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View User Guide 3.26 or visit our current documentation home page.
The Management API allows you to easily integrate 3rd party applications with VCS 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 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 rest of the world is blocked by firewall. You can get more details about it in the VCS First Steps.
Authentication
In order to make any request to the API, you need to authenticate using login and password.
We strongly recommend having separate API account for each application you make calls from. Besides this, we recommend having 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" } }
In order 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:
Name | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
Method Name | Name of the module and action to call | clients.editForm |
Arguments | List of arguments for the method call | id_clients = 11 auth[login] = admin auth[password] = password |
API Response
Each response will include the following information:
Name | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
code | Return code, usually true on success or false on failure | 1 |
return | Array with data returned by method | [client] => Array |
session_id | Session ID which may be used to speed up next calls | 1-dsglnqr4qnsdihr8djj6da7qr4 |
messages | List of success / warning messages returned by message | array() |
errors | List of abnormal errors if they fired during processing | 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, CDRs 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: PHP Library
For you convenience, it is always better to have higher level class on top of the simple RPC protocol. You can download an example of such class for PHP. Below is example:
include 'class.VcsApi.php'; // create an API object $api = new VcsApi('vcs.demo.jerasoft.net', 'demo', 'demo', 80); // make a call to the API $data = $api->clients->editForm(array('id_clients' => 8)); /* VcsApiResponse Object ( [code] => 1 [messages] => Array ( ) [data] => Array ( [client] => Array ( [id] => 8 [id_companies] => 3 [type] => 0 [cc_serial] => [name] => Customer 01 [groups] => Vendors, IntraLATA-IntraState, IntraLATA-InterState, InterLATA-IntraState, InterLATA-InterState, Customers [c_dt] => 2012-03-20 09:29:49+00 [status] => active [credit] => 1000 ... ) ) ) */
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 yourselves. 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.
In order 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 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.
Warning
The JeraSoft team may modify the attributes and methods related to the Management API usage from time to time without advance notice.