RT 5.0.7 Documentation

RT::REST2

NAME

RT::REST2 - RT REST API v. 2.0 under /REST/2.0/

USAGE

Tutorial

To make it easier to authenticate to REST2, we recommend also using RT::Authen::Token. Visit "Logged in as ___" -> Settings -> Auth Tokens. Create an Auth Token, give it any description (such as "REST2 with curl"). Make note of the authentication token it provides to you.

For other authentication options see the section "Authentication Methods" below.

Authentication

Run the following in a terminal, filling in XX_TOKEN_XX from the auth token above and XX_RT_URL_XX with the URL for your RT instance.

    curl -H 'Authorization: token XX_TOKEN_XX' 'XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/queues/all'

This does an authenticated request (using the Authorization HTTP header with type token) for all of the queues you can see. You should see a response, typical of search results, like this:

    {
       "total" : 1,
       "count" : 1,
       "page" : 1,
       "pages" : 1,
       "per_page" : 20,
       "items" : [
          {
             "type" : "queue",
             "id" : "1",
             "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/queue/1"
          }
       ]
    }

This format is JSON, which is a format for which many programming languages provide libraries for parsing and generating.

(If you instead see a response like {"message":"Unauthorized"} that indicates RT couldn't process your authentication token successfully; make sure the word "token" appears between "Authorization:" and the auth token that RT provided to you)

You can request one of the provided _urls to get more information about that queue.

    curl -H 'Authorization: token XX_TOKEN_XX' 'XX_QUEUE_URL_XX'

This will give a lot of information, like so:

    {
       "id" : 1,
       "Name" : "General",
       "Description" : "The default queue",
       "Lifecycle" : "default",
       ...
       "CustomFields" : {},
       "_hyperlinks" : [
          {
             "id" : "1",
             "ref" : "self",
             "type" : "queue",
             "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/queue/1"
          },
          {
             "ref" : "history",
             "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/queue/1/history"
          },
          {
             "ref" : "create",
             "type" : "ticket",
             "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/ticket?Queue=1"
          }
       ],
    }

Of particular note is the _hyperlinks key, which gives you a list of related resources to examine (following the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HATEOAS principle). For example an entry with a ref of history lets you examine the transaction log for a record. You can implement your REST API client knowing that any other hypermedia link with a ref of history has the same meaning, regardless of whether it's the history of a queue, ticket, asset, etc.

Another ref you'll see in _hyperlinks is create, with a type of ticket. This of course gives you the URL to create tickets in this queue. Importantly, if your user does not have the CreateTicket permission in this queue, then REST2 would simply not include this hyperlink in its response to your request. This allows you to dynamically adapt your client's behavior to its presence or absence, just like the web version of RT does.

Creating Tickets

Let's use the _url from the create hyperlink with type ticket.

To create a ticket is a bit more involved, since it requires providing a different HTTP verb (POST instead of GET), a Content-Type header (to tell REST2 that your content is JSON instead of, say, XML), and the fields for your new ticket such as Subject. Here is the curl invocation, wrapped to multiple lines for readability.

    curl -X POST
         -H "Content-Type: application/json"
         -d '{ "Subject": "hello world" }'
         -H 'Authorization: token XX_TOKEN_XX'
            'XX_TICKET_CREATE_URL_XX'

If successful, that will provide output like so:

    {
        "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/ticket/20",
        "type" : "ticket",
        "id"   : "20"
    }

(REST2 also produces the status code of 201 Created with a Location header of the new ticket, which you may choose to use instead of the JSON response)

We can fetch that _url to continue working with this newly-created ticket. Request the ticket like so (make sure to include the -i flag to see response's HTTP headers).

    curl -i -H 'Authorization: token XX_TOKEN_XX' 'XX_TICKET_URL_XX'

You'll first see that there are many hyperlinks for tickets, including one for each Lifecycle action you can perform, history, comment, correspond, etc. Again these adapt to whether you have the appropriate permissions to do these actions.

Additionally you'll see an ETag header for this record, which can be used for conflict avoidance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_ETag). We'll first try updating this ticket with an invalid ETag to see what happens.

Updating Tickets

For updating tickets we use the PUT verb, but otherwise it looks much like a ticket creation.

    curl -X PUT
         -H "Content-Type: application/json"
         -H "If-Match: invalid-etag"
         -d '{ "Subject": "trial update" }'
         -H 'Authorization: token XX_TOKEN_XX'
            'XX_TICKET_URL_XX'

You'll get an error response like {"message":"Precondition Failed"} and a status code of 412. If you examine the ticket, you'll also see that its Subject was not changed. This is because the If-Match header advises the server to make changes if and only if the ticket's ETag matches what you provide. Since it differed, the server refused the request and made no changes.

