Getting started

Updated

To start using the ricloud API, you first need to get in touch to setup your organisation. Once this is completed, you should have your initial key_token which will grant you access to the API.

The API calls in this section are performed using cURL, but these can be easily substituted with equivalent calls from ricloud-py.

Viewing your organisation

First, we will take a quick look at your organisation.

curl 'https://ricloud-api.reincubate.com/organisation' \
  -H 'Authorization: Token <your key_token>'

You should see a response similar to the one below. If you get a HTTP 401 response then check the key_token value you supplied in the Authorization header.

{
    "id": 1,
    "resource": "organisation",
    "name": "Getting started",
    "slug": "getting-started",
    "permissions": {
        "id": 1,
        "resource": "organisation_permissions",
        "identifier": "default",
        "scopes": {
            "source_type:icloud.*": [],
            "task_type:*": [],
            "data_type:icloud.account.info": [],
        },
        "date_created": "2018-11-22T12:59:57.168354Z"
    },
    "storage_configs": {
      "data": [],
      "has_more": false,
      "total_count": 0,
      "url": "/configs/storage"
    },
    "storage_config_default": null,
    "webhook_configs": {
      "data": [],
      "has_more": false,
      "total_count": 0,
      "url": "/configs/webhook"
    },
    "webhook_config_default": null,
    "state": "unconfigured",
    "date_created": "2018-11-22T12:59:57.016467Z"
}

Here you can see some information about your organisation:

  • permissions displays the base permissions for your organisation.
  • storage_configs and storage_config_default are empty as we are yet to setup any.
  • webhook_configs and webhook_config_default are also empty for the same reason.
  • state is unconfigured which reflects the lack of valid storage configs.

We will come back to configuration steps later, as this does not prevent you from accessing services through the API.

Now that we have confirmed your organisation is up and running, let's try accessing an iCloud account.

Setting up a session

A session represents access to a source. In this case, our source will be an iCloud account and creating a session will effectively "login" to the account. The session will then take care of keeping track of the connection between the API and iCloud's system for future requests.

Create a user

Before a session can be setup, a user needs to be created to define which end-user wants to access the source. This helps with session management and data security on the API.

curl 'https://ricloud-api.reincubate.com/users' \
  -X POST \
  -H 'Authorization: Token <your key_token>' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "identifier": "<some identifier for the user your system will recognise>"
}'

The response will contain the user ID needed in the next call.

{
  "id": "1",
  "resource": "user",
  "organisation": "1",
  "key": "1",
  "identifier": "<your user identifier>",
  "state": "active",
  "date_created": "2018-11-22T13:49:37.215516Z"
}

Create a session

curl 'https://ricloud-api.reincubate.com/sessions' \
  -X POST \
  -H 'Authorization: Token <your key_token>' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "source": {
    "user": "<user ID from previous request>",
    "type": "icloud.account",
    "identifier": "<iCloud account username>"
  },
  "payload": {
    "password": "<iCloud account password>"
  }
}'

The response will contain a session resource, which will initially be in the pending state while the API goes through the process of setting up communications with the third-party service.

{
  "id": "ed855b07-f72b-4983-ac1d-980fafee8a0b",
  "resource": "session",
  "organisation": "1",
  "user": "1",
  "source": "1",
  "state": "pending",
  "error": null,
  "date_created": "2018-11-22T13:50:12.628776Z",
  "date_expired": null
}

You can check the state of the session via the retrieve call.

curl 'https://ricloud-api.reincubate.com/sessions/ed855b07-f72b-4983-ac1d-980fafee8a0b' \
  -H 'Authorization: Token <your key_token>'

If the state becomes failed, something went wrong during the initialisation process. Check the value of the error attribute for more details. If 2FA is enabled on your account -- and you got your password correct -- the error encountered is likely to be code-required. You will have been prompted with a 2FA code on one of your iOS devices connected to the account. Simply make the call from step (1) again, but this time including the 2FA code in the payload.

curl 'https://ricloud-api.reincubate.com/sessions' \
  -X POST \
  -H 'Authorization: Token <your key_token>' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "source": {
    "user": "<user ID from previous request>",
    "type": "icloud.account",
    "identifier": "<iCloud account username>"
  },
  "payload": {
    "password": "<iCloud account password>",
    "code": "<2FA code>"
  }
}'

If another error occurred, please check the errors section for more information.

Once the state becomes active the session is ready for use to retrieve data and files from the source.

However, as we saw earlier, your organisation is not yet configured to receive any of this data.

