Carry out Internet GUI Administration and Configuration with the AXL API

The AXL Philosophy and Objective

We, as programmers, typically take a look at an API with wild goals about constructing dazzling user-facing purposes that encourage jaw-dropping amazement. That’s simply how we’re constructed. And the AXL API has the facility to allow you to try this.

One phrase… DON’T.

AXL shouldn’t be an API for user-facing purposes. It’s an administration and configuration API. You don’t wish to push an end-user software constructed on AXL to 1,000 customers. And in the event you do, you’re going to have a nasty time.

Consider AXL as a programmatic approach to carry out internet GUI administration and configuration duties. For instance, within the internet GUI, you add an finish consumer this fashion.

1. Choose the Person Administration menu
2. Choose Finish Person
3. Click on on +Add New
4. Fill out the shape
5. Save.

Now, programming that may appear foolish and extra work than utilizing the online GUI. However consider it this fashion. You’ve a textual content file with a listing of names, e mail addresses, telephone numbers, assigned firm telephone extension and different private information of recent staff. Now you may write an software that reads the file and creates and configures an end-user account for every of the individuals and creates and configures traces and telephones entries for them. That’s automating an administration and configuration process in a approach that makes your life as an administrator simpler.

The Fundamentals

AXL is a SOAP-based API. There’s no REST for the depraved right here.

Probably the most typically used AXL APIs fall into the next teams:

1. addSomething (e.g., add a telephone)
2. getSomething (e.g., get a telephone’s data and settings)
3. updateSomething (e.g., change a telephone’s data and settings)
4. applySomething (e.g., apply the adjustments you made for the telephone)
5. removeSomething (e.g., take away a telephone)
6. listSomething (e.g., record all telephones)

There are a number of different AXL APIs not in these teams that you just’ll want at occasions, however these are probably the most continuously used operations.

Getting Began: Preparation

One of the simplest ways to get acquainted with AXL is to make use of a free, open-source device referred to as SoapUI. SoapUI makes it simple to experiment with the AXL API. However first, you have to obtain the information you’ll use with SoapUI.

Log into Name Supervisor as an administrator. Below the Utility menu, choose Plugins.

Click on the Discover button (not proven on this display shot). The primary merchandise is the Cisco AXL Toolkit. Click on on Obtain and put it aside someplace.

The saved file ought to appear like this:

Open the zip file to see its contents

Open the schema listing.

Choose the model of Name Supervisor you might be utilizing. On this pattern, we’ll choose present.

Copy the three information above to a working listing. I selected C:SOAP.

Obtain and set up the open-source SoapUI from this web page.  You’re performed with preparation. Now, it’s time to create an AXL undertaking to play with the API.

Set Up a SoapUI AXL Challenge

Click on on the File menu and select New SOAP Challenge.

Choose a reputation on your undertaking. Set the Preliminary WSDL to level to the AXLAPI.wsdl file you saved to a working listing earlier. Click on OK.

Within the left column, you must see this (assuming you used the identify New AXL Take a look at, in any other case search for the identify you selected).

Proper click on on AXLAPIBinding and choose Present Interface Viewer. It is best to see this Dialog Field.

Click on on the Service Endpoints tab and also you’ll see the place you may enter data for AXLAPI binding.

Sort what you see within the Endpoint subject, besides level to your server the place it says YOURSERVER. Assuming it’s protected on your work setting to do, enter your Administrator username and password within the applicable fields. You possibly can create an Administrator account in Name Supervisor particularly to be used with the AXL API, or you need to use your main Administrator account.

You possibly can shut this dialog field now.

Now let’s play with one of many requests. Within the left column, discover listPhone and click on on its plus signal. Then double-click on Request 1. It is best to see all of the XML for this request pop up in a brand new dialog.

The listPhone request has a number of potential hangups which can be good to discover ways to keep away from. Any listSomething request goes to return, nicely, a listing of issues. Scroll right down to the underside of the request XML and also you’ll see these choices. These provide the choice to skip numerous outcomes, or outline the start line. We don’t wish to mess with these choices proper now, so choose them and delete them.

On the high, search for what I’ve chosen right here, choose it and delete it. This attribute will be helpful, and also you don’t at all times should delete it, however on this case, you’ll have to take away the ‘sequence=”?”’ for the request to work correctly.

There’s another factor. Do away with what you see chosen on this display shot. Choose it and delete it.

There are approach too many values to specify, so let’s chop down the request to appear like this. Make sure that to place a p.c signal within the <identify></identify> tag. This can be a wild card, which suggests it’ll record ALL the telephones. You wish to begin easy, so it is a simplified listPhone operation.

Now’s the time to strive it out. Click on on the inexperienced “run” icon within the higher left. It is best to see the best facet of the request change to this:

That is an unlucky bug within the present model of SoapUI. It ought to present you the XML response by default, however it as an alternative reveals you uncooked data. Till the app is mounted, you’ll should click on on the higher left XML tab to view the response.

The response would possibly look one thing like this:

With that, you now have sufficient primary information to experiment with any of the AXL APIs. Hey now, you’re an all-star, get your sport on, go play.

As soon as you might be acquainted with how the API works, strive programming with the API:

Programming Tip

And in the event you actually wish to run with the large boys, right here’s a tip for operating a number of AXL request sequentially. Each time you make an AXL request, Name Supervisor launches a Tomcat session. Whenever you make many requests in a row, Name Supervisor will launch a number of Tomcat classes, which expend CPU and RAM.

Right here’s a approach round that. On the backside of the response, open up the headers and also you’ll see a cookie named JSESSIONID and its worth.

For those who set the JSESSIONID cookie and use the identical worth on your subsequent AXL request, Name Supervisor will re-use the Tomcat session as an alternative of launching a brand new one.

What to Keep away from and Widespread Errors

Many requests have a listing of optionally available search parameter tags, generally <identify> and <uuid>. You’ll often have to decide on one and delete the others.

As logical as it might appear, you may’t carry out a getPhone, change some values, after which copy and paste the modified XML into an updatePhone request. getPhone and updatePhone XML tags usually are not mirror pictures.

Watch out when utilizing APIs that offer you direct entry to the Name Supervisor database, like executeSqlQuery. Difficult joins could also be intelligent, however they’ll additionally suck up CPU and reminiscence the dimensions of a spy balloon, and that eats into the efficiency of each different operation.

Assets

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