The Management API allows you to easily integrate 3rd party applications with the JeraSoft Billing platform. It may be accessed using JSON-RPC - a standard protocol for remote procedure calls.  

Most programming languages have libraries to work with this protocol. The API uses the same logic as the web interface and works very similar, which makes its usage easier.

Access the API

To access the JSON-RPC interface, use:

https://<your-system-IP>/jsonrpc/

Before accessing the system, make sure that your IP is allowed on the firewall. Also, please make sure that the rest of the world is blocked by the firewall. You can get more details about it in the JeraSoft Billing First Steps.

Authentication

To make any request to the API, you need to authenticate using login and password.

We strongly recommend having a separate API account for each application you make calls from. Besides this, we recommend having a dedicated Role for API users, which allows only needed actions. Authentication is done by sending the following array along with other arguments:

{ "auth": { "login": "admin", "password": "password" } }

To increase performance, you may not authenticate for each call but do it once and save Session ID given back to you in response.
This Session ID may be sent in further requests instead of login and passwords to continue using the same session without re-authentication. Session ID should be sent with other arguments in the following format:

{ "SID": "1-dsglnqr4qnsdihr8djj6da7qr4" }

It should be mentioned that authentication should be made within the first call to the API.

API Request

Each request besides authentication information should include:

clients.editForm

id_clients = 11

auth[login] = admin

auth[password] = password

API Response

Each response will include the following information:

1

[client] => Array
 (
 [id] => 11
 [id_companies] => 3
 [type] => 0
 [name] => Customer A
 [groups] => Customers
 [c_dt] => 2013-03-30 16:26:15+03
 [status] => active
 [credit] => 100
 ...
 )

1-dsglnqr4qnsdihr8djj6da7qr4

array()

array()

Work with files

There is a specific case when your request to the billing should provide file response. For example, it could be an invoice file download, xDRs List download, etc. Using plain JSON-RPC with base64 on top of it is not effective here as the file may contain hundreds of megabytes. This special case is handled with common HTTP Request to:

https://<your-system-IP>/admin/

The request may be either GET or POST and should include either Login and Password or Session ID. In response, the server will send the file according to HTTP protocol.

Examples: Pure JSON-RPC

{
  "method": "clients.editForm",
  "params": {
    "id_clients": 11,
    "SID": "1-bmdgeu6bn22jlmkuffg391t513"
  },
  "id": 1
}

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "result": {
    "code": true,
    "session_id": "1-bmdgeu6bn22jlmkuffg391t513",
    "messages": [],
    "return": {
      "client": {
        "id": 11,
        "name": "Customer A",
        "groups": "Customers",
        "c_dt": "2013-03-30 16:26:15+03",
        "status": "active",
        "credit": 100,
        "c_company": "Mancy",
        "c_address": null,
        "c_email": "[email protected]",
        "c_email_tech": "[email protected]",
        "c_email_billing": "[email protected]",
        "c_email_rates": "[email protected]",
        "id_currencies": 27
      },
    },
    "errors": []
  }
}

Examples: Python Library

To download a sample library for Python, please visit /opt/jerasoft/vcs/core/pycore/tools/vcsapi.py. It will simplify work with API. You can find an example below:

import vcsapi
 
# create an API object
api = vcsapi.Api('vcs-demo.jerasoft.net', 'demo', 'demo', 443)
 
# make a call to the API
response = api.clients.editForm({'id_clients': 8})

print response.code      # True
print response.messages  # [ ]
print response.data      # {'client': {'id': 8, 'type': 0, 'name': 'Customer 01', ...}}

Methods Reference

At the moment we are working hard to bring you a full and detailed list of methods, arguments and expected output. However, as API fully duplicates web methods, it is easy to find their names and arguments yourself. Let's check a quick example, like creating a reseller. 

In the web interface, the link to this action is https://<your-billing-IP>/admin/companies/add, with companies being a module and add being a method.
The resulting method to call via API is companies.add. 

To find out arguments for this method, you may look for HTTP request in your browser (using FireBug in Firefox, Developer Tools in Chrome). Another way is to check for the dump in /opt/jerasoft/vcs-data/log/runtime.log, which looks like:

[20-Jan-2012 17:32:06+0200] [webAdmin/#260808] REQUEST: /companies/add 
Array 
( 
	[type] => 10 
	[name] => TESTCOMPANY 
	[id_companies] => 
	[prepaid] => 1 
	[credit] => 0.00 
	... 
)

This log entry includes the full list of the arguments used. However, many of them are optional. Try calling the method with the arguments you need, and the system will let you know if you are missing any of the arguments.