Social Networking Service
The Social Networking Service is a RESTful application which exposes operations coming from both the gCube Social-Networking-Library and the User Management components. The former is the bridge between the Cassandra Cluster (on which social data are stored) and the social applications, whereas the latter is the abstraction layer over the enabling technology of the Infrastructure portals, Liferay, in terms of: roles, users and organizations and how they are mapped to gCube concepts (VREs, Teams, and so on).
The web services exposes a subset of such functionalities over https in a standard, reliable and secure way.
See the vailable REST-API at a glance here.
Discover the Web Service
For gCube releases older than 4.3, a Service Endpoint that has
Name = SocialNetworking Category = Portal
mantains the base path of the service. Starting from gCube 4.3 version, the service runs on SmartGears, thus a gCore Endpoint needs to be searched having
Service Name = SocialNetworking Service Class = Portal
The base path is the entry point of the web service. In the development environment, its current value is
https://socialnetworking-d-d4s.d4science.org/social-networking-library-ws/rest
In the production environment, its current value is
https://api.d4sciende.org/rest
This url is referred as BASE_URL.
Service versions
Starting from gCube 4.3, the service exposes its methods using a more standard naming approach. Moreover, they accept (in case of http POST/PUT methods) JSON objects. The result of all methods is always a JSON object of this kind
{"success": false/true, "message": ..., "result": ..., }
Where
- success reports if the request succeeded or failed;
- message is a status/error message that can be checked in case of errors (success equals false);
- result is the current result object (it can be a list, a single object and so on depending on the invoked method).
Inputs are automatically validated before the request is served.
The older version (Version 1) instead has some limitation thus you are kindly suggested to no longer use it. However, in the following, its methods are going to be reported as well. The older version will be removed starting from the next gCube releases.
Authorization
No matter the version number of the service, every call to one of its method require a gcube-token. See here for more information about this token. This secret token needs to be valid in the current context. It can be put as query parameter of the http request or within the header. Both approaches are valid. If the token is missing, the operation will be rejected and an http forbidden code will be returned.
Usage
The methods of the Web Service can be called by writing your own REST client application or by using (a lot of) already existent rest client plugins. In the following, we will use the RESTClient plugin for Firefox for POST methods. Your browser can be used for GET methods. The return value of each method is an HTTP Response object that has an HTTP CODE (200, 201, 400, 500, ...) and, optionally, a JSON or text object that represents the created/retrieved resource or better specifies the occurred error. In case of errors, please refer to the Troubleshooting section for more details.
Service methods (Version 2)
The list of sub-services available in the new version is going to be reported next. The name convention is different. For instance, to read user's posts, the method to be called is
BASE_PATH/2/posts/get-posts-user/
The real result of the method, if the request succeeded, is contained into the 'result' field of the json object
{"success": ..., "message": ..., "result": "[{first post}, {second post}, ...}
In the following, the list of available sub-services available under the newest version, its methods and the parameters they need in order to be called are reported. Again, you can use your preferred REST client so examples won't be reported.
List of Available Sub-Services and methods
Tokens
Generate application token
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/tokens/generate-application-token
First of all, you need to have a user gcube-token for authentication purposes. You can get it using the Token Generator portlet available on the VRE you are interesting the app will post in. Then, to get an application gcube-token you can invoke the method. It is an HTTP/POST method that accepts as parameter:
- a json object of this kind {"app_id": "your-app-id-goes-here"}.
User profile and roles
To retrieve user's profile user profile info (and roles) the subservice to call, once the social networking service endpoint has been retrieved, is this one:
/2/people/profile
further details: get member information
Full text search
Search by query
Social data are indexed into an ElasticSearch engine and are querable using a full-text approach. You can retrieve more information about this index [1]. The link to append to Base_URL is the following
2/full-text-search/search-by-query
The query can be submitted also to the service, by using the following parameters
- query: the query to perform against the index [mandatory];
- from : the result set should be returned by starting from the n-th result [default is zero, optional];
- quantity: how many enhanced posts need to be returned [default is 10, optional].
Hashtags
Get hashtags and occurrences in a context
The link to append to Base_URL is the following
2/hashtags/get-hashtags-and-occurrences
The result is of the kind {"success": true, "message": null, "result":{{"hashtag1" : x}, {"hashtag2" : y}, ...} }
Posts
Write application post
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/posts/write-post-app
By means of the application token requested with the above method, the app can write on the VRE for which the token has been previously requested. Just invoke this method, that accepts these parameters in a JSON object
- text: text of the post;
- params: additional parameters if your application supports the direct opening of of this update's object e.g. id=12345&type=foo [optional];
- preview_title: a title for the preview of the post [optional];
- preview_host: a host for the preview of the post [optional];
- preview_description: a description for the preview of the post [optional];
- preview_url: the preview url [optional];
- image_url: if you want to put an image, pass its url [optional];
- enable_notification: a boolean value to enable notifications [optional, default is false].
