Swagger UI¶

The rc_cube’s Swagger UI allows developers to easily visualize and interact with the REST-API, e.g., for development and testing. Accessing http://<host>/api/ or http://<host>/api/swagger (the former will automatically be redirected to the latter) opens a visualization of the rc_cube’s general API structure including all available resources and requests and offers a simple user interface for exploring all of its features.

Note

Users must be aware that, although the rc_cube’s Swagger UI is designed to explore and test the REST-API, it is a fully functional interface. That is, any issued requests are actually processed and particularly PUT, POST, and DELETE requests might change the overall status and/or behavior of the device.

Fig. 38 Initial view of the rc_cube’s Swagger UI with its resources and requests grouped into nodes, templates, datastreams, logs, and system

Using this interface, available resources and requests can be explored by clicking on them to uncollapse or recollapse them. The following figure shows an example of how to get a node’s current status by clicking the Try it out! button, filling in the necessary parameter (node name) and clicking Execute. This action results in the Swagger UI showing, amongst others, the actual curl command that was executed when issuing the request as well as the response body showing the current status of the requested node in a JSON-formatted string.

_images/swagger_ui_example_simple_get.png

Fig. 39 Result of requesting the rc_stereomatching node’s status

Some actions, such as setting parameters or calling services, require more complex parameters to an HTTP request. The Swagger UI allows developers to explore the attributes required for these actions during run-time, as shown in the next example. In the figure below, the attributes required for the the rc_hand_eye_calibration node’s set_pose service are explored by performing a GET request on this resource. The response features a full description of the service offered, including all required arguments with their names and types as a JSON-formatted string.

_images/swagger_ui_example_get_service_args.png

Fig. 40 The result of the GET request on the set_pose service shows the required arguments for this service call.

Users can easily use this preformatted JSON string as a template for the service arguments to actually call the service:

_images/swagger_ui_example_fill_service_args.png

Fig. 41 Filling in the arguments of the set_pose service request