API constructor (beta)

Since the 2405 release, using Aidbox in FHIRSchema mode is recommended, which is incompatible with zen or Entity/Attribute options.

Setup Aidbox with FHIR Schema validation engine

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

Access control lists (ACL)Multitenancy approach SMART on FHIR

Usage examples:

Sample API used in this documentation page example.
Smart on FHIR configuration
ACL example
Multitenancy example

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.
ingestion.core/map-to-fhir-bundle
aidbox.rest.v1/gateway

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:

Access control lists (ACL)

Gateway

We provide Gateway feature to make Aidbox a proxy server for your backend application, so you can:

maintain a single entry point for your application
extend the default Aidbox APIs to include your own business logic
secure access control to your service

Example

As an example bellow we create CRUD endpoint that explains to Aidbox where is your server located and what endpoints we have to redirect

{ns system
 import #{aidbox aidbox.rest aidbox.rest.v1}

 custom-backend
 {:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/op}
  :engine aidbox.rest.v1/gateway
  :url "http://host.docker.internal:9999"
  :secret #env secret_from_envs
  :timeout 36000}

 api
 {:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/api}
  "extension-endpoint"  {:GET custom-backend
                         :POST custom-backend
                         [:id]  {:PATCH  custom-backend
                                 :DELETE custom-backend}}}

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

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

map-to-fhir-bundle

ingestion.core/map-to-fhir-bundle - expects :format ("fhir" or "aidbox") and :mapping in the definition. Returns result of applying lisp/mapping in to the provided data structure and persisting it as Bundle.

The result of the example below will be an POST/ingestion/map-to-fhir endpoint accepting the data structure on which the mapping will be applied as the body of the request.

Example

{ns ingestion-op-ns
 import #{aidbox
          aidbox.rest
          ingestion.core}

 my-mapping
 {:zen/tags #{lisp/mapping}
  :mapping  {:resourceType "Bundle"
             :type "transaction"
             :entry [{:resource {:resourceType "Patient"}
                      :request {:method "PUT"
                                :url "/Patient/zero"}}

                     {:resource {:resourceType "Observation"
                                 :status (get :status)
                                 :code {:coding [{:system "http://loinc.org"
                                                  :code "8867-4"
                                                  :display "Respiratory rate"}]
                                        :text "Breathing Rate"}
                                 :subject {:reference "Patient/zero"}
                                 :effectiveDateTime (get-in [:br 0 :dateTime]),
                                 :valueQuantity   {
                                                   :value (get-in [:br 0 :value :breathingRate]),
                                                   :unit "breaths/minute",
                                                   :system "http://unitsofmeasure.org",
                                                   :code "/min"}}
                      :request {:method "POST"
                                :url "/Observation"}}]}}

 map-to-fhir
 {:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/op}
  :engine   ingestion.core/map-to-fhir-bundle
  :mapping  my-mapping
  :format   "fhir"}

 api
 {:zen/tags #{aidbox.rest/api}
  "ingestion" {"map-to-fhir" {:POST map-to-fhir}}}

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

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

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"]]}}

PreviousInit Bundle NextZen Configuration

Last updated 3 months ago

Common API Constructor use cases

Usage examples:

Example setup

API constructor definitions

Entrypoint

Example

Services

Available engines:

Example

aidbox.rest/api

Example

aidbox.rest/op

Example

Available aidbox.rest/op-engines

Miscellaneous

Regular FHIR API

ACL FHIR API

Gateway

Example

map-to-fhir-bundle

Example

Middlewares

Example

List of available aidbox.rest/middleware-engine

Project with API Constructor example

`aidbox.rest/api`

`aidbox.rest/op`

Available `aidbox.rest/op-engines`

List of available `aidbox.rest/middleware-engine`