Genii Weblog
Out of Notes revisited with Exciton
Thu 17 Dec 2020, 11:10 AM
Tweetby Ben Langhinrichs
Back in 2013, I created a ten part series of blog posts and videos called Out of Notes showing how the Curb Appeal (real estate listings) database with its structured data, computed images, and so forth could be taken from Notes to various formats. Most of those posts are still valid, (though the few with EPUB turned out to be less compelling to many customers). You can still use the Midas LSX to extract data that way, but working with a new Exciton Boost customer made me think about how many challenges they face with a REST API are similar to those I posed with this database. (See bottom of this post for that first video introducing that database and its challenges.)
Specific challenges for this Exciton Boost customer include the following (JSON return values unless otherwise indicated):
1) (db) GET a list of views configured to be discoverable by the Exciton Configuration database.
2) (view) GET the contents of a specific view from the list using HATEOAS principle. Returned object includes document metadata and column values.
3) (view) GET a filtered set of documents using a primary key. Returned object includes document metadata and column values.
4) (doc) GET all fields from one document. Returned object includes document metadata and all items, or all allowed items if Exciton Configuration restricts which are accessible. Rich text fields rendered to HTML.
5) (doc) GET subset of items from a document, including mapping of item names and suppression of metadata. Rich text fields rendered to HTML.
6) (view) GET a filtered set of documents using a primary key. Returned object includes subset of items from a document, including mapping of item names and suppression of metadata. Rich text fields rendered to HTML.
7) (rtfield) GET single rich text fields rendered to HTML.
8) (image) GET single image from rich text field as binary
9) (image) GET single image from rich text field as data URI
There are lots more things we could do, but these show a number of features of the Exciton Boost REST API. I'll put together a video showing these steps using POSTMAN, then a second video showing how we can take advantage of these in JavaScript. But first, take a quick look at the database from that original 2013 challenge video, and imagine the databases in your domain which include various features like these.
Note: Accurate closed captions have been provided, and if English is not your first language, you might want to turn on the auto-translate.
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