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Magnolia's REST Web service allows you to manipulate content through a Web API. You can create, read, update and delete nodes in the JCR. The nodes can be pages, components, contacts or anything else that is stored in a named workspace. You can also execute commands to activate, export and import content. 

Modules

The Java API for RESTful Web Services - JAX-RS is defined in the packages javax.ws.rs and  javax.xml.bind. These are interfaces and sufficient for endpoint classes during compilation. However, on runtime, when the REST resources are used, a webapp also requires implementations of the these two mentioned packages. Magnolia uses RESTeasy for this purpose.

The dependencies (for both the interfaces and the implementations) are managed by the magnolia-rest-integration module.

Magnolia's REST web services consist of several modules:

  • REST Services
  • REST Integration
  • REST Content Delivery
  • REST Tools

REST Services

The REST Services module installs the following endpoints of the REST API: nodes, properties and commands.

Node nameValue

 modules


 rest-services


 rest-endpoints


 commands


 nodes


 class

info.magnolia.rest.service.node.definition.ConfiguredNodeEndpointDefinition

 implementationClass

info.magnolia.rest.service.node.v1.NodeEndpoint

 properties


REST Integration

The REST Integration module installs the integration part of REST. The module:

  • Manages the dependencies for the required JAX-RS libraries.
  • Monitors /config/<module-name>/rest-endpoints for any custom endpoints you want to register. The monitoring mechanism is the same as used for observing registered dialogs, templates and apps. 
  • Installs a special servlet RestDispatcherServlet which dispatches requests to the individual endpoints registered in configuration. 
  • Lets you define additional providers or marshallers (called MessageBodyWorkers  in RESTeasy) you might need. The providers are responsible for translating the return object into JSON/XML and vice-versa.
  • Installs the default rest role that initially prevents access to unauthorized requests.

Node nameValue

 modules


 rest-integration


 config


 additionalProviders


 restExceptionMapper


 providerClass

info.magnolia.rest.RestExceptionMapper

 restJacksonDelegateProvider


 providerClass

info.magnolia.resteasy.client.components.RestEasyDelegateJacksonProvider

 apiListingResource


 providerClass

io.swagger.jaxrs.listing.ApiListingResource

 swaggerSerializers


 providerClass

io.swagger.jaxrs.listing.SwaggerSerializers

REST Content Delivery

The REST Content Delivery module lets you configure a content delivery endpoint with minimal overhead. 

The delivery endpoint allows you to get JCR content through a RESTful API. The nodes can be pages, components, stories or anything else that is stored in a workspace. The response is displayed in a concise JSON format.

This module depends on the rest-integration module.

REST Tools

The REST Tools module integrates the swagger tools into the Admin UI. These tools ease the development and testing of REST endpoints.

The module extends the RestDispatcherServlet with a custom, API-aware servlet that can read API annotations from all available REST endpoints. The servlet enables the endpoints in the Swagger API explorer. If you write your own endpoint you need to add annotations in the code yourself. 

(warning) Not installed by default.

Installing

Maven is the easiest way to install the modules. Add the following dependencies to your bundle:

<dependency>
  <groupId>info.magnolia.rest</groupId>
  <artifactId>magnolia-rest-services</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.8</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>info.magnolia.rest</groupId>
  <artifactId>magnolia-rest-integration</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.8</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>info.magnolia.rest</groupId>
  <artifactId>magnolia-rest-content-delivery</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.8</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>info.magnolia.rest</groupId>
  <artifactId>magnolia-rest-tools</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.8</version>
</dependency>

Pre-built JARs are also available for download. See Installing a module for help.

Preconfigured Magnolia bundles contain the magnolia-rest-services, magnolia-rest-integration and magnolia-rest-content-delivery modules but not magnolia-rest-tools. When adding magnolia-rest-tools directly to your bundle, unpack the zip file and add all the files it contains to the WEB-INF/libs folder of your webapps.

Configuration

REST Tools module - Setting the API base path

The Swagger API explorer tool searches for the API at a path set in /modules/rest-tools/config/apiBasepath. The default value is  http://localhost:8080/.rest . The value for this property must match the following pattern:

<protocol>://<hostname>:<port>/<context>/.rest

When using one of Magnolia's preconfigured bundles running on localhost, set the property to  http://localhost:8080/magnoliaAuthor/.rest .

Set the path to where REST services reside on your system. If you run the standard Magnolia bundle and work on the author instance, set the path to  http://localhost:8080/magnoliaAuthor/.rest .

Node nameValue

 modules


 rest-tools


 config


 apiBasepath

http://localhost:8080/magnoliaAuthor/.rest

After setting the base path, restart Magnolia.

Swagger is in Dev > REST Tools.


REST Services module - configuring the commands endpoint

You can make sweeping changes with commands, such as bypassing approval and deleting the whole site. Commands are therefore subject to special security restrictions. 

To enable the use of commands through REST:

  1. In the Security app, grant URI access permission to the path /.rest/commands/v2/* to the role for users who need access to the commands endpoint.
  2. Whitelist any commands you want to expose to REST. The white list is managed in /modules/rest-services/rest-endpoints/commands/enabledCommands.
Node nameValue

 modules


 rest-services


 rest-endpoints


 commands


 enabledCommands


 activate


 access


 roles


 rest

rest-admin

 catalogName

website

 commandName

activate

 markAsDeleted


 backup


Properties:

enabledCommands

required

Enabled commands node.

<command>

required

Arbitrary name for the command. Use any name you like.

access

required

Access node.

roles

required

Roles node.

<role>

required

Role name. Grants the role permission to execute the command. Add the rest-admin role. The property name is arbitrary but the value must be a valid role name.

catalogName

required

Catalog where the command resides.

commandName

required

Command definition name.

Content Delivery module - configuring the delivery endpoint

You can define multiple endpoints in the version 2 of the delivery endpoint, definitions can be in YAML or in JCR ( on the configuration workspace).

Every endpoint is accessible via distinct  endpointPath . The endpointPath property is set automatically by the given name and location of the endpoint definition, or it can be set explicitly in the configuration.

<magnolia-base-path>/.rest/endpointPath/{path}
<magnolia-base-path>/.rest/endpointPath?query-parameters

restEndpoints/my-endpoint.yaml
class: info.magnolia.rest.delivery.jcr.v2.JcrDeliveryEndpointDefinition
workspace: website
depth: 2
includeSystemProperties: false
nodeTypes:
  - mgnl:page
childNodeTypes:
  - mgnl:area
  - mgnl:component
#references
Node nameValue

 restEndpoints


 my-endpoint


 class

info.magnolia.rest.delivery.jcr.v2.JcrDeliveryEndpointDefinition

 workspace

website

 depth

2

 includeSystemProperties

false

 nodeTypes


 0

mgnl:page

 childNodeTypes


 0

mgnl:area

 1

mgnl:component

For a complete reference - please see Delivery endpoint API v2 - Configuration.

Security

See REST security.