Now, try the same request by replacing the value "invalid-etag" in the If-Match request header with the real ETag you'd received when you requested the ticket previously. You'll then get a JSON response like:

    ["Ticket 1: Subject changed from 'hello world' to 'trial update'"]

which is a list of messages meant for displaying to an end-user.

If you GET the ticket again, you'll observe that the ETag header now has a different value, indicating that the ticket itself has changed. This means if you were to retry the PUT update with the previous (at the time, expected) ETag you would instead be rejected by the server with Precondition Failed.

You can use ETag and If-Match headers to avoid race conditions such as two people updating a ticket at the same time. Depending on the sophistication of your client, you may be able to automatically retry the change by incorporating the changes made on the server (for example adding time worked can be automatically be recalculated).

You may of course choose to ignore the ETag header and not provide If-Match in your requests; RT doesn't require its use.

Replying/Commenting Tickets

You can reply to or comment a ticket by POSTing to _url from the correspond or comment hyperlinks that were returned when fetching the ticket.

    curl -X POST
         -H "Content-Type: application/json"
         -d '{
              "Subject"    : "response",
              "Content"    : "What is your <em>issue</em>?",
              "ContentType": "text/html",
              "TimeTaken"  : "1"
            }'
         -H 'Authorization: token XX_TOKEN_XX'
            'XX_TICKET_URL_XX'/correspond

Replying or commenting a ticket is quite similar to a ticket creation: you send a POST request, with data encoded in JSON. The difference lies in the properties of the JSON data object you can pass:

Subject

The subject of your response/comment, optional

Content

The content of your response/comment, mandatory unless there is a non empty Attachments property to add at least one attachment to the ticket (see "Add Attachments" section below).

ContentType

The MIME content type of your response/comment, typically text/plain or /text/html, mandatory unless there is a non empty Attachments property to add at least one attachment to the ticket (see "Add Attachments" section below).

TimeTaken

The time, in minutes, you've taken to work on your response/comment, optional.

Status

The new status (for example, "open", "rejected", etc.) to set the ticket to. The Status value must be a valid status based on the lifecycle of the ticket's current queue.

CustomRoles

A hash whose keys are custom role names and values are as described below:

For a single-value custom role, the value must be a string representing an email address or user name; the custom role is set to the user with that email address or user name.

For a multi-value custom role, the value can be a string representing an email address or user name, or can be an array of email addresses or user names; in either case, the members of the custom role are set to the corresponding users.

CustomFields

A hash similar to the CustomRoles hash, but whose keys are custom field names that apply to the Ticket; those fields are set to the supplied values.

TxnCustomFields

A hash similar to the CustomRoles hash, but whose keys are custom field names that apply to the Transaction; those fields are set to the supplied values.

Add Attachments

You can attach any binary or text file to a ticket via create, correspond, or comment by adding an Attachments property in the JSON object. The value should be a JSON array where each item represents a file you want to attach. Each item is a JSON object with the following properties:

FileName

The name of the file to attach to your response/comment, mandatory.

FileType

The MIME type of the file to attach to your response/comment, mandatory.

FileContent

The content, encoded in MIME Base64 of the file to attach to your response/comment, mandatory.

The reason why you should encode the content of any file to MIME Base64 is that a JSON string value should be a sequence of zero or more Unicode characters. MIME Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme widely used (for e.g. by web browser) to send binary data when text data is required. Most popular language have MIME Base64 libraries that you can use to encode the content of your attached files (see MIME::Base64 for Perl). Note that even text files should be MIME Base64 encoded to be passed in the FileContent property.

Here's a Perl example to send an image and a plain text file attached to a comment:

    #!/usr/bin/perl
    use strict;
    use warnings;

    use LWP::UserAgent;
    use JSON;
    use MIME::Base64;
    use Data::Dumper;

    my $url = 'http://rt.local/REST/2.0/ticket/1/comment';

    my $img_path = '/tmp/my_image.png';
    my $img_content;
    open my $img_fh, '<', $img_path or die "Cannot read $img_path: $!\n";
    {
        local $/;
        $img_content = <$img_fh>;
    }
    close $img_fh;
    $img_content = MIME::Base64::encode_base64($img_content);

    my $txt_path = '~/.bashrc';
    my $txt_content;
    open my $txt_fh, '<', glob($txt_path) or die "Cannot read $txt_path: $!\n";
    {
        local $/;
        $txt_content = <$txt_fh>;
    }
    close $txt_fh;
    $txt_content = MIME::Base64::encode_base64($txt_content);

    my $json = JSON->new->utf8;
    my $payload = {
        Content => '<p>I want <b>two</b> <em>attachments</em></p>',
        ContentType => 'text/html',
        Subject => 'Attachments in JSON Array',
        Attachments => [
            {
                FileName => 'my_image.png',
                FileType => 'image/png',
                FileContent => $img_content,
            },
            {
                FileName => '.bashrc',
                FileType => 'text/plain',
                FileContent => $txt_content,
            },
        ],
    };

    my $req = HTTP::Request->new(POST => $url);
    $req->header('Authorization' => 'token 6-66-66666666666666666666666666666666');
    $req->header('Content-Type'  => 'application/json' );
    $req->header('Accept'        => 'application/json' );
    $req->content($json->encode($payload));

    my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
    my $res = $ua->request($req);
    print Dumper($json->decode($res->content)) . "\n";

