REST services are services that are executed by connecting to an URL that defines operation and parameters then it returns an answer – not seldom as JSon objects.

Calling existing REST services MDriven supports a couple of EAL operators to manage REST services. All operators reside on the selfVM variable – available only in the ViewModel context.

selfVM.RestGet(targeturl,user,pwd,optionalnestingwithheaders)

selfVM.RestPost(targeturl,user,pwd,optionalnestingwithheadersAndUploadValues)

selfVM.RestDownload(targeturl,user,pwd,optionalnestingwithheaders)

There is a also a new helper operator on selfVM:

selfVM.JSonToObjects( «<Type>» ,  JSonDataInStringFormat)

The selfVM.JSonToObjects creates objects of class Type and matches attributes and association from the json data – and it can create object trees (unclosed graphs) by following names on associations. These few additions enables us to consume Rest services that others expose.

And when it comes to exposing ourselves to others – Turnkey has two new MVC verbs:

MDrivenRest/Get?command=vmname&id=rootobjref

MDrivenRest/Post?command=vmname&id=rootobjref

What they do is that they look for ViewModel named as the command-parameter, if one is found the accessgroups are checked to see if access is allowed. If it is, additional parameters sent in the url are matched against ViewModel variables – and given corresponding values. Then any actions present in the root level of the ViewModel are executed. And then the Get verb packs the viewmodel content as json in the response.

The Post verb looks in the request values after names that match the ViewModel root – if match is found the corresponding value is applied. Then changes – if any – are committed to db. The last thing for post is that it packs the complete ViewModel as json in the response. If there is an error – a string “error: <message>” is returned.

You must set RestAllowed on ViewModels you want to allow Rest access to.

To make your experience more comfortable, we set the main tags mentioned in the video to the right bar menu of this mini player. Choose the interesting subtitle on the list and immediately get to the exact theme timeplace in the video. Now you can pick any topic to be instructed without watching the whole video.

What is REST? How does it work with MDriven turnkey?

calling an existing REST service exposing ourself as REST service
MDriven turnkey app slot how to expose information as the Rest service? MDriven Rest/get strategy
how to consume data?
selfvm Rest/Get operator hard-coded objects
Json to objects operator update data with allow post
RestPost operator as a post command operation execution vSomeParam adding new parameters

