External API

Introduction

The external API inside Nextcloud allows third party developers to access data provided by Nextcloud apps. Nextcloud follows the OpenCloudMesh specification (draft).

Usage

Registering methods

Methods are registered inside the appinfo/routes.php by returning an array holding the endpoint meta data.

<?php

'ocs' => [
    // Apps
    ['name' => 'Bar#getFoo', 'url' => '/foobar', 'verb' => 'GET'],
];

Returning data

Once the API backend has matched your URL, your callable function as defined in BarController::getFoo will be executed. The AppFramework will make sure that send parameters are provided to the method based on its declaration. To return data back to the client, you should return an instance of (a subclass of) OCPAppFrameworkHttpResponse, typically OCSResponse. The API backend will then use this to construct the XML or JSON response.

Authentication & basics

Because REST is stateless you have to send user and password each time you access the API. Therefore running Nextcloud with SSL is highly recommended; otherwise everyone in your network can log your credentials:

https://user:password@example.com/ocs/v1.php/apps/yourapp

Output

The output defaults to XML. If you want to get JSON append this to the URL:

?format=json

Or set the proper Accept header:

Accept: application/json

Output from the application is wrapped inside a data element:

XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ocs>
 <meta>
  <status>ok</status>
  <statuscode>100</statuscode>
  <message/>
 </meta>
 <data>
   <!-- data here -->
 </data>
</ocs>

JSON:

{
  "ocs": {
    "meta": {
      "status": "ok",
      "statuscode": 100,
      "message": null
    },
    "data": {
      // data here
    }
  }
}

Statuscodes

The statuscode can be any of the following numbers:

• 100 - successful
• 996 - server error
• 997 - not authorized
• 998 - not found
• 999 - unknown error