[Building Sakai] Resources Entity Broker

[Adam Marshall]

We've done a bit of work on Resources EB. I have drafted this blog post but we don't really know what the difference is between modes and action IDs and we don't know how you know which to use. We used the code found at:

	https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/resources/rsf/trunk/

and entity provider impl's:

	https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/resources/rsf/trunk/impl/src/java/org/sakaiproject/resources/logic/entity/

Could any point me to other documentation or correct / edit my proposed post? I haven't been able to find much to crib from.

It would also be useful to know if any actions / modes are unimplemented.

Adam

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How to use Entity Broker API to Resources
	

Over the summer we added an Entity Broker API to the Resources (content hosting) tool. In short, this means one can use custom JavaScript to interact with the Resources tool.

If you continue reading you will notice very quickly that this is a very technical blog post!

Documentation

As with all Entity Broker APIs, documentation can be found via the '/describe' URL: https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/direct/content/describe
Create a resource

Example 1:

  curl -u "username:password" \
       -F "mode=create" \
       -F "actionId=" \
       -F "type=org.sakaiproject.content.types.TextDocumentType" \
       -F "containingCollectionId=/group/9c57..../myFolder/" \
       -F "Filedata=@myLocalFolder/myFile.json" \

https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/direct/contentActions?__auth=basic

NB The URL is obviously part of the curl command but for some reason Word Press inserts a blanks line

Example 2:

  curl -u "username:password" \
       -F "mode=create" \
       -F "actionId=" \
       -F "type=org.sakaiproject.content.types.folder" \
       -F "entity.name=myNewFolder" \
       -F "containingCollectionId=/group/9c57..../myFolder/" \

https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/direct/contentActions?__auth=basic

Delete a resource

Example 3

  curl -u "username:password" \
       -X DELETE \

https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/direct/contentActions/group/9c57..../myFolder/myFile.xml?__auth=basic

Example 4

  curl -u "username:password" \
       -X DELETE \

https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/direct/contentActions/group/9c57..../myFolder/?__auth=basic

Rename a resource

Example 5:

  curl -u "username:password" \
       -F "actionId=properties" \
       -F "entity.name=myTest.txt" \

https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/direct/contentActions/group/9c57..../myFolder/departments.json?__auth=basic

Replace the contents of a resource

Example 6:

  curl -u "username:password" \
       -F "actionId=replace" \
       -F "Filedata=@Downloads/myNewFile.json" \

https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/direct/contentActions/group/9c57..../myFolder/MyFile.txt?__auth=basic

Available types

    org.sakaiproject.content.types.HtmlDocmentType - an HTML file
    org.sakaiproject.content.types.UrlResourceType - a web link
    org.sakaiproject.content.types.TextDocumentType - a plain text file
    org.sakaiproject.content.types.folder - a folder
    org.sakaiproject.content.types.fileUpload - browse for file

Available Modes / ActionIDs

Warning: this is a little unclear and we need some experience before we can be confident that this section is correct.

We think there are a set of modes that relate (more or less) to classic CRUD operations

    create
    copy
    replace
    revise (update)
    delete

There are also a set of actions which operate upon the properties of a Resource

    properties
    replace
    access
    info
    duplicate
    move
    paste_moved
    paste_copied
    revise_permissions
    revise_order
    restore
    expand
    collapse
    compress_zip_folder
    expand_zip_archive
    make_site_page

Further Work

A browser isn't currently able to make a DELETE request, we need to provide a workaround for browsers when making XmlHttpRequests so one can fake DELETE and PUT requests. This needs investigating.


--
Dr A C Marshall, WebLearn Service Manager, IT Services, University of Oxford.