README

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About

This TYPO3 Extension adds a generic API capability to TYPO3. The strength of this extension lies in its integration in TYPO3 itself and its ease of being used by other extensions. If you want to create a fast and safe API in TYPO3 you should use this extension.

There is no purpose in installing this extension without another extension that requires it.

Features

• Based on its own extendable PSR-15 request Middleware stack.
• Early entrypoint: The API target is executed as soon as possible.
• Frontend entrypoint: The API target is executed after the TYPO3 frontend was booted. TypoScript etc. is available.
• Automatic response formatting into XML, JSON, CSV and more.

Usage

Creating an API endpoint with EXT:api is simple and fast. EXT:api and your extension must be installed for the following steps.

1. Create your API endpoint class. It can be anywhere but it is good practice to put it in Classes/Api. Name your class after its use case. (e.g. Vendor\Packaga\Api\VersionApi). Your API class must implement the interface \CoStack\Api\Api\Api. Return an array with some values to begin with.
2. Create your API registration file in Configuration/Api.php and register your API class. The file must return an associative array. The associative index is the ROUTE, or API endpoint name and will be part of the URL. Here is an example with the StatusApi class.

    return [
       'status' => [
           'class' => \CoStack\Api\Api\StatusApi::class,
       ],
    ];
   

3. Login as administrator to your TYPO3 Backend. Go to the root page (ID 0) and select the list module. Create a new API token. Your registered API class should show up in the API scope list. Give your token a name and add your API endpoint to the list of APIs in scope. Safe the token to generate the token's secret.
4. You can test your API by using curl. Replace SECRET, DOMAIN, EXTKEY and ROUTE with your values:\ curl -H "Accept: application/json" -H "X-T3API-TOKEN: <SECRET>" https://<DOMAIN>/api/<EXTKEY>/<ROUTE>\ Example: curl -H "Accept: application/json" -H "X-T3API-TOKEN: a220d5a473232e636f845e0f6919981a1baf13e97758d83b2bde7c5ec68954b7" https://local.myproject.de/api/api/status You should see the array JSON encoded. (As of EXT:api 3.0 you can also use the GET parameter token instead of the X-T3API-TOKEN header)

Advanced usage

Automatic response formatting

Full documentation: ResponseFormatting.md

EXT:api tries to determine which content type was requested and formats the response accordingly. This spares you the part of the identification and formatting of the response.

If you request /api/api/status.xml you will receive XML as response, if you request /api/api/status.json, you will get the response as JSON string. Calling the API without a file extension /api/api/status can still send an Accept header, which contains a list of prioritized mime types which should be returned. (Your browser typically sends something like text/html,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8). EXT:api will try to find a formatter for the highest prioritized mime type to format the response. If no Accept header was given, the mime type configured for the API will be used.

Additional middleware

Full documentation: Middlewares.md

The EXT:api middleware stack is fully configurable. Register your own middleware in Configuration/RequestMiddlewares.php:

<?php

return [
    'api' => [
        'vendor/ext/request/logger' => [
            'target' => \Vendor\Ext\Middleware\Api\Logger::class,
            'before' => [
                'co-stack/api/router',
            ],
        ],
    ],
];

API route configuration

Full documentation: ApiRoutes.md

Creating APIs is very easy. Create the file Configuration/Api.php in your extension and register your API.

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

return [
    'v1/extension/version' => [
        'class' => \CoStack\Api\Api\ExtensionVersionApi::class,
    ],
];

Replace EXT_KEY with the extension key of your extension.

Call the API: https://host.tld/api/EXT_KEY/v1/extension/version

Debugging

To develop and debug your API calls you should set TYPO3's displayErrors to wither 1 for local development. In public or production environments displayErrors should be -1 and your devIPmask should be set. Enabling this setting will show exception instead of failing silently.

curl

Your API responses may be empty if something went wrong. You can add following options to your curl call to get more information:

• -I: Display the response headers (especially useful if you do not see any response).
• -H "X-T3API-SAPI: cli": Force the exception to be rendered for CLI.

Following HTTP Status codes are currently implemented:

• 403: You did not include an authentication header (X-T3API-TOKEN) or the provided secret is incorrect.
• 406: You did not include an accept header in your request or the accepted mime is not supported. Always try with application/json first.
• 429: You hit the hard rate limit. Increase the requests per minute in the extension settings. You can set this to 0 to disable the rate limiter, but you must be aware of security implications (e.g. DoS).
• 500: An exception occurred in your API class. Check the logs.

PhpStorm

When you do not get the results you expect from an API call you can debug requests with xDebug and PhpStorm.

Please use the internet search if you have any questions about xDebug or PhpStorm. We will not answer inquiries on these topics.

1. Create a new .http scratch file. Replace SECRET, DOMAIN, EXTKEY and ROUTE with your values):

    https://<DOMAIN>/api/<EXTKEY>/<ROUTE>
    Accept: application/json
    X-T3API-TOKEN: <SECRET>
   

2. Add a stop point in \CoStack\Api\Middleware\Frontend\EarlyApiMiddleware::process.
3. Click on the green arrow left of the URL and select PHP Debug.
4. If your project is set up correctly it should hit your stop point.