Web Services 101 James Payne Managing Director for New Media / Advancement July 30, 2013

Agenda  Introductions  Web Services Overview  Definition  Examples of web services  iModules Web Services  Technologies  Using

What is a web service? -Also known as ‘APIs’ -A building block for ‘Service-Oriented Architecture’ (SOA) -Used to tie systems together -Used to provide access by a provider to services or data to a consumer other than a browser… But sometimes to a browser (AJAX)

What are some examples of web services? Companies -Google -Facebook -Twitter -Yelp! -LinkedIn -Everyone

What are they used for? Example: Real Estate Web Site -IP location lookups (Various) -Real estate listings (MLS) -Secondary School Details (education.com) -Business Reviews (Yelp!) -Job Listings (simplyhired.com) -Census Data ( -Custom Mapping (Google) -Advertising details for integrated marketing (Various)

What can I do with iModules web services? There are actually seven web services… GeneralQuery.asmxProvides access to non-instance fields that are not specific to any Form ControlQuery.asmx Provides access to fields that are specific to a form TransactionsQuery.asmxInstance fields that are specific to a commerce transaction CategoryQuery.asmxAllows the import and export of Category opt-out information LoginQuery.asmxAllows logging a constituent in by proxy MemberMergeQuery.asmx Allows queuing a non-member record and an associated constituent record for the nightly Member Merge process ContentQuery.asmxAllows pulling event listing / calendars, and event content information

What technologies do I need to know? -XML -HTTP -Some Programming Language

HTTP (1/3) -A request/response protocol for data communications between computers -Resources are specified with a URL – Uniform Resource Locator -A number of request types (or methods) are supported; GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, others -A request returns a status and possibly some additional diagnostic or application data -200 – Success -401 – Unauthorized (*) -404 – Not Found -400 – Bad Request -418 – I’m a teapot (IETF RFC 2324)

HTTP (2/3) Client Request GET /index.html HTTP/1.1 Host: Source: Wikipedia -The first line of an HTTP request consists of a method, a resource specification, and an optional version number. -A number of header lines (key/value pairs) may follow. -Depending on the method, a content body may be attached.

HTTP (3/3) Server Response HTTP/ OK Date: Mon, 23 May :38:34 GMT Server: Apache/ (Unix) (Red-Hat/Linux) Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Length: 131 Connection: close An Example Page Hello World, this is a very simple HTML document. Source: Wikipedia

XML -XML is a markup language designed to facilitate transportation and storage of data in a human readable format. -XML has similarities to HTML but is different; HTML is designed to display data Simple Example: Tove Jani Reminder Don't forget me this weekend! Source:

Some Programming Language The language used must… -Support string handling and concatenation -Support HTTP network interaction -Support some sort of data input and output That’s just about every language… - Perl, Java, VB, VBScript, C#, Python

Other Buzzwords/Acronyms You’ll Hear… JSONJavaScript Object Notation RESTRepresentational State Transfer SOAPSimple Object Access Protocol WSDLWeb Service Definition Language

How do I use them? -Documentation -Access -Options for Calling Web Services -Crafting the URL -Using the Web Service Help Pages -Creating the request -Placing the request -Consuming the response

Documentation -iModules has very good web service documentation -Download it at… iModules+Web+Services Engineering +Documentation -Or just search the Internet for imodules web service 2.1

Access -You will need a username and password to access web services -Tell your account manager that you would like to use web services -Your account manager will arrange access for you

Options for Calling the Web Services There are several ways of calling the web services from your program… -SOAP 1.1 or 1.2 -HTTP GET -HTTP POST

Crafting the URL Base URL (USA)… Web Service… GeneralQuery.asmx Operation… GetAllColumns For SOAP or WSDL… For HTTP get… GeneralQuery.asmx/ GetAllColumns? login=string&password=string For HTTP post… GeneralQuery.asmx/ GetAllColumns

Using the Web Service Help Pages (/2) The Web Service Definition Language pages can be used to experiment with web service requests and responses.

Using the Web Service Help Pages (2/2)

Creating a Request (SOAP) Example Request… <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv=" xmlns:con=" A309979A-AFB2-4C49-BBB7-4086B supersecret 896

Creating a Request (HTTP GET) GET /ws/21/GeneralQuery.asmx/GetAllColumns?login= A309979A-AFB2-4C49-BBB B &password= supersecret&controlId=896 HTTP/1.1 Host: api.imodules.com You can do a GET from the browser…

Creating a Request (HTTP POST) POST /ws/21/GeneralQuery.asmx/GetAllColumns HTTP/1.1 Host: api.imodules.com Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded Content-Length: 64 login= A309979A-AFB2-4C49-BBB7-4086B &password= supersecret&controlId=896 Note: The SOAP method on a previous slide also utilizes a POST operation.

Placing the Request (1/2) 1)Create the request payload 2)Create an HTTP request using your language’s native functionality - Specify URL and HTTP method (GET or POST) 3)Set content_type and content_length for POST and SOAP -Content type is application/x-www-form-urlencoded or text/xml -Content length is based on the request body size character count 4) Send the request 5) Read the response 6)Check the status; if it’s 200, the request succeeded(*). Parse the returned XML and continue 7)If the status is not 200, an error has occurred. Handle the error.

Placing the Request (2/2) Note: If the username or password is wrong, the iModules web service call will return 200/OK instead of 401/Unauthorized. The return content body will indicate that the credentials are wrong.

Consuming the Response

Stitch Together Calls to Get the Results You Want For example, to get all instance and non-instance fields for gift records… GetTransactionsAllSince Loop… Filter based on control IDs for gift forms GetAllColumns for a control to use to pass to the next control-oriented service call GetOneMemberByMemberId including member ID, control ID, and columns End loop

Resources iModules Web Service v2.1 Documentation -+Engineering+Documentation XML HTTP SoapUI XML Pretty Print

Web Services 101 James Payne Questions?