Encoding the content of attachments file in MIME Base64 has the drawback of adding some processing overhead and to increase the sent data size by around 33%. RT's REST2 API provides another way to attach any binary or text file to your response or comment by POSTing, instead of a JSON request, a multipart/form-data request. This kind of request is similar to what the browser sends when you add attachments in RT's reply or comment form. As its name suggests, a multipart/form-data request message contains a series of parts, each representing a form field. To reply to or comment a ticket, the request has to include a field named JSON, which, as previously, is a JSON object with Subject, Content, ContentType, TimeTaken properties. Files can then be attached by specifying a field named Attachments for each of them, with the content of the file as value and the appropriate MIME type.

The curl invocation is quite straightforward:

    curl -X POST
         -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data"
         -F 'JSON={
                    "Subject"    : "Attachments in multipart/form-data",
                    "Content"    : "<p>I want <b>two</b> <em>attachments</em></p>",
                    "ContentType": "text/html",
                    "TimeTaken"  : "1"
                  };type=application/json'
         -F 'Attachments=@/tmp/my_image.png;type=image/png'
         -F 'Attachments=@/tmp/.bashrc;type=text/plain'
         -H 'Authorization: token XX_TOKEN_XX'
            'XX_TICKET_URL_XX'/comment

Summary

RT's REST2 API provides the tools you need to build robust and dynamic integrations. Tools like ETag/If-Match allow you to avoid conflicts such as two people taking a ticket at the same time. Using JSON for all data interchange avoids problems caused by parsing text. Hypermedia links inform your client application of what the user has the ability to do.

Careful readers will see that, other than our initial entry into the system, we did not generate any URLs. We only followed links, just like you do when browsing a website on your computer. We've better decoupled the client's implementation from the server's REST API. Additionally, this system lets you be informed of new capabilities in the form of additional hyperlinks.

Using these tools and principles, REST2 will help you build rich, robust, and powerful integrations with the other applications and services that your team uses.

Endpoints

Currently provided endpoints under /REST/2.0/ are described below. Wherever possible please consider using _hyperlinks hypermedia controls available in response bodies rather than hard-coding URLs.

For simplicity, the examples below omit the extra options to curl for SSL like --cacert.

Tickets

    GET /tickets?query=<TicketSQL>
        search for tickets using TicketSQL

    GET /tickets?simple=1;query=<simple search query>
        search for tickets using simple search syntax

    # If there are multiple saved searches using the same description, the
    # behavior of "which saved search shall be selected" is undefined, use
    # id instead in this case.

    # If both search and other arguments like "query" are specified, the
    # latter takes higher precedence than the corresponding fields defined
    # in the given saved search.

    GET /tickets?search=<saved search id or description>
        search for tickets using saved search

    POST /tickets
        search for tickets with the 'search' or 'query' and optional 'simple' parameters 

    POST /ticket
        create a ticket; provide JSON content

    GET /ticket/:id
        retrieve a ticket

    PUT /ticket/:id
        update a ticket's metadata; provide JSON content

    PUT /ticket/:id/take
    PUT /ticket/:id/untake
    PUT /ticket/:id/steal
        take, untake, or steal the ticket

    DELETE /ticket/:id
        set status to deleted

    POST /ticket/:id/correspond
    POST /ticket/:id/comment
        add a reply or comment to the ticket

    GET /ticket/:id/history
        retrieve list of transactions for ticket

    POST /tickets/bulk
        create multiple tickets; provide JSON content(array of hashes)

    PUT /tickets/bulk
        update multiple tickets' metadata; provide JSON content(array of hashes)

    POST /tickets/bulk/correspond
    POST /tickets/bulk/comment
        add a reply or comment to multiple tickets; provide JSON content(array of hashes)

Ticket Examples

Below are some examples using the endpoints above.

