Unit+Testing+to+Dspace]
* promotion of DSpace REST interaction (by taking part in integration with other systems)


h1. Detailed activities
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In the following sections main activities are elaborated in detail.

h3. REST API Methods

Changes in comparison to existing support are marked with red color. Please note that changes may appear as:
* introduction of new method
* extending of existing method, by implementing new functionality (e.g. GET/PUT/DELETE)
* extending of existing method, by changing its parameters, output etc

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h4. Repository browsing
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|| Name and description || Value and notes ||
| Base URI: |/communities?topLevelOnly=true&idOnly=false |
| Description: | Returns a list of all communities on the system or return just top level communities. |
| HTTP method: | {{GET}} |
| Optional parameters: | |
| Sorting fields supported: | {{id, name, countitems}}: sorting by id, community name and item count |
| Response formats: | {{json}}, {{xml}} |
| Status codes | 200: OK \\
204: no content \\
400: bad request \\
500: internal server error |
| Response details | |

\\
|| Name and description || Value and notes ||
| Base URI: | /communities/\{id\}/parents?idOnly=false&immediateOnly=true|
| Description: | Returns a list of all parent communities of the {{id}} community. |
| HTTP method: | {{GET}} |
| Optional parameters: | |
| Sorting fields supported: | {{id, name, countitems}}: sorting by id, community name and item count |
| Response formats: | {{json}}, {{xml}} |
| Status codes | 200: OK \\
204: no content \\
400: bad request \\
500: internal server error |
| Response details | |

\\
|| Name and description || Value and notes ||
| Base URI: |/communities/{{id}}/children?idOnly=false |
| Description: | Returns a list of immediate sub-communities (children) of the {{id}} community. |
| HTTP method: | {{GET}} |
| Optional parameters: | |
| Sorting fields supported: | {{id, name, countitems}}: sorting by id, community name and item count |
| Response formats: | {{json}}, {{xml}} |
| Status codes | 200: OK \\
204: no content \\
400: bad request \\
500: internal server error |
| Response details | |

\\
|| Name and description || Value and notes ||
| Base URI: |/communities/{{id}}/collections?idOnly=false |
| Description: | Returns a list of collections in the {{id}} community |
| HTTP method: | {{GET}} |
| Optional parameters: | |
| Sorting fields supported: | {{id, name, countitems}}: sorting by id, collection name and item count |
| Response formats: | {{json}}, {{xml}} |
| Status codes | 200: OK \\
204: no content \\
400: bad request \\
500: internal server error |
| Response details | |

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|| Name and description || Value and notes ||
| Base URI: |/communities/{id}/recent?idOnly=false |
| Description: | Returns a list of recent submissions to a community |
| HTTP method: | {{GET}} |
| Optional parameters: | |
| Sorting fields supported: | {{id, name, lastmodified, submitter}}: sorting by id, name(title), last modified date and submitter(name) of item |
| Response formats: | {{json}}, {{xml}} |
| Status codes | 200: OK \\
204: no content \\
400: bad request \\
500: internal server error |
| Response details | |

\\
|| Name and description || Value and notes ||
| Base URI: |/collections?idOnly=false |
| Description: | Returns a list of all collections in the system |
| HTTP method: | {{GET}} |
| Optional parameters: | |
| Sorting fields supported: | {{id, name, countitems}}: sorting by id, collection name and item count |
| Response formats: | {{json}}, {{xml}} |
| Status codes | 200: OK \\
204: no content \\
400: bad request \\
500: internal server error |
| Response details | |

\\
|| Name and description || Value and notes ||
| Base URI: |/collections/{id}/communities?idOnly=false |
| Description: | Returns a list of all communities a collection with {{id}} belongs to |
| HTTP method: | {{GET}} |
| Optional parameters: | |
| Sorting fields supported: | {{id, name, countitems}}: sorting by id, community name and item count |
| Response formats: | {{json}}, {{xml}} |
| Status codes | 200: OK \\
204: no content \\
400: bad request \\
500: internal server error |
| Response details | |
 
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|| Name and description || Value and notes ||
| Base URI: |/collections/{id}/items?idOnly=false&in_archive=false |
| Description: | Returns a list of all items from the collection {{id}} |
| HTTP method: | {{GET}} |
| Optional parameters: | |
| Sorting fields supported: | {{id, name, lastmodified, submitter}}: sorting by id, name, lastmodified date and submitter of item |
| Response formats: | {{json}}, {{xml}} |
| Status codes | 200: OK \\
204: no content \\
400: bad request \\
500: internal server error |
| Response details | |