Write user post
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/posts/write-post-user
By means of a valid user token, he/she can write on the VRE for which the token has been previously requested. Just invoke this method, that accepts these parameters in a JSON object:
- text: text of the post;
- preview_title: a title for the preview of the post [optional];
- preview_description: a description for the preview of the post [optional];
- preview_host: a host for the preview of the post [optional];
- preview_url: the preview url [optional];
- image_url: if you want to put an image, pass its url [optional];
- enable_notification: a boolean value to enable notifications [optional].
Retrieve all application posts
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/posts/get-posts-app
In order to retrieve all the posts the application wrote (in every VRE it is allowed to write in) you can invoke this HTTP/GET method.
Retrieve all user posts
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/posts/get-posts-user
Retrieve all user posts since a given date
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/posts/get-posts-user-since
If you are interested in retrieving user's posts whose timestamps are greater than a given date you can invoke this method. This HTTP/GET method accepts as parameter:
- time: the time of the oldest post to retrieve converted in milliseconds.
Retrieve all user posts up to a given quantity
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/posts/get-posts-user-quantity
If you are interested in retrieving user's posts, starting from the newest up to a given quantity you can invoke this method. This HTTP/GET method accepts as parameter:
- quantity: a value greater than zero (the default value is 10).
Retrieve the identifiers of the posts a user liked
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/posts/get-id-liked-posts
By means of this method a user can retrieve the identifiers of the posts he/she liked.
Retrieve the posts a user liked
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/posts/get-liked-posts
By means of this method a user can retrieve the posts he/she liked.
Retrieve all vre posts
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/posts/get-posts-vre
By means of this method a user that has a token valid for a certain VRE, can retrieve all the posts of that VRE.
Get posts by hashtag
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/posts/get-posts-by-hashtag
The method requires as parameter:
- hashtag: the hashtag to be contained in the returned posts[mandatory].
Comments
Retrieve comments by user
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/comments/get-comments-user
It is an http GET method.
Retrieve comments by user and time
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/comments/get-comments-user-by-time
It is an http GET method. It requires:
- time: the time (in milliseconds) since when the comments need to be retrieved [default is zero, optional];
Notifications
Retrieve user's notifications in a given range
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/notifications/get-range-notifications
By means of this method a user can retrieve his/her last notifications in the range [a, b]. The method requires:
- from: an integer greater than zero;
- quantity: an integer equal or greater than zero.
The final range is evaluated as [from, from + quantity].
Notify job status
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
2/notifications/notify-job-status
By means of this method a user can be notified about the status of a job in the infrastructure. Jobs are, for instance, SmartExecutor's plugins or DataMiner's algorithms. The method requires the following parameters in a JSON object via HTTP POST
- recipient: the username of the user to be alerted [mandatory];
- job_id: the identifier of the job (e.g, a uuid) [mandatory];
- job_name: the name of the running job (e.g., Social-data-indexer-plugin)[mandatory];
- service_name: the name of the service that launched the job (e.g., SmartExecutor) [mandatory];
- status: the status reached by the job, that is any among CANCELLED, CANCELLING, DELETED, DELETING, EXECUTING, FAILED, SUCCEEDED, SUBMITTED, TIMED_OUT, WAITING [mandatory];
- status_message: a detailed message about the status [optional].
Messages
Send a message
It is an HTTP POST method.
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/messages/write-message
By default, the sender of the message is the owner of the gcube-token. According to the recipients' notifications preferences, they could receive a portal notification, an email notification and so on.
Parameters, to be put in a JSON object are:
- subject: the subject of the message to send;
- body: the body of the message;
- recipients: a list of valid comma separated users' ids (e.g., andrea.rossi, mario.rossi) or users' emails (e.g., andrea.rossi@isti.cnr.it, mario.rossi@isti.cnr.it);
An example of the body of the request is as follows
{"subject": "....", "body": ".....", "recipients":[{"id":"userid1"},{"id":"userid2"}]}
or, if you want to use valid mails (i.e. recognized in the infrastructure)
{"subject": "....", "body": ".....", "recipients":[{"id":"mail1"},{"id":"mail2"}]}
Get received messages
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/messages/get-received-messages
It is an http GET method.
Get sent messages
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/messages/get-sent-messages
It is an http GET method.
Users
User exists
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/users/user-exists
The method requires
- username: the username of the user which has to be checked.
Note The method can be only invoked with a root-context application token.
Read user's custom fields
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/users/get-custom-attribute
The method requires
- attribute: that is the name of a valid attribute to be read.
Get user's email
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/users/get-email
The method returns the email associated to the owner of the security token used.
