Objects¶
Using any the APIs mentioned in this document you will required API Authentication. There are many ways to interact with objects, some of which aren’t supported yet by mediagoblin such as liking or sharing objects however you can interact with them by updating them, deleting them and commenting on them.
Posting Objects¶
For the most part you should be able to post objects by creating the JSON representation of the object on an activity and posting that to the user’s feed (outbox). Images however are slightly different and there are more steps to it as you might imagine.
Using posting a comment as an example, I’ll show you how to post the object to GNU MediaGoblin or pump.io. I first need to create the JSON representation of the activity with the object but without the ID, URL, published or updated timestamps or any other data the server creates. My activity comment is:
{
"verb": "post",
"object": {
"objectType": "comment",
"content": "This is my comment to be posted",
"inReplyTo": {
"id": "https://<server>/api/image/1"
}
}
}
This should be posted to the users feed (outbox) which you can find out about Activities. You will get back the full activity containing all of attributes including ID, urls, etc.
Posting Media¶
Posting media is a special case from posting all other objects. This is because you need to submit more than just the JSON image representation, you need to actually subject the image itself. There is also strange behavour around media postings where if you want to give the media you’re posting a title or description you need to peform an update too. A full media posting in order of steps to do is as follows:
Uploads the data to the server
Post media to feed
Update media to have title, description, license, etc. (optional)
This could be condensed into a 2-step process however this would need to happen upstream. If you would like to contribute to changing this upstream there is an issue open: https://github.com/e14n/pump.io/issues/657
To upload media you should use the URL /api/user/<username>/uploads.
A POST request should be made to the media upload URL submitting at least two headers:
Content-Type - This being a valid mimetype for the media.
Content-Length - size in bytes of the media.
The media data should be submitted as POST data to the image upload URL. You will get back a JSON encoded response which will look similar to:
{
"updated": "2014-01-11T09:45:48Z",
"links": {
"self": {
"href": "https://<server>/image/4wiBUV1HT8GRqseyvX8m-w"
}
},
"fullImage": {
"url": "https://<server>//uploads/<username>/2014/1/11/V3cBMw.jpg",
"width": 505,
"height": 600
},
"replies": {
"url": "https://<server>//api/image/4wiBUV1HT8GRqseyvX8m-w/replies"
},
"image": {
"url": "https://<server>/uploads/<username>/2014/1/11/V3cBMw_thumb.jpg",
"width": 269,
"height": 320
},
"author": {
"preferredUsername": "<username>",
"displayName": "<username>",
"links": {
"activity-outbox": {
"href": "https://<server>/api/user/<username>/feed"
},
"self": {
"href": "https://<server>/api/user/<username>/profile"
},
"activity-inbox": {
"href": "https://<server>/api/user/<username>/inbox"
}
},
"url": "https://<server>/<username>",
"updated": "2013-08-14T10:01:21Z",
"id": "acct:<username>@<server>",
"objectType": "person"
},
"url": "https://<server>/<username>/image/4wiBUV1HT8GRqseyvX8m-w",
"published": "2014-01-11T09:45:48Z",
"id": "https://<server>/api/image/4wiBUV1HT8GRqseyvX8m-w",
"objectType": "image"
}
The main things in this response is fullImage which contains url (the URL of the original image - i.e. fullsize) and image which contains url (the URL of a thumbnail version).
Warning
Media which have been uploaded but not submitted to a feed will periodically be deleted.
Once you’ve got the image object back you will need to submit the post activity to the feed. This is exactly the same process as posting any other object described above. You create a post activity and post that to the feed (outbox) endpoint. The post activity looks like:
{
"verb": "post",
"object": {
"id": "https://<server>/api/image/4wiBUV1HT8GRqseyvX8m-w",
"objectType": "image"
}
}
You will get back the full activity, unlike above however if you wish to submit displayName (title) or content (description) information you need to create an update activity and post that to the feed after you have posted the image. An update activity would look like:
{
"verb": "update",
"object": {
"id": "https://<server>/api/image/4wiBUV1HT8GRqseyvX8m-w",
"displayName": "This is my title",
"content": "This is my description",
"objectType": "image"
}
}
Updating Objects¶
If you would like to edit or update an object you can do so by submitting an update activity. An update to a comment might look like:
{
"verb": "update",
"object": {
"id": "https://<server>/api/comment/1",
"objectType": "comment",
"content": "This is my new updated comment!"
}
}
This should be posted to the feed (outbox). You will get back the full update activity in response.
Deleting Objects¶
Objects can be deleted by submitting a delete activity to the feed. A delete object for a comment looks like:
{
"verb": "delete",
"object": {
"id": "https://<server>/api/comment/id",
"objectType": "comment"
}
}
You should get the full delete activity in response.
Warning
While deletion works, currently because of the way deletion is implemented deletion either via the API or the webUI causes any activities to be broken and will be skipped and unaccessible. A migration to remove the broken activities will come in a future release when soft-deletion has been implemented.
Posting Comments¶
Comments currently can only be on media objects, this however will change in future versions of MediaGoblin to be inline with pump.io and Activity Streams 1.0 which allow comments to be on any object including comments themselves.
If you want to submit a comment on an object it’s very easy, it’s just like posting any other object except you use the inReplyTo attribute which specifies the object you are commenting on. The inReplyTo needs to contain the object or specifically the ID of it.
Example of comment on an image:
{
"verb": "post",
"object": {
"content": "My comment here",
"inReplyTo": {
"id": "https://<server>/api/image/72"
}
}
}
This should be posted to a feed and you will get back the full activity object as with any other object posting.