API access library for Zotonic

by Arjan Scherpenisse arjan@scherpenisse.net, 2011-02-14

Uses a simple registry file at $HOME/.zclient to store consumer keys, secrets and authorized access tokens.

Usage: zclient <command> [opts]
Generic zotonic API access client.

Commands:

  add-app <app id> <hostname> <consumer key> <consumer secret>
  - adds a new app plus its consumer details

  del-app <app id>
  - Remove the app and all its authorized clients

  add-client <client id> <app id>
  - sets up authorization for a given oauth app

  request <client id> <api method> [params]
  - do an authorized API request, pretty-print the result
    e.g.: 'zclient request foo base/export id=1' to dump pages

Quick walkthru

1) Enable mod_oauth in Zotonic

Go to the admin, modules tab, find the OAuth module and click "activate", if it is not already activated. Refresh the page.

2) Create new OAuth application

Go to "API access" tab and click "add new application". In the dialog, enter the application details, such as title, home page, etc. callback can be left empty. On the second tab, check the boxes with the API methods that this app may access. Click the "add application" button.

3. Write down / copy-paste the consumer key and consumer secret

This token/secret pair uniquely identifies your application.

4. Register the app with zclient

zclient add-app someappid 127.0.0.1:8000 <yourconsumerkey> <yourconsumersecret>

"someappid" is some identifier that you come up with to identify this app on the zclient side. For example: my-mobile-app. Copy-paste the consumer key and secret from the previous step onto the command line.

5. Add a client for the app

In zclient terminology, a client is an authorized token/secret pair which authorizes a user to use one of the zclient apps.

zclient add-client yourclientid someappid

The "yourclientid" is some identifier to identify the authorized token for this app on the zclient side.

You will be prompted to click on an URL. Do that. Log on to zotonic and click the "authorize" button on the authorization screen. Return to the terminal and press "Enter". Now you should be ready to go!

6. Do an authorized request

zclient request yourclientid <api method> [arg [arg..]]

For example:

zclient request yourclientid search cat=keyword

Maps to the API request http://yourclienthost/api/search?cat=keyword POST requests are currently not (yet) supported.

Example API request to search for all persons:

arjan@localhost:~$ zclient request test search cat=person
[
  327, 
  1
]