Get user's profile
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/users/get-profile
The method returns the profile of the owner of the security token used.
Get user's fullname
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/users/get-fullname
The method returns the fullname associated to the owner of the security token used.
Get all users' usernames in VRE
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/users/get-usernames
The method returns the usernames of the context associated to the security token.
Get usernames by global role
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/users/get-usernames-by-global-role
The method requires
- role-name: that is the name of the role to consider.
This method can be only invoked with an Infrastructure Token.
Get usernames by role
The link to append to BASE_URL is
2/users/get-usernames-by-role
The method requires
- role-name: that is the name of the role to consider.
VREs
Get User VREs
This method allows a user to retrieve the list of VREs she belongs to
2/vres/get-my-vres
The method accepts an option parameter:
- getManagers : if set to true, reports also the VRE Managers of the VRE
Troubleshooting
There could be many reasons for a failed request. Please always check the HTTP CODE and the message within the response.
HTTP Error Code
This table tries to help you:
HTTP CODE | Meaning |
---|---|
400 - BAD_REQUEST | Please check the parameters you are passing |
403 - FORBIDDEN | Is the token valid? / Does it belong to an application? [In case of application request] |
404 - NOT_FOUND | The object(s) you are asking for is(are) not available |
500 - INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR | There was an error while serving your request (retry later) |
Always manage HTTP Redirects on POST requests (i.e. 30X codes)
The service accepts both incoming http and https client requests, which are automatically redirect to https protocol by the reverse proxy nginx. This redirect mechanism must be taken into account when POST calls are performed, because it is not (always) supported and transparent by clients. In order to be sure, please check if you get a 30X error and extract the redirection urls within the response header. The following is a working java code that extract such information. It uses the apache-client library to perform http calls.
// build the client and the request String path = ... ; HttpClientBuilder clientBuilder = HttpClientBuilder.create(); CloseableHttpClient httpClient = clientBuilder.build(); HttpPost request = new HttpPost(path); JSONObject obj = new JSONObject(); ... // build the json object // set header properties request.addHeader("gcube-token", ...); request.addHeader("Content-type", ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON.toString()); StringEntity params = new StringEntity(obj.toJSONString(), ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON); request.setEntity(params); HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(request); logger.info(" " + response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() + " and response message is " + response.getStatusLine().getReasonPhrase()); int status = response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode(); // check the response status and look if it was a redirect problem if (status != HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK && (status == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_MOVED_TEMP || status == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_MOVED_PERM || status == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_SEE_OTHER)) { // redirect -> fetch new location Header[] locations = response.getHeaders("Location"); Header lastLocation = locations[locations.length - 1]; String realLocation = lastLocation.getValue(); logger.debug("New location is " + realLocation); // perform again the same request request = new HttpPost(realLocation); request.addHeader("gcube-token", ...); request.addHeader("Content-type", ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON.toString()); params = new StringEntity(obj.toJSONString(), ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON); request.setEntity(params); response = httpClient.execute(request); logger.info(" " + response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() + " and response message is " + response.getStatusLine().getReasonPhrase()); } else logger.debug(" " + response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() + " and response message is " + response.getStatusLine().getReasonPhrase());
Service methods (Version 1) - DEPRECATED
In the following, the list of available sub-services available under the first version, its methods and the parameters they need in order to be called are reported. The gcube-token is always required so it won't be reported as parameter.
This version has been replaced by version 2, please do not use this version and update your code asap.
List of available Sub-Services and methods
Tokens
Generate application token
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
tokens/generateApplicationToken
First of all, you need to have a user gcube-token for authentication purposes. You can get it using the Token Generator portlet available on the VRE you are interesting the app will post in. Now, to get an application gcube-token you can invoke the method. It is an HTTP/POST method that accepts as parameters:
- appid: the identifier of the application as reported in the Application Profile.
For example, using the RESTClient plugin for Firefox you will have something like this for requiring a new application token:
Push on the SEND button and if all it's ok, your application gcube-token will be generated and returned as plain text in the response within the HTTP response having code 201.
Posts DEPRECATED
Write application post
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
posts/writePostApplication
By means of the application token requested with the above method, the app can write on the VRE for which the token has been previously requested. Just invoke this method, that accepts these parameters:
- text: text of the post;
- params: additional parameters if your application supports the direct opening of of this update's object e.g. id=12345&type=foo [optional];
- previewtitle: a title for the preview of the post [optional];
- previewdescription: a description for the preview of the post [optional];
- httpimageurl: if you want to put an image, pass its url [optional];
- enablenotification: a boolean value to enable notifications [optional].
For example:
Push on SEND and check the code associated to the returned response (201 in case of success).