Raw subtitles text

Rest services and MDriven turnkey, so Rest

is a very powerful simple way to access

web services on the web and retrieving

information from really anyone

so there's a growing catalog of available

web services, that deliver rest type

messages just to name a few and you

could get the things from Spotify to get

artists or seek their catalog with

resting interfaces you could call on

services to upload the word documents to

get the PDF in return, you could up

request the email sent in your name etc

so it's a very powerful way to get

both information and functionality

from other providers, so how does it

work with MDriven turnkey, well there

actually two kinds of needs one kind

is calling existing rest services and

the other one is to expose our self as

rest services, so we're going to look at

both today and there's a new article out

rest services and  MDriven turnkey

so calling an existing rest service

there are new ocl operators on the selfVM class

so you can call a target URL

and get data back and you can post to

target URL or you can download and this

is the case when you have requested

something bigger like a file being

produced for you or something

there's also a method to convert JSon

that you have in a string

to objects in your model

so that it will be easier to work on, with the data and with the tools

you know from MDriven designer and the

second thing that we're going to talk

about is exposing our selves as rest services

and this is actually a functionality of MDriven turnkey

so there's an MDrivenRest/get that

takes a command which actually is

ViewModel name and the root object and there is

an MDriven post and we're going to see

how these two simple mvc verbs will

actually solve, I believe,

all problems for us, so let's dive into

some example, I have this model from before

it resides in my MDriven turnkey 006 app slot

and it has a few things like show

all cars and once on a car you could

click it and view edit one car and then it has the override and I

don't want this in this case I'm gonna

remove that, I'm going to go off screen

so I'm back and this is the default view

that was rendered for us

given the view model that

looked like this, right, so what we can do now

is to try an access this information

try to expose this same information as the rest service

in order to do that, we need to select

the head of the view model and set this new property

this is initially false, but if we want a

view to act as a data source available

from a Rest request, we need to set Rest

allowed to true like that and once we have done that I'm also

gonna add and remove this action just

not to confuse we're going to come back to this later

so you're setting a comment on this one

and it should do judt something to be okay

we're gonna leave it like that and so

can we turn this information as rest

well now we have said it allow, said that

it was allow Rest, so we're going to

upload that, so that our turnkey site

works on this view model and check status

and we're done to get this, we could

simply try an access our site with the

new strategy that was said here MDrivenRest/get

like this, like so, but we want to have this view model and this

root object,so let's paste in the view

model name and the root object reference

that shouldn't be there, like this

executing that returns our data as a Rest

document, so let's check this out

registration number F F X Y if I were to

change it here to my new car is FPT128

that's really cool, because that's

almost as ftp and 128 is really

important number to me because it's well

binary and so I'm quite happy with my

registration number on your card that's

that's finally one I can remember and

save that and as I have saved that and

hit this one again, I can see that it updates

ok so this is one way to expose ourselves as a rest service

let's try and consume ourselves that

sounds weird, but what I mean is that we

could add a viewmodel, well if I'm not

locked by the model dialogue, let's add a

new view model and let's call this

consume our self, weird and going to root that in car and say that

let's add a class action for show

meaning that whenever we see a car there

should be an action that could take us

here, having done that I should see

that there is a class action car

view consume self and if I would wanted to fix

up that action I could do that here

calling it something else but

this is fine so what I want to do here

is I can add the registration number

just to see that, we have it and

then I could add a column prepared for action which really is

generic column with this one checked and

try and get by rest, so that's an action

that we're gonna call to try and consume

to get this information, so basically we

would want to do this in here

and selfvm is the one that has the new

rest operators, rest get and I'm not

been a little fast, because rest get

If I point at this I see the tooltip stating that

the first argument is the target URL

then it's a user and the password and

then it's the name of a nesting so for

now I'm just going to use the target URL

as the first param I'm going to leave the

other ones blank, so paste in that blank

blank the password and the nesting blank

and I didn't chose it correctly, so rest get, ok, so but that yes return

something that we need to store it somewhere

let's add a veriable to do this

viewmodel just to show on the root

I'm gonna do add variable which means

that again one new hear, can call it

that it's a string in here I can assign

the return value to this like this

then I could add a generic column with

the expression of the value of the new

variable, so we don't get confused going

to make this a little bigger like this, so what I want to do is to

push this button and I want to get this

information in this variable, can I do that

well, I'm uploading the model

check status and then I close it

and then I head back here and no

that's not the place, here and I refresh

this one, so we got a new action

view consume ourselves, right, sounds weird but

let's do it, I'm going to press ctrl to

get a new tab, fault I did test that again

press ctrl ok there's something wrong

with my language settings of the