    # Create a ticket, setting some custom fields and a custom role
    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '{ "Queue": "General", "Subject": "Create ticket test",
            "Requestor": "user1@example.com", "Cc": "user2@example.com",
            "CustomRoles": {"My Role": "staff1@example.com"},
            "Content": "Testing a create",
            "CustomFields": {"Severity": "Low"}}'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket'

    # Update a ticket, with a custom field update
    curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '{ "Subject": "Update test", "CustomFields": {"Severity": "High"}}'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6'

    # Update a ticket, with links update
    curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '{ "DependsOn": [2, 3], "ReferredToBy": 1 }'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6'

    curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '{ "AddDependsOn": [4, 5], "DeleteReferredToBy": 1 }'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6'

    # Merge a ticket into another
    curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '{ "MergeInto": 3 }'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6'

    # Take a ticket
    curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6/take'

    # Untake a ticket
    curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6/untake'

    # Steal a ticket
    curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6/steal'

    # Correspond a ticket
    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '{ "Content": "Testing a correspondence", "ContentType": "text/plain" }'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6/correspond'

    # Correspond a ticket with a transaction custom field
    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '{ "Content": "Testing a correspondence", "ContentType": "text/plain",
              "TxnCustomFields": {"MyField": "custom field value"} }'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6/correspond'

    # Comment on a ticket
    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d 'Testing a comment'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6/comment'

    # Comment on a ticket with custom field update
    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '{ "Content": "Testing a comment", "ContentType": "text/plain", "CustomFields": {"Severity": "High"} }'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6/comment'

    # Comment on a ticket with custom role update
    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '{ "Content": "Testing a comment", "ContentType": "text/plain", "CustomRoles": {"Manager": "manager@example.com"} }'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/ticket/6/comment'

    # Update many tickets at once with bulk by sending an array with ticket ids
    # Results are returned for each update in a JSON array with ticket ids and corresponding messages
    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '[{ "id": "20", "Content": "Testing a correspondence", "ContentType": "text/plain" },
             { "id": "18", "Content": "Testing a correspondence", "ContentType": "text/plain", "Status":"resolved", "CustomRoles": {"Manager": "manager@example.com"}, "CustomFields": {"State": "New York"} }]'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/tickets/bulk/correspond'

    [["20","Correspondence added"],["18","Correspondence added","State New York added","Added manager@example.com as Manager for this ticket","Status changedfrom 'open' to 'resolved'"]]

Ticket Fields

The following describes some of the values you can send when creating and updating tickets as shown in the examples above.

As shown above, you can update links on a ticket with a PUT and passing the link relationship you want to create. The available keys are Parent, Child, RefersTo, ReferredToBy, DependsOn, and DependedOnBy. These correspond with the standard link types on a ticket. The value can be a single ticket id or an array of ticket ids. The indicated link relationship will be set to the value passed, adding or removing as needed.

You can specifically add or remove a link by prepending Add or Delete to the link type, like AddParent or DeleteParent. These versions also accept a single ticket id or an array.

Transactions

    GET /transactions?query=<TransactionSQL>
    POST /transactions
        search for transactions using TransactionSQL

    GET /transactions?query=<JSON>
    POST /transactions
        search for transactions using L</JSON searches> syntax

    GET /ticket/:id/history
    GET /queue/:id/history
    GET /queue/:name/history
    GET /asset/:id/history
    GET /user/:id/history
    GET /user/:name/history
    GET /group/:id/history
        get transactions for record

    GET /transaction/:id
        retrieve a transaction

Transactions Examples

    # Search transactions using C<TransactionSQL>
    curl -X POST -u 'root:password' -d "query=Creator='Dave' AND Type='Correspond'"
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/transactions'

Attachments and Messages

    GET /attachments?query=<JSON>
    POST /attachments
        search for attachments using L</JSON searches> syntax

    GET /transaction/:id/attachments
        get attachments for transaction

    GET /ticket/:id/attachments
        get attachments associated with a ticket

    GET /attachment/:id
        retrieve an attachment.  Note that the C<Content> field contains
        the base64-encoded representation of the raw content.

Image and Binary Object Custom Field Values

    GET /download/cf/:id
        retrieve an image or a binary file as an object custom field value

Queues

    GET /queues/all
        retrieve list of all queues you can see

    GET /queues?query=<JSON>
    POST /queues
        search for queues using L</JSON searches> syntax

    POST /queue
        create a queue; provide JSON content

    GET /queue/:id
    GET /queue/:name
        retrieve a queue by numeric id or name

    PUT /queue/:id
    PUT /queue/:name
        update a queue's metadata; provide JSON content

    DELETE /queue/:id
    DELETE /queue/:name
        disable queue

    GET /queue/:id/history
    GET /queue/:name/history
        retrieve list of transactions for queue

Assets

    GET /assets?query=<AssetSQL>
    POST /assets
        search for assets using AssetSQL

    GET /assets?query=<JSON>
    POST /assets
        search for assets using L</JSON searches> syntax

    POST /asset
        create an asset; provide JSON content

    GET /asset/:id
        retrieve an asset

    PUT /asset/:id
        update an asset's metadata; provide JSON content

    DELETE /asset/:id
        set status to deleted

    GET /asset/:id/history
        retrieve list of transactions for asset

Asset Examples

Below are some examples using the endpoints above.