Retrieve all application posts
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
posts/getAllPostsByApp
In order to retrieve all the posts the application wrote (in every VRE it is allowed to write in) you can invoke this HTTP/GET method.
For example, using your browser:
BASE_URL/posts/getAllPostsByApp?gcube-token=yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyy
If all goes ok, the response object has status code 200 and the posts are returned in JSON format.
Retrieve all user posts
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
posts/getAllPostsByUser
For example, using your browser:
BASE_URL/posts/getAllPostsByUser?gcube-token=yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyy
If all goes ok, the response object has status code 200 and the posts are returned in JSON format.
Retrieve all user posts since a given date
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
posts/getRecentPostsByUserAndDate
If you are interested in retrieving user's posts whose timestamps are greater than a given date you can invoke this method. This HTTP/GET method accepts this parameter:
- time: the time of the oldest post to retrieve converted in milliseconds.
For example, using your browser:
BASE_URL/posts/getRecentPostsByUserAndDate?gcube-token=yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyy&time=xxxxx
If all goes ok, the response object has status code 200 and the posts are returned in JSON format.
Retrieve all user posts up to a given quantity
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
posts/getRecentPostsByUser
If you are interested in retrieving user's posts, starting from the newest up to a given quantity you can invoke this method. This HTTP/GET method accepts two parameter:
- quantity: a value greater than zero (the default value is 10).
For example, using your browser:
BASE_URL/posts/getRecentPostsByUser?gcube-token=yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyy&quantity=20
If all goes ok, the response object has status code 200 and the posts are returned in JSON format.
Write user post
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
posts/writePostUser
By means of a valid user token, he/she can write on the VRE for which the token has been previously requested. Just invoke this method, that accepts these parameters:
- text: text of the post;
- previewtitle: a title for the preview of the post [optional];
- previewdescription: a description for the preview of the post [optional];
- previewHost: [optional];
- previewUrl: [optional];
- httpimageurl: if you want to put an image, pass its url [optional];
- enablenotification: a boolean value to enable notifications [optional];
For example:
Push on SEND and check the code associated to the returned response (201 in case of success).
Retrieve the identifiers of the posts a user liked
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
posts/getAllLikedPostIdsByUser
By means of this method a user can retrieve the identifiers of the posts he/she liked.
For example, using your browser:
BASE_URL/posts/getAllLikedPostIdsByUser?gcube-token=yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyy
If all goes ok, the response object has status code 200 and the identifiers of the posts are returned in JSON format.
Retrieve the posts a user liked
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
posts/getAllLikedPostsByUser
By means of this method a user can retrieve the posts he/she liked.
For example, using your browser:
BASE_URL/posts/getAllLikedPostsByUser?gcube-token=yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyy
If all goes ok, the response object has status code 200 and the posts are returned in JSON format.
Retrieve all vre posts
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
posts/getAllPostsByVRE
By means of this method a user that has a token valid for a certain VRE, can retrieve all the posts of that VRE. For example, using your browser:
BASE_URL/posts/getAllPostsByVRE?gcube-token=yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyy
If all goes ok, the response object has status code 200 and the posts are returned in JSON format.
Notifications
Retrieve user's notifications in a given range
The link to append to Base_URL is the following:
notifications/getRangeNotificationsByUser
By means of this method a user can retrieve his/her last notifications in the range [a, b]. The method requires:
- from: an integer greater than zero;
- quantity: an integer equal or greater than zero.
The final range is evaluated as [from, from + quantity]
For example, using your browser:
BASE_URL/notifications/getRangeNotificationsByUser?gcube-token=yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyy&from=from&quantity=quantity
If all goes ok, the response object has status code 200 and the posts are returned in JSON format.
Messages
Send a message
You can send a message via the web service by using the following POST method:
- writeMessageToUsers
The link to append to BASE_URL is
messages/writeMessageToUsers
By default, the sender of the message is the owner of the gcube-token. If you need to specify a different "sender", you can do that by specifying the parameter sender. Furthermore, according to the recipients' notifications preferences, they could receive a portal notification, a mail notification and so on.
Parameters are:
- subject: the subject of the message to send;
- body: the body of the message;
- recipients: a list of valid comma separated users' ids (e.g., andrea.rossi, mario.rossi).
- sender: a valid sender's id [optional]
An example usage of the method is reported in the picture below (without specifying the sender):
Users
Read user's custom fields
You can read user's custom attributes using the following method
- readCustomAttr
The link to append to BASE_URL is
users/readCustomAttr
The read method requires
- attribute: that is the name of a valid attribute to be read.
For example, using your browser:
BASE_URL/users/readCustomAttr?gcube-token=yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyy&attribute=attributeX
See Also
D4Science Developers website
SWAGGER documentation
SWAGGER documentation of the Social-Networking RESTful interface