Empower VCF Operations Orchestrator API integration with HttpRestClient

The HTTP-REST plugin in VCF Operations Orchestrator represents API endpoints as RestHosts in the inventory. After defining a RestHost, you can authenticate and send HTTP requests such as GET and POST to its endpoint.

HttpRestClient handles common request tasks, including content types, errors and retries.

HttpRestClient provides these features:

• Supports GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE and HEAD.
• Retries failed connections with a configurable delay. Defaults are 5 attempts and 10 seconds between attempts.
• Accepts expected response codes, with defaults for each method.
• Can retry on a 500 status code. This is enabled by default.
• Handles application/x-www-form-urlencoded content automatically.
• Accepts an Accept-Type header, which defaults to application/json.
• Accepts a Content-Type header, which defaults to Accept-Type.
• Encodes URIs and URI components automatically, detecting existing encoding.
• Obfuscates secrets in logged content when they match password/secret/refreshToken.

HttpRestClient provides shared request handling between Orchestrator and API endpoints. It is designed to integrate with or extend any API service.

You can download my HttpRestClient module as a package here or as native JS here.

Use HttpRestClient

Import HttpRestClient into an action or workflow using one of these approaches:

As a variable:

var rest = new (System.getModule("com.simplygeek.rest").HttpRestClient())(restHost);

As an object property:

this.rest = new (System.getModule("com.simplygeek.rest").HttpRestClient())(restHost);

Alternatively, extend the class using classical inheritance:

    var HttpRestClient = System.getModule(
        "com.simplygeek.rest"
    ).HttpRestClient();

    ApiService.prototype = Object.create(
        HttpRestClient.prototype
    );
    ApiService.prototype.constructor = ApiService;

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
restHost	REST:RESTHost	The HTTP-REST RESTHost (either from the Inventory or transient)
retryMaxAttempts	Number	OPTIONAL – The max number of times to retry the connection (defaults to 5)
retryDelay	Number	OPTIONAL – The number of seconds between retries (defaults to 10)
retryOn500	Boolean	OPTIONAL – Whether to retry on a 500 status code (defaults to true)

The code creates an HttpRestClient instance in rest. Use this variable for API calls, or rename it if needed.

Supported methods

Use one of the following methods to make an API call:

GET

rest.httpGet(uri, acceptType, expectedResponseCodes, headers) → {*}

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
uri	String	The request uri
acceptType	String	OPTIONAL – The Accept-Type media type (defaults to application/json)
expectedResponseCodes	Array/Number	OPTIONAL – A list of expected response codes (defaults to [200, 201, 204])
headers	Array/String	OPTIONAL – A key/value set of headers to include in the request

Returns the request response object.

POST

rest.httpPost(uri, acceptType, content, contentType, expectedResponseCodes, headers) → {*}

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
uri	String	The request uri
acceptType	String	OPTIONAL – The Accept-Type media type (defaults to application/json)
content	Object	OPTIONAL – The request content (stringifies the payload when sent, defaults to {})
contentType	String	OPTIONAL – The Content-Type media type (defaults to application/json)
expectedResponseCodes	Array/Number	OPTIONAL – A list of expected response codes (defaults to [200, 201, 204])
headers	Array/String	OPTIONAL – A key/value set of headers to include in the request

Returns the request response object.

PUT

rest.httpPut(uri, acceptType, content, contentType, expectedResponseCodes, headers) → {*}

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
uri	String	The request uri
acceptType	String	OPTIONAL – The Accept-Type media type (defaults to application/json)
content	Object	The request content (stringifies the payload when sent)
contentType	String	OPTIONAL – The Content-Type media type (defaults to application/json)
expectedResponseCodes	Array/Number	OPTIONAL – A list of expected response codes (defaults to [200, 201, 204])
headers	Array/String	OPTIONAL – A key/value set of headers to include in the request

Returns the request response object.

PATCH

rest.httpPatch(uri, acceptType, content, contentType, expectedResponseCodes, headers) → {*}

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
uri	String	The request uri
acceptType	String	OPTIONAL – The Accept-Type media type (defaults to application/json)
content	Object	The request content (stringifies the payload when sent)
contentType	String	OPTIONAL – The Content-Type media type (defaults to application/json)
expectedResponseCodes	Array/Number	OPTIONAL – A list of expected response codes (defaults to [200, 201, 204])
headers	Array/String	OPTIONAL – A key/value set of headers to include in the request

Returns the request response object.

DELETE

rest.httpDelete(uri, acceptType, expectedResponseCodes, headers) → {*}

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
uri	String	The request uri
acceptType	String	OPTIONAL – The Accept-Type media type (defaults to application/json)
expectedResponseCodes	Array/Number	OPTIONAL – A list of expected response codes (defaults to [200, 201, 204])
headers	Array/String	OPTIONAL – A key/value set of headers to include in the request

Returns the request response object.

HEAD

rest.httpHead(uri, acceptType, expectedResponseCodes, headers) → {*}

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
uri	String	The request uri
acceptType	String	OPTIONAL – The Accept-Type media type (defaults to application/json)
expectedResponseCodes	Array/Number	OPTIONAL – A list of expected response codes (defaults to [200, 201, 204])
headers	Array/String	OPTIONAL – A key/value set of headers to include in the request

Returns the request response object.

Responses

Each method returns a RESTResponse object. The caller decides how to process it: retrieve the content as a string, inspect the headers or do both. The examples below show how to handle responses.

Examples

These examples demonstrate HttpRestClient usage.

GET example

var rest = new (System.getModule("com.simplygeek.rest").HttpRestClient())(restHost);
var mediaType = "application/json";
var uri = "/api/v2/tokens/";
var expectedResponseCodes = [200];

var response = rest.httpGet(
    uri,
    mediaType,
    expectedResponseCodes
);
var responseContent = JSON.parse(response.contentAsString);

POST example

var rest = new (System.getModule("com.simplygeek.rest").HttpRestClient())(restHost);
var mediaType = "application/json";
var uri = "/api/v2/tokens/";
var expectedResponseCodes = [201];
var content = {
    application: applicationId,
    scope: scope
};

var response = rest.httpPost(
    uri,
    mediaType,
    content,
    mediaType,
    expectedResponseCodes
);
var responseContent = JSON.parse(response.contentAsString);

DELETE example

var rest = new (System.getModule("com.simplygeek.rest").HttpRestClient())(restHost);
var mediaType = "application/json";
var sessionId = "abcde";
var uri = "/api/v2/tokens/" + sessionId + "/";
var expectedResponseCodes = [204];

rest.httpDelete(
    uri,
    mediaType,
    expectedResponseCodes
);

Thanks for reading, and please let me know if you have any suggestions for improving this service.