control keys and targeted, so this is

the registration number and trying

get Rest and I get the same information right but as you note

this was like hard-coded to one specific card

the root ID which would mean that

doesn't really matter, what car I took

in here, if I took this one 12345 and

consume I would still get the ftp car

because that was hard-coded in here

so instead of doing this I would like to

just add the self, as I'm rooted,

the views was rooted in a car

externalid like that,  in that way

it would be new data for each,

for the rooted object, let's try that out

upload and refreshing it

okay, it wasn't done, refreshing it again, it was done

try and get by rest and now we see that

it is updated, now let's see what happens

if I change this, seven,and what should

happen when I try and get by rest well let's see what happens

it returns the same thing

why because I haven't saved yet so this

is running in its own and this is a new

query against the database and the data

that's actually in the database not the

data that this session is changing, so if

I save this and then press this one I

get the "seven" right nothing strange about that

and just important to know that the

rest operations running their own space

ok just to ensure that we could call anyone

let's do, let's copy this one and put it

below and call it get stuff from spotify by

I was on the spotify developer page

finding out how to formulate a query and I have it here

so and it says query - Metallica and

type- artist so that would assign it

to the new variable as well that would

be fine just testing, uploading and

refreshing get stuff from Spotify that

we get a bunch of data from from there

if we would want to do more advanced

stuff with this like here we let's see

what is the data want to copy that copy

and I'm gonna bring it up in the most

versatile tool yet ever invented, the notepad

yeah, whatever artists' it says it has a

link with artists that goes to here

no here is this one

well it might not be the most brilliant tool

this not bad anyhow, but what I want

to do is to be able to read some of the

things here like, I want to convert it to

objects and these are properties of

the artists object, so and how would I go about that

well I could use the new operator self

selfVM was calling something with

Json to objects and it takes a

type and a string with Json, the type is

actually what kind of root object it

should create from the Json and let's see

and let's just say that we don't have

that yet, but we have this one it's the

vNew variable, but we need to have

somewhere where to store the date

that we get, let's add a new diagram or

rather just do it here and a class data

from spotify and class artist

that has the relation called artist

why, because that what it was

called in the data, so like that and we

want to get this attribute maybe that we

need to match it with an attribute here

and items we might not care about

let's see how does this data

it has a name, so going to add that as well,

so this is the objector we could create and then

it will follow the data and create these as

well that's the general ID idea like that data from spotify

take the values from there and just to

see turn into object call this one

and how can we verify that it works

add the nesting this one going

to be our test all instances right and

it's gonna be hooked up to it this one

call this one artist and the type will

be artist as well and we grab the

properties that we have in it href and the name

let's see how this will work out for us

again upload check that we're done

now it's great that the table for the artist

and things like that, so no need to call

the DBA today, we can manage ourselves

opening up this one consume

ourelves and get stuff from Spotify and

turn into objects and it found and href

but it couldn't match to query metallic

offset let's do the same question hereitems, images

these are only images , so it's all the way down here maybe, no

that's another one, okay I'm gonna figure this out I'm going off screen

ok now I think I got it, it's the items

property that holds all the results so

for this to work we would need to

actually introduce something in between

here called the result set and there is

the one that holds to our tests and

then there would be an association here

called items, this is how this data

looks, so upload that instead

good thing I didn't involve the DBA

because he would rip my head off because

I haven't checked thoroughly enough

before asking him to do work for me

so cancel and refresh this one, get stuff

from Spotify turn into objects

metallica, metalica with Ozzy Osborne,

Lou Reed right so I could choose to save

this and then I would have those objects

and that would be some kind of reference

data for my system to work with or

consider to make this class transient

and ask for it every time

still you can do anything you need with

this strongly typed information once you

have the reference it from from the Json

right that was then turn into objects

Json turning to objects operator,Json to

objects and is there anything left to

show you, yes you will want to allow post

to your own data, so what if we try and

get by Rest and we want to post back a

new registration number or other

just want to post back a new

registration to update supervine

let's add a veriable to have hold the new

registration number, vNewRegNum  okay

and let's add a cgeneric column that has

that expression and let's not call it

exact the same thing as the other one

because that's not allowed and put it

put it here and put it below and I'm

gonna make it smaller and below, like that

yep that's fine, that's fine

so I have a new registration number, now

I actually want to post that back to my

rest post, I want to send back to

myself, so we need an action for that

it sort of looks like this one,

UpdateRegNumViaRestPost ok going to change this one

to rest post, bring up that view editor

with some expression just to check

how does it selfVM.RestPost it has

four parameters all strings, target URL

user password and name of nesting ok

what it says after in the end is

adds data in nesting and it also says that

