=========================
XML-RPC access to Roundup
=========================

.. contents::

Introduction
------------
Version 1.4 of Roundup includes an XML-RPC frontend. Some installations find
that roundup-admins requirement of local access to the tracker instance
limiting. The XML-RPC frontend provides the ability to execute a limited subset
of commands similar to those found in roundup-admin from remote machines. 

There are two ways to access the xmlrpc interface:

  stand alone roundup-xmlrpc-server

  access via the roundup server
  
  
stand alone roundup-xmlrpc-server
---------------------------------
The Roundup XML-RPC standalone server must be started before remote clients can access the
tracker via XML-RPC. ``roundup-xmlrpc-server`` is installed in the scripts
directory alongside ``roundup-server`` and roundup-admin``. When invoked, the
location of the tracker instance must be specified.

	roundup-xmlrpc-server -i ``/path/to/tracker``

The default port is ``8000``. An alternative port can be specified with the
``--port`` switch.

accessing via roundup server
----------------------------
In addition to running a stand alone server described above, the
xmlrpc service is available from the roundup HTTP server. Access it by
sending text/xml data to the URL for the roundup tracker with the last
component of the url set to 'xmlrpc'.

security consideration
======================
Note that the current ``roundup-xmlrpc-server`` implementation does not
support SSL. This means that usernames and passwords will be passed in
cleartext unless the server is being proxied behind another server (such as
Apache or lighttpd) that provide SSL.

client API
----------
The server currently implements four methods. Each method requires that the
user provide a username and password in the HTTP authorization header in order
to authenticate the request against the tracker.

======= ====================================================================
Command Description
======= ====================================================================
list    arguments: *classname, [property_name]*

        List all elements of a given ``classname``. If ``property_name`` is
        specified, that is the property that will be displayed for each
        element. If ``property_name`` is not specified the default label
        property will be used.

display arguments: *designator, [property_1, ..., property_N]*

        Display a single item in the tracker as specified by ``designator``
        (e.g. issue20 or user5). The default is to display all properties
        for the item. Alternatively, a list of properties to display can be
        specified.

create  arguments: *classname, arg_1 ... arg_N*

        Create a new instance of ``classname`` with ``arg_1`` through
        ``arg_N`` as the values of the new instance. The arguments are
        name=value pairs (e.g. ``status='3'``).

set     arguments: *designator, arg_1 ... arg_N*

        Set the values of an existing item in the tracker as specified by
        ``designator``. The new values are specified in ``arg_1`` through
        ``arg_N``. The arguments are name=value pairs (e.g. ``status='3'``).

lookup  arguments: *classname, key_value*

        looks up the key_value for the given class. The class needs to
        have a key and the user needs search permission on the key
        attribute and id for the given classname.

filter  arguments: *classname, list or None, attributes*
        
        list can be None (requires ``allow_none=True`` when
        instantiating the ServerProxy) to indicate search for all values,
        or a list of ids. The attributes are given as a dictionary of
        name value pairs to search for.
======= ====================================================================

sample python client
====================
::

        >>> import xmlrpclib
        >>> roundup_server = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy('http://username:password@localhost:8000', allow_none=True)
        >>> roundup_server.list('user')
        ['admin', 'anonymous', 'demo']
        >>> roundup_server.list('issue', 'id')
        ['1']
        >>> roundup_server.display('issue1')
        {'assignedto' : None, 'files' : [], 'title' = 'yes, ..... }
        >>> roundup_server.display('issue1', 'priority', 'status')
        {'priority' : '1', 'status' : '2'}
        >>> roundup_server.set('issue1', 'status=3')
        >>> roundup_server.display('issue1', 'status')
        {'status' : '3' }
        >>> roundup_server.create('issue', "title='another bug'", "status=2")
        '2'
        >>> roundup_server.filter('user',None,{'username':'adm'})
        ['1']
        >>> roundup_server.filter('user',['1','2'],{'username':'adm'})
        ['1']
        >>> roundup_server.filter('user',['2'],{'username':'adm'})
        []
        >>> roundup_server.filter('user',[],{'username':'adm'})
        []
        >>> roundup_server.lookup('user','admin')
        '1'

If you are accessing the interface via the roundup HTTP server, a url
similar to:

  http://username:password@localhost:8000/tracker/xmlrpc

should be used.