Talking to Web ServicesThe outside world from Drupal

David BassendineSenior Developer

Me

Day: Mediacurrent

Night: Science & Sustainability

@dbassendine

linkedin.com/in/dbassendine

"Web Services"

open data: science, gov. & development

business tools: customers, pm, seo

social: the big conversation

... (very) big data (and growing)

compfight.com

monitter.com

http://goo.gl/bCkJf

http://goo.gl/gkuDS

agilezen.com

campaignmonitor.com image:http://goo.gl/qlQQ8

The task ahead ...

Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) by Flickr user mariachily http://goo.gl/iU8aI

http://reverb.echo.nasa.gov/

agilezen.com

Is there a module for that?

Step 0

HTTP and REST

Step 1

1: HTTP Comm.s

1: HTTP Comm.s

1: REST architectures

REST SOAP (XMLRPC)

Resources URIs Custom (data packet)

Methods HTTP verbs Custom (data packet)

Errors HTTP codes Custom (data packet)

Data encoding JSON / XML XML

Consistent*, chatty Flexible but inconsistent

REST for your wife: http://tomayko.com/writings/rest-to-my-wife

REST hypermedia: http://martinfowler.com/articles/richardsonMaturityModel.html

REST vs/ SOAP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer

API Documentation

Step 2

URLs and path structure

Authentication

Resources

Data formats

2: API Documentation

Agile Zen ECHO

URL Structure RESTful RESTful

Authentication Required: Header or Parameter token

Not required for search

Resources Stories, Projects ... Datasets, Granules...

Data formats JSON XML JSON/XML (GET) XML AQL (POST)

dev.agilezen.com http://goo.gl/b38dJ

Test in the browser

Step 3

GET test (simple URL) – eg. http://goo.gl/XUFtn

POSTer test (browser plugin) – Chrome: XHR POSTer – Firefox: Poster

Plan the approach

Step 4

4: Approaches

Drupal core HTTP http://goo.gl/pnML8

REST API Query API drupal.org/project/

rest_api_query

Services Clientdrupal.org/project/

services_client

Feeds (GET only)drupal.org/project/feeds

4: Approaches

Now start to code ...

Step 5

Drupal core HTTP

Drupal 7

Demo: NASA ECHO API

Reason for approach: REST but requires XML

Step 5a

Code: http://drupal.org/sandbox/dbassendine/1829568

Drupal core HTTP

Pros

Flexible

Cons

More code (169 lines)

Encoding / decoding not inc.

Less structural consistency

Step 5a

Encoding / decoding not inc.Well structuredrequest/response

5a: ECHO API

Demo: ECHO API

REST API Query API

Drupal 6 (Open Atrium)

Service: Agile Zen API

Reason for approach: REST and supports JSON

Step 5b

Code: http://drupal.org/sandbox/dbassendine/1828082

REST API Query API

Pros

Less code (114L)

Cons

No XML support

Encoding / decoding inc. Assumptions

More structural consistency

Step 5b

5b: Agile Zen API

Demo: Agile Zen API

Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) by Flickr user Paxson Woelber http://goo.gl/MYPeM

Where next?

Rules

Logging

Job Scheduler

Views w/ Data module

Queue

Triggers Internal Export

Core hooks

Skills & resources

SimpleXML http://goo.gl/IvaKX (php.net)

HTTP protocol http://www.jmarshall.com/easy/http

REST http://rest.elkstein.org

json_encode/decode http://goo.gl/lKHZ (php.net)

Drupal core HTTP http://goo.gl/pnML8 (d.o)

Drupal REST API Query API drupal.org/project/rest_api_query