Retrieving data and files

Before the API can start fetching data from a source, it needs to know where it should publish the data to. The API currently supports publishing to Google Cloud Storage and Amazon S3 (AWS) storage buckets, which need to be configured through a storage config belonging to your organisation. Follow the steps outlined in the storage configuration setup docs to get a bucket of your own ready for use with the API.

Once you have a storage config, you can try retrieving your organisation again. The state should now be active, rather than unconfigured.

Create a poll for data

To create a poll, all we need to provide is the ID of an active session and some details on the data or files we want retrieved.

curl https://ricloud-api.reincubate.com/polls \
  -X POST \
  -H 'Authorization: Token <your key_token>' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "session": "ed855b07-f72b-4983-ac1d-980fafee8a0b",
  "payload": {
    "data_types": ["icpl.photos"],
  }
}'

Note that in the call above we request the icpl.photos data type. You might be interested in retrieving a different type of data, or might not have permissions for this data type in particular. Substitute this value as necessary.

This will return a poll resource, with state in pending or processing. In the background, the API has also created a task which will do the actual work required to retrieve this information (a task was also created to set up our session earlier).

{
  "id": "f1447e76-59f1-486b-942f-6b90e3570c63",
  "resource": "poll",
  "organisation": "1",
  "key": "1",
  "user": "1",
  "source": "1",
  "session": "ed855b07-f72b-4983-ac1d-980fafee8a0b",
  "tasks_pending": [],
  "tasks_processing": ["6bdb82ad-28bf-4aad-ab2c-b4952a7aa3eb"],
  "tasks_completed": [],
  "results": {
    "data": [],
    "has_more": false,
    "total_count": 0,
    "url": "/polls/f1447e76-59f1-486b-942f-6b90e3570c63/results"
  },
  "errors": {
    "data": [],
    "has_more": false,
    "total_count": 0,
    "url": "/polls/f1447e76-59f1-486b-942f-6b90e3570c63/errors"
  },
  "state": "processing",
  "date_created": "2018-11-22T14:20:52.211618Z",
  "date_started": "2018-11-22T14:20:52.731838Z",
  "date_completed": null
}

Note the results attribute, which is empty at this point. This is where we will see references appear for any data or files published from this poll. Results are published as they become available, so they can be retrieved before the whole poll has completed.

Once all requested data and files have been published to your storage, the poll's state will change to completed.

Retrieve result information

This is done by looking at the results attribute of the poll.

curl 'https://ricloud-api.reincubate.com/polls/f1447e76-59f1-486b-942f-6b90e3570c63' \
  -H 'Authorization: Token <your key_token>'

The response will contain the information we need.

{
  "id": "f1447e76-59f1-486b-942f-6b90e3570c63",
  "resource": "poll",
  "organisation": "1",
  "key": "1",
  "user": "1",
  "source": "1",
  "session": "ed855b07-f72b-4983-ac1d-980fafee8a0b",
  "tasks_pending": [],
  "tasks_processing": [],
  "tasks_completed": ["6bdb82ad-28bf-4aad-ab2c-b4952a7aa3eb"],
  "results": {
    "data": [
      {
        "id": "754cfef0-7576-44c0-acfe-8b0d8d0dd32f",
        "resource": "result",
        "task": "6bdb82ad-28bf-4aad-ab2c-b4952a7aa3eb",
        "identifier": "data:info.account",
        "url": "<your storage config url>",
        "checksum": "2668324d21a20301ce71c28bc5e621d4",
        "size": 12345,
        "state": "available",
        "date_created": "2018-11-22T14:20:53.506542Z",
        "date_consumed": null,
        "date_deleted": null
      }
    ],
    "has_more": false,
    "total_count": 0,
    "url": "/polls/f1447e76-59f1-486b-942f-6b90e3570c63/results"
  },
  "errors": {
    "data": [],
    "has_more": false,
    "total_count": 0,
    "url": "/polls/f1447e76-59f1-486b-942f-6b90e3570c63/errors"
  },
  "state": "completed",
  "date_created": "2018-11-22T14:20:52.211618Z",
  "date_started": "2018-11-22T14:20:52.731838Z",
  "date_completed": "2018-11-22T14:20:53.548372Z"
}

The result's url attribute will point to the file stored in your bucket.

Receiving webhook events

Certain API functionality is triggered automatically, either as a result of external triggers such as a Reincubate Relay app finding new data or due to a subscription. In these cases, the API needs a way to tell your system that changes have happened or that new data has been published which you should be aware of.

To do this, the API makes use of webhook notifications. Before the API can start sending these, and before you can start using the Reincubate Relay service or subscriptions, your organisation needs to be configured with a valid webhook config. Follow the guide on webhook configuration for more details.

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