matrix-spec/drafts/as-http-api.rst

Application Services HTTP API
=============================

.. contents:: Table of Contents
.. sectnum::

Application Service -> Home Server
----------------------------------
This contains home server APIs which are used by the application service.

Registration API ``[Draft]``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.. NOTE::
  - Do we really have to use regex for this? Can't we do this a nicer way?

This API registers the application service with its host homeserver to offer its services.

Inputs:
 - Credentials (e.g. some kind of string token)
 - Namespace[users]
 - Namespace[room aliases]
 - URL base to receive inbound comms
Output:
 - The credentials the HS will use to query the AS with in return. (e.g. some kind of string token)
Side effects:
 - The HS will start delivering events to the URL base specified if this 200s.
API called when:
 - The application service wants to register with a brand new home server.
Notes:
 - Namespaces are represented by POSIX extended regular expressions in JSON. 
   They look like::
     users: [
       "irc\.freenode\.net/.*", 
     ]
   The sigil prefix ``@`` is omitted since it is clear from the ``users`` key that these namespace
   prefixes are for users.
::

 POST /register
 
 Request format
 {
   url: "https://my.application.service.com/matrix/",
   as_token: "some_AS_token",
   namespaces: {
     users: [
       "irc\.freenode\.net/.*"
     ],
     aliases: [
       "irc\.freenode\.net/.*"
     ]
   }
 }
 
 
 Returns:
   200 : Registration accepted.
   400 : Namespaces do not conform to regex
   401 : Credentials need to be supplied.
   403 : AS credentials rejected.
 
 
   200 OK response format
 
   {
     hs_token: "string"
   }
   
Unregister API ``[Draft]``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This API unregisters a previously registered AS from the home server.

Inputs:
 - AS token
Output:
 - None.
Side effects:
 - The HS will stop delivering events to the URL base specified for this AS if this 200s.
API called when:
 - The application service wants to stop receiving all events from the HS.
 
::

  POST /unregister

  Request format
  {
    as_token: "string"
  }


Home Server -> Application Service
----------------------------------
This contains application service APIs which are used by the home server.

User Query ``[Draft]``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This API is called by the HS to query the existence of a user on the Application Service's namespace.

Inputs:
 - User ID
 - HS Credentials
Output:
 - Profile info
Side effects:
 - User is created on the HS if this response 200s.
API called when:
 - HS receives an event for an unknown user ID in the AS's namespace.
Notes:
 - The created user will have their profile info set based on the output.
 
::

 GET /users/$user_id?access_token=$hs_token
 
 Returns:
   200 : User is recognised.
   404 : User not found.
   401 : Credentials need to be supplied.
   403 : HS credentials rejected.
 
 
   200 OK response format
 
   {
     profile: {
       display_name: "string"
       avatar_url: "string(uri)"
     }
   }
   
Room Query ``[TODO]``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This API is called by the HS to query the existence of a room on the Application Service's namespace.

Pushing ``[TODO]``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This API is called by the HS when the HS wants to push an event (or batch of events) to the AS.

- Retry semantics
- Ordering


 
Client -> Application Service
-----------------------------
This contains application service APIs which are used by the client.

Linking ``[TODO]``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clients may want to link their matrix user ID to their 3PID (e.g. IRC nick). This
API allows the AS to do this, so messages sent from the AS are sent as the client.

- Probably OAuth2

Client-Server v2 API Extensions
-------------------------------

Identity assertion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The client-server API infers the user ID from the ``access_token`` provided in every
request. It would be an annoying amount of book-keeping to maintain tokens for every
virtual user. It would be preferable if the application service could use the CS API
with its own ``as_token`` instead, and specify the virtual user they wish to be 
acting on behalf of. For real users, this would require additional permissions (see
"C-AS Linking").

Inputs:
 - Application service token (``as_token``)
 Either:
   - User ID in the AS namespace to act as.
 Or:
   - OAuth2 token of real user (which may end up being an access token) 
Notes:
 - This will apply on all aspects of the CS API, except for Account Management.


Timestamp massaging
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The application service may want to inject events at a certain time (reflecting
the time on the network they are tracking e.g. irc, xmpp). Application services
need to be able to adjust the ``origin_server_ts`` value to do this.

Inputs:
 - Application service token (``as_token``)
 - Desired timestamp
Notes:
 - This will only apply when sending events.

Server admin style permissions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The home server needs to give the application service *full control* over its
namespace, both for users and for room aliases. This means that the AS should
be able to create/edit/delete any room alias in its namespace, as well as
create/delete any user in its namespace.