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API constructor (beta)

Using Aidbox API constructor you can:
  • define API, endpoints, handlers, and URL params schema
  • specify your own middlewares (e.g. Smart on FHIR authorization middleware)
The API constructor is in beta now. Please contact us if you have questions or need help.
API constructor requires knowledge of zen language.

Common API Constructor use cases

​

Usage examples:

Example setup

Use Run Aidbox locally to start Aidbox, here is configured API constructor example. Add these environment variables:
BOX_PROJECT_GIT_PROTOCOL=https
BOX_PROJECT_GIT_URL=https://github.com/Aidbox/aidbox-project-samples.git
AIDBOX_ZEN_ENTRYPOINT=mybox/box
BOX_PROJECT_GIT_SUB__PATH=aidbox-project-samples/api-constructor
Once Aidbox is running, open Profiles tab in the Aidbox UI. If everything is configured properly, page should contain namespace with AIDBOX_ZEN_ENTRYPOINT symbol which is mybox/box in this example. View of the symbol should show loaded routes.
Here's a notebook with the example API demo usage :
https://aidbox.app/ExportedNotebook/df9ac147-daa4-4495-87b5-c4367cd441ef
You can import it into the example and run test REST requests.

API constructor definitions

Entrypoint

Define an Aidbox server definition with AIDBOX_ZEN_ENTRYPOINT env, the value must be a namespace/symbol, e.g.:
AIDBOX_ZEN_ENTRYPOINT=mybox/box
The namespace with entrypoint symbol must be loaded: file containing namespace mentioned in AIDBOX_ZEN_PATHS and imported or specified directly inAIDBOX_ZEN_ENTRYPOINT env. More info on loading namespace​
Entrypoint symbol must be tagged with aidbox/system tag. aidbox/system describes a set of services to start and configurations.

Example

box
{:zen/tags #{aidbox/system}
:zen/desc "test server"
:services {:http server}}

Services

A service contains engine and its configuration.

Available engines:

  • aidbox/http - Describes http service, contains set of apis. Each api must be tagged with aidbox.rest/api.
  • aidbox/seed - Creates provided fixtures on start. Described here.

Example

server
{:zen/tags #{aidbox/service}
:engine aidbox/http
:apis #{api}}

aidbox.rest/api

An api describes routing, route can contain operations, subroutes and other apis. Operations must be tagged with aidbox.rest/op.
:middlewares can be added to an api.

Example

api
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/api}
"multi-example" {"Patient" {:apis #{get-patient-api change-patient-api}}}}
​
change-patient-api
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/api}
:middlewares [inject-tenant-mw]
:POST multi-box.operations/create-patient
[:id] {:PUT multi-box.operations/update-patient
:DELETE multi-box.operations/delete-patient}}

aidbox.rest/op

An op describes REST operation. :engine specifies what operation handler should be used for this operation. Each engine can accept own parameters

Example

create-patient
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/op}
:engine aidbox.rest.v1/create
:resource "Patient"
:format "fhir"}

Available aidbox.rest/op-engines

Miscellaneous

  • aidbox.rest.v1/aidbox-action - Expects :action, passes request to existing Aidbox action. You can see list of available operations with this request: GET /Operation?_elements=action&_result=array&_count=1000
  • aidbox.rest.v1/echo - expects :response in the definition, returns the response.

Regular FHIR API

Expect target resource type as :resource and :format (fhir or aidbox)
  • aidbox.rest.v1/search
  • aidbox.rest.v1/create
  • aidbox.rest.v1/read
  • aidbox.rest.v1/update
  • aidbox.rest.v1/delete
  • aidbox.rest.v1/patch
  • aidbox.rest.v1/transaction

ACL FHIR API

  • aidbox.rest.acl/search
  • aidbox.rest.acl/create
  • aidbox.rest.acl/read
  • aidbox.rest.acl/update
  • aidbox.rest.acl/delete
See full description and usage examples:

Middlewares

Middlewares can change incoming request before executing op. Middlewares are applied to aidbox.rest/api which contains operations or other apis. On request Aidbox routing determines what op should be executed. Before executing the op Aidbox collects all middlewares applied to the apis containing the op. Then collected middlewares are applied in sequence to the request.
A middleware should be defined with specified :engine. The :engine determines what the middleware will do. Depending on the chosen :engine middleware can accept different parameters.

Example

inject-tenant-mw
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/middleware}
:engine aidbox.rest.v1/transform-middleware
:rules {[:resource :meta :tenantId] [:oauth/user :data :tenantId]}}
​
change-patient-api
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/api}
:middlewares [inject-tenant-mw]
:POST multi-box.operations/create-patient
[:id] {:PUT multi-box.operations/update-patient
:DELETE multi-box.operations/delete-patient}}

List of available aidbox.rest/middleware-engine

  • aidbox.rest.v1/match-middleware - checks if a request satisfies to some pattern. Similar to the AccessPolicy matcho engine
  • aidbox.rest.v1/params-middleware - adds request query-string parameters taking data from the request context
  • aidbox.rest.v1/transform-middleware - transforms incoming request taking data from the request context
  • aidbox.rest.middlewares/transform-request-data - the same as transform-middleware but provides more complex functionality

Project with API Constructor example

Aidbox configuration with search and read on Observation resource available at GET /access/Observation and GET /access/Observation/<id>. Defined endpoints also contain a middleware injecting patient search parameter to ensure that user can only search for Observations for a specific patient.
{ns mybox
import #{aidbox aidbox.rest aidbox.rest.v1}
​
box
{:zen/tags #{aidbox/system}
:zen/desc "test server"
:services {:http server}}
​
server
{:zen/tags #{aidbox/service}
:engine aidbox/http
:apis #{api}}
​
api
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/api}
"access" {:apis #{access-api}}}
​
access-api
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/api}
"Observation" {:middlewares [inject-patient-search-parameter-mw]
:GET obs-search-op
[:id] {:GET obs-read-op}}}
​
obs-search-op
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/op}
:engine aidbox.rest.v1/search
:resource "Observation"
:format "aidbox"}
​
obs-read-op
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/op}
:engine aidbox.rest.v1/read
:params {:patient observation-patient-param}
:resource "Observation"
:format "aidbox"}
​
inject-patient-search-parameter-mw
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/middleware}
:engine aidbox.rest.v1/params-middleware
:params {:patient {:path [:user :data :pid]
:required true}}}
​
observation-patient-param
{:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/param}
:engine aidbox.rest.v1/param
:search-by aidbox.rest.v1/search-by-knife
:name "patient"
:expression [["subject" "id"]]}}
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