    # Create an Asset
    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '{"Name" : "Asset From Rest", "Catalog" : "General assets", "Content" : "Some content"}'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/asset'

    # Search Assets
    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '[{ "field" : "id", "operator" : ">=", "value" : 0 }]'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/assets'

    # Search Assets Based On Custom Field Values using L</JSON searches>
    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -u 'root:password'
        -d '[{ "field" : "CustomField.{Department}", "value" : "Engineering" }]'
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/assets'

    # Search assets using AssetSQL
    curl -X POST -u 'root:password' -d "query=Catalog='General assets' AND 'CF.{Asset Type}' LIKE 'Computer'"
        'https://myrt.com/REST/2.0/assets'

Catalogs

    GET /catalogs/all
        retrieve list of all catalogs you can see

    GET /catalogs?query=<JSON>
    POST /catalogs
        search for catalogs using L</JSON searches> syntax

    POST /catalog
        create a catalog; provide JSON content

    GET /catalog/:id
    GET /catalog/:name
        retrieve a catalog by numeric id or name

    PUT /catalog/:id
    PUT /catalog/:name
        update a catalog's metadata; provide JSON content

    DELETE /catalog/:id
    DELETE /catalog/:name
        disable catalog

Articles

    GET /articles?query=<JSON>
    POST /articles
        search for articles using L</JSON searches> syntax

    POST /article
        create an article; provide JSON content

    GET /article/:id
        retrieve an article

    PUT /article/:id
        update an article's metadata; provide JSON content

    DELETE /article/:id
        set status to deleted

    GET /article/:id/history
        retrieve list of transactions for article

Classes

    GET /classes/all
        retrieve list of all classes you can see

    GET /classes?query=<JSON>
    POST /classes
        search for classes using L</JSON searches> syntax

    POST /class
        create a class; provide JSON content

    GET /class/:id
    GET /class/:name
        retrieve a class by numeric id or name

    PUT /class/:id
    PUT /class/:name
        update a class's metadata; provide JSON content

    DELETE /class/:id
    DELETE /class/:name
        disable class

Users

    GET /users?query=<JSON>
    POST /users
        search for users using L</JSON searches> syntax

    POST /user
        create a user; provide JSON content

    GET /user/:id
    GET /user/:name
        retrieve a user by numeric id or username (including its memberships and whether it is disabled)

    PUT /user/:id
    PUT /user/:name
        update a user's metadata (including its Disabled status); provide JSON content

    DELETE /user/:id
    DELETE /user/:name
        disable user

    GET /user/:id/history
    GET /user/:name/history
        retrieve list of transactions for user

Groups

    GET /groups?query=<JSON>
    POST /groups
        search for groups using L</JSON searches> syntax

    POST /group
        create a (user defined) group; provide JSON content

    GET /group/:id
        retrieve a group (including its members and whether it is disabled)

    PUT /group/:id
        update a groups's metadata (including its Disabled status); provide JSON content

    DELETE /group/:id
        disable group

    GET /group/:id/history
        retrieve list of transactions for group

User Memberships

    GET /user/:id/groups
    GET /user/:name/groups
        retrieve list of groups which a user is a member of

    PUT /user/:id/groups
    PUT /user/:name/groups
        add a user to groups; provide a JSON array of groups ids

    DELETE /user/:id/group/:id
    DELETE /user/:name/group/:id
        remove a user from a group

    DELETE /user/:id/groups
    DELETE /user/:name/groups
        remove a user from all groups

Group Members

    GET /group/:id/members
        retrieve list of direct members of a group

    GET /group/:id/members?recursively=1
        retrieve list of direct and recursive members of a group

    GET /group/:id/members?users=0
        retrieve list of direct group members of a group

    GET /group/:id/members?users=0&recursively=1
        retrieve list of direct and recursive group members of a group

    GET /group/:id/members?groups=0
        retrieve list of direct user members of a group

    GET /group/:id/members?groups=0&recursively=1
        retrieve list of direct and recursive user members of a group

    PUT /group/:id/members
        add members to a group; provide a JSON array of principal ids

    DELETE /group/:id/member/:id
        remove a member from a group

    DELETE /group/:id/members
        remove all members from a group

Custom Fields

    GET /customfields?query=<JSON>
    POST /customfields
        search for custom fields using L</JSON searches> syntax

    POST /customfield
        create a customfield; provide JSON content

    GET /catalog/:id/customfields?query=<JSON>
    POST /catalog/:id/customfields
        search for custom fields attached to a catalog using L</JSON searches> syntax

    GET /class/:id/customfields?query=<JSON>
    POST /class/:id/customfields
        search for custom fields attached to a class using L</JSON searches> syntax

    GET /queue/:id/customfields?query=<JSON>
    POST /queue/:id/customfields
        search for custom fields attached to a queue using L</JSON searches> syntax

    GET /customfield/:id
        retrieve a custom field, with values if type is Select

