VMware Cloud Director OpenAPI

VMware Cloud Director OpenAPI

VMware Cloud Director OpenAPI is a new API that is defined using the OpenAPI standards.
This ReSTful API borrows some elements of the legacy VMware Cloud Director API and establishes new patterns for use as described below.

Authentication

Authentication and Authorization schemes are the same as those for the legacy APIs. You can authenticate using the JWT token via the Authorization header or specifying a session using x-vcloud-authorization (The latter form is deprecated).
Important Headers
  • X-VMWARE-VCLOUD-TENANT-CONTEXT - This header is used to perform any API action within a tenant organization. System administrators and Sub-provider administrators must include this header in the request if they want to perform actions in a tenant context. This header specifies the target organization's id.
  • X-VMWARE-VCLOUD-AUTH-CONTEXT - This header specifies the name of the organization to validate the JWT against and perform the API action requested. This is only needed in multisite scenarios where the JWT from one org is used to authenticate to another org.

Operation Patterns

This API follows the following general guidelines to establish a consistent CRUD pattern:
Operation Description Response Code Response Content
GET /items Returns a paginated list of items 200 Response will include Navigational links to the items in the list.
POST /items Returns newly created item 201 Content-Location header links to the newly created item
GET /items/urn Returns an individual item 200 A single item using same data type as that included in list above
PUT /items/urn Updates an individual item 200 Updated view of the item is returned
DELETE /items/urn Deletes the item 204 No content is returned.
Asynchronous operations
Asynchronous operations are determined by the server. In those cases, instead of responding as described above, the server responds with an HTTP Response code 202 and an empty body. The tracking task (which is the same task as all legacy API operations use) is linked via the URI provided in the Location header.
All API calls can choose to service a request asynchronously or synchronously as determined by the server upon interpreting the request. Operations that choose to exhibit this dual behavior will have both options documented by specifying both response code(s) below. The caller must be prepared to handle responses to such API calls by inspecting the HTTP Response code.
Error Conditions
All operations report errors using the following error reporting rules:
  • 400: Bad Request - In event of bad request due to incorrect data or other user error
  • 401: Bad Request - If user is unauthenticated or their session has expired
  • 403: Forbidden - If the user is not authorized or the entity does not exist

OpenAPI Design Concepts and Principles

  • IDs are full Uniform Resource Names (URNs).
  • OpenAPI's Content-Type is always application/json
  • REST links are in the Link header.
    • Multiple relationships for any link are represented by multiple values in a space-separated list.
    • Links have a custom VMware Cloud Director-specific "model" attribute that hints at the applicable data type for the links.
    • title + rel + model attributes evaluates to a unique link.
    • Links follow Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State (HATEOAS) principles. Links are present if certain operations are present and permitted for the user"s current role and the state of the referred entities.
  • APIs follow a flat structure relying on cross-referencing other entities instead of the navigational style used by the legacy VMware Cloud Director APIs.
  • Most endpoints that return a list support filtering and sorting similar to the query service in the legacy VMware Cloud Director APIs.
  • Accept header must be included to specify the API version for the request similar to calls to existing legacy VMware Cloud Director APIs.
  • Each feature has a version in the path element present in its URL.
    Note API URL's without a version in their paths must be considered experimental.

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