file name underscore something

with upload that something column with

filename from filename underscore something, so that's

advanced we will leave that for later

but what it says that it needs a

nesting to hold the data that we

gonna post up, so assume that we call

that nesting data to post

published and we send that in and then

we add other nesting and we say it's data to post

and it's of type

well it don't care really because we're

going to add the variable at the generic

column and in this column

we're gonna use variable vNewRegNum

like that and now it's important

that what we're going to post up we're

going to post it to this view model called edit one car

ok, so that's add it one car, but what

what does it expect, well edit

on car has these properties, this is what

what will be exposed as the rest

what we can set by rest registration

number it's called right, so we head back

to the consume and we call this one

registration... no I was wrong, ctrl+z to call this one registration

so what we say here is that and grab

grab do rest post to ourselves, but this could

be anywhere, because we got the full URL

on the command "edit one car" with ID

as ourselves the rooted object

from this view that we are in and use

data to post nesting, to get data

so it will upload a multi-part rest

message with at least this column

registration number and set to the

variable that we have assigned our

variable and after that it will get the

return result and how rest post works in

and MDriven is that it will return the

complete as from get, if everything is ok

so that is enough to try it out

upload model, check status, done refresh

so now we have this registration number and if we will get

to get it we see that it's this one and

we set something else so now our variable has

the value something else and we try to

update the registration number by

calling a post request back to ourselves

seems like nothing happened, going off screen

ok I'm back and I figured the problem out

and actually this when I say data to

post it's important that its existing

as a name here, so it will be found so

self and back is associated to the data post

this this is small screen here

well, this one goes up here come back here

maybe we should do something like this

to better fit on the screen

that was the first error but I did another thing wrong as well in my

URL even if I said that it was the

command rest post, which will be

a post command on I actually had from the

copypaste to get verb on our server

our server thought, that well I'm not

gonna post anything because this is a get

so no data was actually applied, so having fix those things and

of course it's just common sense when

you post you need to go to

the post endpoint and when you get you do it

from the get endpoint and once that is done

and I uploaded the model with

those changes I get refresh the view

I can now enter something else on

the registration number and update via

post and this one is returned with registration numbers

something number something else

so we have shown how we can expose

ourselves as rest services and we have

also shown how we can update via rest

services we have shown how we can

consume others how we can consume the

JSon result from others to create the objects in our model and

what's left well one cool thing that we need to show

is the ability to actually execute

operations because this becomes

important if you want to do delete maybe

some kind of complex operation on

your data before returning, actually it's

quite easy and we saw it already because

I had it in the test sample I guess

on the one that we have enabled rest for

allow rest- edit one car we can have it

actions all actions available on the

root level will actually be executed

they will be executed on gets and they

will be executed on posts, so this is important to remember

we can actually do stuff here, so remember

if I've commented this out before you

comment it back again, so what it says here is that

registration number should equals itself

plus something and here it says some

param and this is another important

aspect that we can send in more

parameters on the command line or on the URLs

parameters, HTML parameters, so what is

this that's actually just a veriable

defined here with some param as string

and that would be nothing I guess if we

don't have a default value, let's set the

default value, something and upload model

and this reloads something else

is registration number

and we got this, we didn't get the default value

let's see if I put that wrong I

can't really remember with default value

is going, think it's going in the other one

uploading the model off-screen, refreshing this

what happened now, unbracket, check

status and that probably wasn't a good place to

have it and see if everything is work

you see localhost I'm in the

wrong place,something else

something else, oh and apparently I shouldn't have had

their asteriskes that so the value is

actually something else, but since the

action executes before it returns from

the get it appends this so this isn't

actually saved, but what if I were to do the same on the post

well I say that the new registration

number should be www and update

I sort of expected that to become

and never mind

so can we change this value to

something else by sending in something

else on that URL

yes, we can consume ourselves and we

have this place here and we can just

send in let's add some more parameters

and they are separated by n and we call

that one well now the short-term memory problem

appears I don't remember

what do we call it, on card call it

vSomeParam, consume, hello,

so I can send data and one that's actually

interesting, didn't update if anyone can

help me find that error, ok and back here

upload and trying it rest,now it's hello

because that's what we sent on that we

sent on on the command line or a day in

the URL alright so this is a short introduction

on how to work with them rest interfaces

both consuming information from others

and exposing information from ourselves

and it's quite powerful and you can do a

lot of things and it's good when

integrating both functionality and

information services into your system