CONTENTdm Online Help - Configuring & Customizing Website

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Online Help — Version 6

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CONTENTdm API Reference

Overview

dmwebservices is designed to be a simple wrapper around the native API functions, with a few exceptions to improve error handling. Currently, only the functions listed below are supported, but future versions will provide access to all of the CONTENTdm API functions.

Note: A few additional API functions are handled by the utils controller in the CONTENTdm Website (instead of dmwebservices on the CONTENTdm Server). For more information, see CONTENTdm Website API Reference below.

dmWebServices provides an interface to the Web-based CONTENTdm PHP API functions, in the form:

http://CdmServer.com:port/dmwebservices/index.php?q=function/param1/param2/format/help/log

function
One of the CONTENTdm API functions.

param1, param2, and so on
Function-specific parameters documented in each function's help (number of parameters varies).

format
Either xml or json.

help
The string "help", which displays human-readable help for the function.

log
The string "log", which logs the calling user agent's IP address, a timestamp, the amount of time the call took to execute, and the parameters of the function.

Note: As of May 2013, there are some additional requirements when calling a CONTENTdm Server that is hosted by CONTENTdm Hosting Services:
1. The Server URL must use "https://", not "http://".
2. Do not use a port number (":81") with the Server URL.
3. Do not use the loopback interface ("localhost") in place of the Server URL.
For details please see:
http://www.contentdm.org/USC/blog/blogs/blog4.php/2013/05/02/customization-updates-required-for-contentdm-server-urls.

CONTENTdm Server API Functions — dmwebservices

CONTENTdm Website API Reference — utils

The following API functions are handled by the utils controller on the CONTENTdm Website (instead of dmwebservices on the CONTENTdm Server). These functions replace the CGI calls that were present in the version 5 API (showfile.exe and getimage.exe). These functions return binary data (dmsebservices functions return text in either XML or JSON format). And these functions differ in that website calls are relative (i.e., they don't contain the http: because they are relative to the same Web server whereas the dmwebservices calls are absolute calls requiring the full URL).

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