Modernize API to a RESTful API

[DCIM_Support]

I know that what i am asking is a lot, but i wish that dco and the other apcs product get some work on their apis done to better integrate with all other products by utilizing a basic but robust restful interface which i think will expand the possibilities of dco.

I have Data Center Operations managing various sites across the country and i am trying to get and update data on DCO through each sites own webpages portals which also track other site information. I will make displays with site current power, space, cooling information, add equipment to a rack or edit a rack equipment.

We tried to get ETL working but it has been a pain and the soap interface seems to only let you consume data and not post/update new one plus the xml file generated by it are note the best way to consume the data by  modern web services.

I will like to ask if there are plans or if not to consider it to ask a simple modern RESTful API to DCO, maybe if i am lucky to DCE to, that supports the basics operations of:

• GET: Obtain information from the server.
• POST: Update items on the server.
• PUT: Add and item to the server.
• Delete: Remove an item from the server.

And which can server and consume data as either xml or json and allow cross-domain request (Data could be displayed with a simple HTML/JavaScript webpage with no need for server side programming).

As an example:

API endpoints:

• http://dco_ip/rest/items
• http://dco_ip/rest/rooms
• http://dco_ip/rest/locations
• http://dco_ip/rest/genome
• http://dco_ip/rest/psc
• http://dco_ip/rest/query

/items

Would let your work with all devices/racks/inrows/etc it will let you query information from them or add a device. for example get all devices on a room with id roomId

   http://dco_ip/rest/items?room_key=roomid

and also limit the fields that are returned to decrease the size of the object ask for in this one only pull selected fields:

  http://dco_ip/rest/items?room_key=roomid&field=key&field=lastModified?field=name

Maybe some way to only get items modified on a certain range that way a client doesn't have to check a items to update itself.

  http://dco_ip/rest/items?room_key=key&,modified=(dateTimeUTC)

All of the previous one would be Get request, the format asked for could be by default xml but if the header or a parameter could be set to obtain json.

/rooms

same format as items but for all the rooms on a device user folder_key instead of room_key.

/locations

obtain all folder/locations under which a room can be on with parameters to filter the data.

/genome

be able to see the genome library data that way i could maintain a centralized device database that other services could feed from.

/psc

be able to supply an id and obtain power space and cooling information for that id examples:

  http://dco_ip/rest/psc?id=roomId

Will get me capacity utilization, max historic, maximum capacity etc..for a room

http://dco_ip/rest/psc?id=itemId

will get me the same but for an item maybe port utilization instead of space

http://dco_ip/rest/psc?id=location

The same as room but for a whole folder/location.

/query

pass an id to get the information about the item specified it doesn't matter if it is a genome, item , location, room.

http://dco_ip/rest/query?id=roomId

will give the same result as:

http://dco_ip/rest/room?id=roomid

Also XML and Json Format please be simple with no namespaces if possible:

XML Rack Rack Name  ... 1 (other request info standard across all request) JSON { "response": { "response_items": { "response_item": { "type": "Rack", "name": "Rack Name" } }, "response_meta": { "items_returned": "1" } } }

(CID:96044038)

[DCIM_Support]

Hi James, We are very much aware of the webservice API for our DCIM products needs some work done. We will get back with some more details.

(CID:96044052)

[DCIM_Support · Accepted solution]

Hi John,

Thanks for your well thought out suggestion! 

We are actually working on transitioning from internal (and a handful of public) SOAP web services to a public RESTful API with JSON responses. This won't happen overnight, but in future versions, you should see more and more functionality exposed through REST services. We are working towards a point, where anything you can do with the DCO client can be done through a public REST service.

I've forwarded your input to the people working on this. I'm sure they will find it useful.

Regards,

Torben

(CID:96044148)

[DCIM_Support]

Awesome job on the new web api, are there any plans to expand it.

I have a few questions/concerns.

• Connection Between Devices
  • at the moment it seems that you are only able to request power connections between the devices, is there an endpoint to get comm connections or other custom connection.
  • include the connections as part of the asset object just like children that you need to especify include to get the connections.
    • ex: /asset/{id}?include=connections
      • 
        
        • { toAssetId:"string", id:"string", type:"string", //power, comms, custom ?? cableType:"string", //cat5, fiber multimode, thhn terminationType:"string", //rj45,st,sc,bnc,lug, etc... conducts:"string" //L1, L2, L3, network, phone, etc }
• Include=children behavior
  
  • I would like to be able to use include=children with the /assets endpoint that gets the root location for a user, at the moment i have to call /assets and then /assets/{id}?include=children for every asset
  • If you dont use include=children you get a null value in children which tells  me that i haven't pull the children for that asset but if i use include=children all children have children set to [] which mean empty list, i would suggest returning the empty list for children that don't have any children and null when the child has children but you haven't pull them yet. That way i know when to make another request.
  • Another suggestion is an option to make children recursive if possible so that i dont need to call /asset/{id}?include=children for every descendant to be able to get the full tree.
• /assets/search
  • Is there a way to specify which field to search in?
    • be able to search just the name or in the path ex:
      • /search?q=test&field=name&field=location
      • /search?q=test&fields=name,test
    • Be able to search by path:
      • to get everything under the path"
        • /search?q=Global/NorthAmerica&field=path

(CID:106210686)

[DCIM_Support]

This question is closed for comments. You're welcome to start a new topic if you have further comments on this issue.