    GET /customfield/:id?category=<category name>
        retrieve a custom field, with values filtered by category if type is Select

    PUT /customfield/:id
        update a custom field's metadata; provide JSON content

    DELETE /customfield/:id
        disable customfield

Custom Field Values

    GET /customfield/:id/values?query=<JSON>
    POST /customfield/:id/values
        search for values of a custom field  using L</JSON searches> syntax

    POST /customfield/:id/value
        add a value to a custom field; provide JSON content

    GET /customfield/:id/value/:id
        retrieve a value of a custom field

    PUT /customfield/:id/value/:id
        update a value of a custom field; provide JSON content

    DELETE /customfield/:id/value/:id
        remove a value from a custom field

Custom Roles

    GET /customroles?query=<JSON>
    POST /customroles
        search for custom roles using L</JSON searches> syntax

    GET /customrole/:id
        retrieve a custom role

Saved Searches

    GET /searches?query=<JSON>
    POST /searches
        search for saved searches using L</JSON searches> syntax

    GET /search/:id
    GET /search/:description
        retrieve a saved search

Miscellaneous

    GET /
        produces this documentation

    GET /rt
        produces system information

JSON searches

Some resources accept a basic JSON structure as the search conditions which specifies one or more fields to limit on (using specified operators and values). An example:

    curl -si -u user:pass https://rt.example.com/REST/2.0/queues -XPOST --data-binary '
        [
            { "field":    "Name",
              "operator": "LIKE",
              "value":    "Engineering" },

            { "field":    "Lifecycle",
              "value":    "helpdesk" },

            { "field"    : "CustomField.{Department}",
              "operator" : "=",
              "value"    : "Human Resources" }
        ]
    '

The JSON payload must be an array of hashes with the keys field and value and optionally operator.

Results can be sorted by using multiple query parameter arguments orderby and order. Each orderby query parameter specify a field to be used for sorting results. If the request includes more than one orderby query parameter, results are sorted according to corresponding fields in the same order than they are specified. For instance, if you want to sort results according to creation date and then by id (in case of some items have the same creation date), your request should specify ?orderby=Created&orderby=id. By default, results are sorted in ascending order. To sort results in descending order, you should use order=DESC query parameter. Any other value for order query parameter will be treated as order=ASC, for ascending order. The order of the order query parameters should be the same as the orderby query parameters. Therefore, if you specify two fields to sort the results (with two orderby parameters) and you want to sort the second field by descending order, you should also explicitly specify order=ASC for the first field: orderby=Created&order=ASC&orderby=id&order=DESC. orderby and order query parameters are supported in both JSON and TicketSQL searches.

The same field is specified more than one time to express more than one condition on this field. For example:

    [
        { "field":    "id",
          "operator": ">",
          "value":    $min },

        { "field":     "id",
          "operator": "<",
          "value":    $max }
    ]

By default, RT will aggregate these conditions with an OR, except for when searching queues, where an AND is applied. If you want to search for multiple conditions on the same field aggregated with an AND (or an OR for queues), you can specify entry_aggregator keys in corresponding hashes:

    [
        { "field":    "id",
          "operator": ">",
          "value":    $min },

        { "field":             "id",
          "operator":         "<",
          "value":            $max,
          "entry_aggregator": "AND" }
    ]

Results are returned in the format described below.

Example of plural resources (collections)

Resources which represent a collection of other resources use the following standard JSON format:

    {
       "count" : 20,
       "page" : 1,
       "pages" : 191,
       "per_page" : 20,
       "next_page" : "<collection path>?page=2"
       "total" : 3810,
       "items" : [
          { … },
          { … },
          …
       ]
    }

Each item is nearly the same representation used when an individual resource is requested.

Object Custom Field Values

When creating (via POST) or updating (via PUT) a resource which has some custom fields attached to, you can specify the value(s) for these customfields in the CustomFields property of the JSON object parameter. The CustomFields property should be a JSON object, with each property being the custom field identifier or name. If the custom field can have only one value, you just have to specify the value as JSON string for this custom field. If the customfield can have several value, you have to specify a JSON array of each value you want for this custom field.

    "CustomFields": {
        "XX_SINGLE_CF_ID_XX"   : "My Single Value",
        "XX_MULTI_VALUE_CF_ID": [
            "My First Value",
            "My Second Value"
        ]
    }

Note that for a multi-value custom field, you have to specify all the values for this custom field. Therefore if the customfield for this resource already has some values, the existing values must be including in your update request if you want to keep them (and add some new values). Conversely, if you want to delete some existing values, do not include them in your update request (including only values you wan to keep). The following example deletes "My Second Value" from the previous example:

    "CustomFields": {
        "XX_MULTI_VALUE_CF_ID": [
            "My First Value"
        ]
    }

To delete a single-value custom field, set its value to JSON null (undef in Perl):

    "CustomFields": {
        "XX_SINGLE_CF_ID_XX" : null
    }

New values for Image and Binary custom fields can be set by specifying a JSON object as value for the custom field identifier or name with the following properties:

FileName

The name of the file to attach, mandatory.

