Using REST with elements

You can use the Web Content Manager REST service to create, read, update and delete some types of elements stored in site areas and content items.

The following element types can be used with the Web Content Manager REST service.

Table 1. Element types
Element	API type
Text element	TextComponent
Short text element	ShortTextComponent
Rich text element	RichTextComponent
HTML element	HTMLComponent
Number element	NumericComponent
Date and time element	DateComponent
Image element	ImageComponent
File resource element	FileComponent
Style sheet element	StyleSheetComponent

Create

An element can be created by sending a POST request to the following URI with an atom entry representing the title of the element:

/[Content|SiteArea]/<parent-uuid>/elements

Note: The type of the element to be created must be specified in the type field of the entry that is posted.

For example:

POST /wps/mycontenthandler/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements HTTP/1.0
Content-type: application/atom+xml

<entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:wcm="wcm/namespace">
    <title>numericComponentTitle</title>
    <wcm:name>numericComponentName</wcm:name>
    <wcm:type>NumericComponent</wcm:type>
</entry>


HTTP/1.0 201 Created
Content-type: application/atom+xml; type=entry
Content-location: /wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericComponentName

<entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:wcm="wcm/namespace">
    <title>numericComponentTitle</title>
    <link rel="edit-media" type="text/plain" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericComponentName"/>
    <link rel="edit" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericComponentName"/>
    <wcm:name>numericComponentName</wcm:name>
    <wcm:type>NumericComponent</wcm:type>
</entry>

Update

An element can be updated by sending a PUT request to the following URI with an atom entry including the name and title of the element.

/[Content|SiteArea]/<parentuuid>/elements/<element-name-encoded>

For example:

PUT /wps/mycontenthandler/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericComponentName HTTP/1.0
Content-type: application/atom+xml

<atom:entry xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:wcm="wcm/namespace">
    <title>numericComponentTitleUpdated</title>
    <wcm:name>numericComponentNameUpdated</wcm:name>
</atom:entry>


HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-type: application/atom+xml; type=entry

<entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:wcm="wcm/namespace">
    <title>numericComponentTitleUpdated</title>
    <link rel="edit-media" type="text/plain" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericComponentName"/>
    <link rel="edit" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericComponentName"/>
    <wcm:name>numericComponentNameUpdated</wcm:name>
    <wcm:type>NumericComponent</wcm:type>
</entry>

Read

An element can be read by sending a GET request to the following URI :

/[Content|SiteArea]/<parentuuid>/elements/<element-name-encoded>

For example:

GET /wps/mycontenthandler/wcmrest/Content/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericComponentName HTTP/1.0


HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-type: application/atom+xml; type=entry

<entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:wcm="wcm/namespace">
    <title>numericComponentTitleUpdated</title>
    <link rel="edit-media" type="application/vnd.ibm.wcm+xml" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericComponentName"/>
    <link rel="edit" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericComponentName"/>
    <wcm:name>numericComponentNameUpdated</wcm:name>
    <wcm:type>NumericComponent</wcm:type>
</entry>

Delete

An element can be deleted by sending a DELETE request to the following URI:

/[Content|SiteArea]/<parentuuid>/elements/<element-name-encoded>

For example:

DELETE

HTTP/1.1 DELETE
http://host:port/wps/mycontenthandler/wcmrest/Content/<parentuuid>/elements/<element-name-encoded>

Response

Status Code :200
Status Message : OK

Working with raw data

The content of an element is accessed from the media resource specified in the HREF attribute of the edit-media link. The link will also contain a TYPE attribute which contains the accepted media type of the content. For example:

<link rel="edit-media" type="text/html" 
href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/heading"/>

The media types for supported elements are:

Table 2. Media types for elements
Media type	Component types
text/plain	Text
application/vnd.ibm.wcm+xml	Number Date and Time Image Stylesheet
text/html	HTML Rich text
text/css	Stylesheet
image/*	Image
application/octet-stream	File

To update content of an element PUT content in an accepted media type to the edit-media URL. For example:

PUT /wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/heading HTTP/1.0
Content-type: text/html

<h1>Heading Text</h1>


HTTP/1.0 200 OK

To retrieve content from a library component GET content from the edit-media URL. For example:

GET  /wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/heading HTTP/1.0
Accept: text/html


HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-type: text/plain

<h1>Heading Text</h1>

An alternative to specifying the media type in the HTTP accept header, is to use the request parameter mime-type. You must URL encode the value. For example:

GET  /wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/heading?mime-type=text%2Fhtml HTTP/1.0


HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-type: text/plain

<h1>Heading Text</h1>