How to consume a REST API | Mendix 10
API consumption is expected in both high-level and low-code programming. In this blog post, I will teach you how to Consume a REST API in Mendix 10!
Prerequisites to this tutorial
- Have a RapidAPI account
https://rapidapi.com/hub
Step by Step
1) Let’s start by navigating to rapidapi.com and creating an account:
2)After logging in, you will be directed to a free suggested API - the Quotes API, which is described as a “Free multilingual API for random famous quotes in many languages.”. Click on the button “Test Endpoint” and see the answer on the “Results” tab.
3) Click on the “Example Responses” tab and press the button “Copy”
4) In Studio, go to your chosen module and right-click on it. Select “Add other” and choose “JSON Structure”. As a name write “JSON_Quotes”.
5) Paste the JSON structure you copied before and click on “Refresh”
6) On the Structure, scroll to the right and change the “Custom Name” of the first object from “Root” to “Quote”.
7) Go to your module, right-click on it, select “Add other” then choose “Import Mapping”. For the name write “IMP_Quotes”
8) To the schema source, select “JSON structure” and choose “JSON_Quotes”
9) Check the following attributes: “language_code”, “content”, “url” and “name”
10) Click on “Map automatically”
11) Create a blank new page with the name “Quotes_Overview”
12) Inside the page, add a data view, and as a “data source”, select Microflow. Create a new microflow with the following name: “DS_Quotes_GetData”
13) In the microflow, drag and drop a “REST Call service” action.
14) Double-click on the action, and press edit near the Location input. In “template” paste the URL of the service. You can find it under the tab “Code Snippets” with the key “URL”.
15) Change to the “HTTP Headers” tab and press the button “New” under the “Custom HTTP Headers” subtitle.
16) Create 2 HTTP Headers.
First Header:
— Key: X-RapidAPI-Host
— Value: ‘quotes15.p.rapidapi.com’Second Header:
— Key: X-RapidAPI-Key
— Value: ‘Your API Key’
To get your API Key go to your profile by clicking on your avatar on the top right of the page -> Personal Billing -> My Apps (Left Side Menu) -> default-application -> Authorization.
If you don't have any Authorization, create one by clicking on the button “Add authorization”.
17) Implement an error handling by right-clicking in the “Call REST Service” action and selecting “Set error handling”. A popup will open and give 3 options to select. In our case, we will select “Custom without rollback”.
18) Add an “end event” action below the “Call REST service” activity. Between both, add a “Show Message” action. Select as “Type” the value “Warning” and as a template write “{1}” to be possible to define a parameter.
Click on the new parameter and insert as a value “$lastestError/Message”.
19) Return to the “Call REST service” activity, click in the tab “Response” and for the “Response handling” choose “Apply import mapping”. Select the import mapping that we created before “IMP_Quotes” and store it in a variable with the name “Quote”
20) Right-click on the REST Service and select “Set $Quote as return value”. Go to the “end event” below and set the value as “empty”.
21) Give access permission to the microflow “DS_Quotes_GetData” and to the page “Quotes_Overview”.
22) On the page “Quotes_Overview”, add text inputs for “Quote” entity attributes
23) Go to the project navigation and add the “Quotes_Overview” page to the menu.
24) Inside the domain mode, double-click on the “Quote” entity. Select access rules and create a new one. Choose the module role “User” and give “Read, Write” access to the attributes and permission to create and delete an object.
25) Run the project and test the REST call by clicking on the Quotes page.
This is the end of the tutorial.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to implement a REST API in Mendix 10. For more content like this make sure to check out my YouTube channel “Mendix With Me” for the video that inspired this blog and other tutorial videos.
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