FileType

The MIME type of the file to attach, mandatory.

FileContent

The content, encoded in MIME Base64 of the file to attach, mandatory.

The reason why you should encode the content of the image or binary file to MIME Base64 is that a JSON string value should be a sequence of zero or more Unicode characters. MIME Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme widely used (for e.g. by web browser) to send binary data when text data is required. Most popular language have MIME Base64 libraries that you can use to encode the content of your attached files (see MIME::Base64 for Perl). Note that even text files should be MIME Base64 encoded to be passed in the FileContent property.

    "CustomFields": {
        "XX_SINGLE_IMAGE_OR_BINARY_CF_ID_XX"   : {
            "FileName"   : "image.png",
            "FileType"   : "image/png",
            "FileContent": "XX_BASE_64_STRING_XX"
        },
        "XX_MULTI_VALUE_IMAGE_OR_BINARY_CF_ID": [
            {
                "FileName"   : "another_image.png",
                "FileType"   : "image/png",
                "FileContent": "XX_BASE_64_STRING_XX"
            },
            {
                "FileName"   : "hello_world.txt",
                "FileType"   : "text/plain",
                "FileContent": "SGVsbG8gV29ybGQh"
            }
        ]
    }

Encoding the content of image or binary files in MIME Base64 has the drawback of adding some processing overhead and to increase the sent data size by around 33%. RT's REST2 API provides another way to upload image or binary files as custom field values by sending, instead of a JSON request, a multipart/form-data request. This kind of request is similar to what the browser sends when you upload a file in RT's ticket creation or update forms. As its name suggests, a multipart/form-data request message contains a series of parts, each representing a form field. To create or update a ticket with image or binary file, the multipart/form-data request has to include a field named JSON, which, as previously, is a JSON object with Queue, Subject, Content, ContentType, etc. properties. But instead of specifying each custom field value as a JSON object with FileName, FileType and FileContent properties, each custom field value should be a JSON object with UploadField. You can choose anything you want for this field name, except Attachments, which should be reserved for attaching files to a response or a comment to a ticket. Files can then be attached by specifying a field named as specified in the CustomFields property for each of them, with the content of the file as value and the appropriate MIME type.

Here is an example of a curl invocation, wrapped to multiple lines for readability, to create a ticket with a multipart/request to upload some image or binary files as custom fields values.

    curl -X POST
         -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data"
         -F 'JSON={
                    "Queue"      : "General",
                    "Subject"    : "hello world",
                    "Content"    : "That <em>damned</em> printer is out of order <b>again</b>!",
                    "ContentType": "text/html",
                    "CustomFields"  : {
                        "XX_SINGLE_IMAGE_OR_BINARY_CF_ID_XX"   => { "UploadField": "FILE_1" },
                        "XX_MULTI_VALUE_IMAGE_OR_BINARY_CF_ID" => [ { "UploadField": "FILE_2" }, { "UploadField": "FILE_3" } ]
                    }
                  };type=application/json'
         -F 'FILE_1=@/tmp/image.png;type=image/png'
         -F 'FILE_2=@/tmp/another_image.png;type=image/png'
         -F 'FILE_3=@/etc/cups/cupsd.conf;type=text/plain'
         -H 'Authorization: token XX_TOKEN_XX'
            'XX_RT_URL_XX'/tickets

If you want to delete some existing values from a multi-value image or binary custom field, you can just pass the existing filename as value for the custom field identifier or name, no need to upload again the content of the file. The following example will delete the text file and keep the image upload in previous example:

    "CustomFields": {
        "XX_MULTI_VALUE_IMAGE_OR_BINARY_CF_ID": [
                "image.png"
        ]
    }

To download an image or binary file which is the custom field value of a resource, you just have to make a GET request to the entry point returned for the corresponding custom field when fetching this resource, and it will return the content of the file as an octet string:

    curl -i -H 'Authorization: token XX_TOKEN_XX' 'XX_TICKET_URL_XX'

    {
        […]
        "XX_IMAGE_OR_BINARY_CF_ID_XX" : [
            {
                "content_type" : "image/png",
                "filename" : "image.png",
                "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/download/cf/XX_IMAGE_OR_BINARY_OCFV_ID_XX"
            }
        ],
        […]
    },

    curl -i -H 'Authorization: token XX_TOKEN_XX'
        'XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/download/cf/XX_IMAGE_OR_BINARY_OCFV_ID_XX'
        > file.png

Paging

All plural resources (such as /tickets) require pagination, controlled by the query parameters page and per_page. The default page size is 20 items, but it may be increased up to 100 (or decreased if desired). Page numbers start at 1. The number of pages is returned, and if there is a next or previous page, then the URL for that page is returned in the next_page and prev_page variables respectively. It is up to you to store the required JSON to pass with the following page request.

