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Table of Contents

OpenSpecimen v1.0 exposes REST APIs that can be consumed to developed develop custom interfaces UI and and for integration with other databases. The REST APIs will be consumed by the OpenSpecimen v2.0 User Interface.user interface.

Common Characteristics of REST Resources

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  • You access a resource by sending an HTTP request to the OpenSpecimen server. The server replies with a response that either contains the requested data you requested or a status indicator, and in some cases both.
  • All resources are located at http[s]://<host-name>:<port>/

    catissuecore

    <application name>/rest/ng. 

    E.g. http://demo.openspecimen.org/openspecimen/rest/ng/collection-protocols/1/workflows


  • You request a particular resource by appending a particular path to this base URL
  • All resources may return any of the below mentioned status codes:
codeApplies toStatus Message
200All resources
 

201All POST/PUT requestsResource created/updated successfully
400All requestsInvalid parameters, this will also
includes
include application specific error messages
401All requestsAuthorization failed
403All requests
 

404All requestsResource not found, also includes specified resource id/name/title
500All requestsInternal server error

On this page, when a portion of a URL, path, or parameter value is shown in italics, it indicates that you should replace the italicized italicised value with a particular value appropriate to your request.

Authentication

Majority of OpenSpecimen REST APIs can be invoked only by the authenticated users. Authentication is done by invoking the sessions API with valid credentials and using the token returned by the API  in subsequent API invocation request headers. The workflow is explained below:

  1. Invoke sessions API with valid credentials i.e. username, password, and domain. When domain is not specified, it defaults to '

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Modules

Child pages (Children Display)

 

 

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  1. openspecimen'.

    HTTP MethodPOST
    URLhttp[s]://<host>:<port>/openspecimen/rest/ng/sessions
    Body


    Code Block
    {
      "loginName": "admin@admin.com",
      "password": "Login!@3",
      "domainName": "openspecimen"
    }


    Response

    HTTP 200 OK response with following body

    Code Block
    {
      "id": 1,
      "firstName": "Admin",
      "lastName": "Admin",
      "loginName": "admin@admin.com",
      "token": "NTQ1ZjZkYjktNTUyNi00YzM4LTlkNmEtYjllM2VjNDA0ZmIz",
      "admin": true,
      "instituteAdmin": false
    }



  2. Use the token field value returned by sessions API as X-OS-API-TOKEN HTTP header value in every API request made to OpenSpecimen. The token value is used by OpenSpecimen to establish - a) the user is authenticated, and b) to retrieve user details from database for authorisation and other purposes in request handling.

Unauthenticated APIs

Given below is list of APIs that do not require user authentication

HTTP MethodURIDescriptionWhy?
GET/institutesRetrieve list of institutes provisioned in databaseTo populate institute dropdown in user sign-up UI form
GET/institutes/bynameRetrieve details of institute by name. Details include, for example, list of departmentsTo populate departments dropdown in user sign-up UI form
GET/config-settings/localeRetrieve locale settings like locale (en-US, en-UK), date/time format in useTo initialise UI app resource bundle
GET/config-settings/app-propsRetrieve details like list of installed plugins, build version, build date etcTo load and initialise plugin resources, and display build information
GET/auth-domainsRetrieve list of authentication domains provisioned in databaseTo populate domain dropdown in user sign-in UI form. The dropdown is displayed iff more than one authentication domains are configured
POST/sessionsAuthenticate user credentials and obtain token for use in subsequent rendezvous with OpenSpecimenUsed in implementation of sign-in UI form.
POST/users/reset-passwordReset user password based on login name and valid reset token issued by OpenSpecimenUsed in implementation of forget password and reset password UI workflow
POST/users/forgot-passwordValidates user login name and sends reset password link to user email IDUsed in implementation of forget password UI workflow
POST/users/sign-upCreate a new user in pending status. The user has to be approved by admin to allow further use of OpenSpecimenUsed in implementation of sign-up UI workflow 

Date & Time Handling

OpenSpecimen assumes all date/time values specified in API request payload to be in UTC. The UTC time is then converted to server timezone before storing in database. This is best explained using an example:

  • Assume OpenSpecimen is running in Mountain time (MT).
  • Assume the API caller specified the date field value as "2017-02-20" in API request payload.
  • The server interprets the input value ("2017-02-20") to be in UTC timezone and converts it to "2017-02-19" MST. This is because MT is 6 or 7 hrs behind UTC.
  • The MT value ("2017-02-19") is then persisted into database.

This is surprising and undesirable behaviour from API users point of view.

In order to solve this problem, the API caller should always provide date/time field values in UTC using either of following options:

  • Milliseconds elapsed since epoch. This mode always represents time in UTC. For example: 1487574000000 is 20th February 2017 00:00 in MDT

    Code Block
    languagejs
    {
      "lastName": "Blackberry",
      "birthDate": 1487574000000,
      "pmis": []
    }
    
    


  • Adding appropriate offset to input date/time field value. For example: 2017-02-20T06:00:00.000Z is 20th February 2017 00:00 in MDT

    Code Block
    languagejs
    {
      "lastName": "Blackberry",
      "birthDate": "2017-02-20T07:00:00.000Z",
      "pmis":[]
    }


  • Adding appropriate offset to input date/time field value. For example: 2017-02-20T00:00:00.000-0700 is 20th February 2017 00:00 in MDT


    Code Block
    languagejs
    {
      "lastName": "Blackberry",
      "birthDate": "2017-02-20T00:00:00.000-0700",
      "pmis":[]
    }


Modules

Child pages (Children Display)