If current user doesn't have enough rights to see all returned results, then returned pages and total will be null, in which case you can still loop through results by means of next_page that contains the link to the next page of results, until it becomes absent.

Disabled items

By default, only enabled objects are returned. To include disabled objects you can specify find_disabled_rows=1 as a query parameter.

Fields

When fetching search results you can include additional fields by adding a query parameter fields which is a comma separated list of fields to include. You must use the camel case version of the name as included in the results for the actual item.

You can use additional fields parameters to expand child blocks, for example (line wrapping inserted for readability):

    XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/tickets
      ?fields=Owner,Status,Created,Subject,Queue,CustomFields,Requestor,Cc,AdminCc,CustomRoles
      &fields[Queue]=Name,Description

Says that in the result set for tickets, the extra fields for Owner, Status, Created, Subject, Queue, CustomFields, Requestor, Cc, AdminCc and CustomRoles should be included. But in addition, for the Queue block, also include Name and Description. The results would be similar to this (only one ticket is displayed in this example):

   "items" : [
      {
         "Subject" : "Sample Ticket",
         "id" : "2",
         "type" : "ticket",
         "Owner" : {
            "id" : "root",
            "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/user/root",
            "type" : "user"
         },
         "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/ticket/2",
         "Status" : "resolved",
         "Created" : "2018-06-29:10:25Z",
         "Queue" : {
            "id" : "1",
            "type" : "queue",
            "Name" : "General",
            "Description" : "The default queue",
            "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/queue/1"
         },
         "CustomFields" : [
             {
                 "id" : "1",
                 "type" : "customfield",
                 "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/customfield/1",
                 "name" : "My Custom Field",
                 "values" : [
                     "CustomField value"
                 ]
             }
         ],
         "Requestor" : [
            {
               "id" : "root",
               "type" : "user",
               "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/user/root"
            }
         ],
         "Cc" : [
            {
               "id" : "root",
               "type" : "user",
               "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/user/root"
            }
         ],
         "AdminCc" : [],
         "CustomRoles" : {
            "Manager": {
               "_url" : "XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/user/foo@example.com",
               "type" : "user",
               "id" : "foo@example.com"
            }
         }
      }
      { … },
      …
   ],

If the user performing the query doesn't have rights to view the record (or sub record), then the empty string will be returned.

For single object URLs like /ticket/:id, as it already contains all the fields by default, parameter "fields" is not needed, but you can still use additional fields parameters to expand child blocks:

    XX_RT_URL_XX/REST/2.0/ticket/1?fields[Queue]=Name,Description

Authentication Methods

Authentication should always be done over HTTPS/SSL for security. You should only serve up the /REST/2.0/ endpoint over SSL.

Basic Auth

Authentication may use internal RT usernames and passwords, provided via HTTP Basic auth. Most HTTP libraries already have a way of providing basic auth credentials when making requests. Using curl, for example:

    curl -u 'username:password' /path/to/REST/2.0

Token Auth

You may use the RT::Authen::Token extension to authenticate to the REST 2 API. Once you've acquired an authentication token in the web interface, specify the Authorization header with a value of "token" like so:

    curl -H 'Authorization: token …' /path/to/REST/2.0

If the library or application you're using does not support specifying additional HTTP headers, you may also pass the authentication token as a query parameter like so:

    curl /path/to/REST/2.0?token=…

Finally, you may reuse an existing cookie from an ordinary web session to authenticate against REST2. This is primarily intended for interacting with REST2 via JavaScript in the browser. Other REST consumers are advised to use the alternatives above.

Conditional requests (If-Modified-Since, If-Match)

You can take advantage of the Last-Modified headers returned by most single resource endpoints. Add a If-Modified-Since header to your requests for the same resource, using the most recent Last-Modified value seen, and the API may respond with a 304 Not Modified. You can also use HEAD requests to check for updates without receiving the actual content when there is a newer version. You may also add an If-Unmodified-Since header to your updates to tell the server to refuse updates if the record had been changed since you last retrieved it.

ETag, If-Match, and If-None-Match work similarly to Last-Modified, If-Modified-Since, and If-Unmodified-Since, except that they don't use a timestamp, which has its own set of tradeoffs. ETag is an opaque value, so it has no meaning to consumers (unlike timestamps). However, timestamps have the disadvantage of having a resolution of seconds, so two updates happening in the same second would produce incorrect results, whereas ETag does not suffer from that problem.

Status codes

The REST API uses the full range of HTTP status codes, and your client should handle them appropriately.

← Back to index

Security contact information
© 2002-2024 Best Practical Solutions LLC.