Difference between revisions of "Python API Wrapper Tutorial"

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__NOTOC__
 
__NOTOC__
  
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<p class=msnote>'''Important notice:''' The MailStore Server Administration API wrapper for Python provided on this website, represents an example implementation of an API client. This wrapper should help system administrators and developers to quickly understand how to use the Administration API of MailStore Server. Please understand that beyond this documentation no further support is provided.</p>
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<p class=msnote>'''Important notice:''' The Python API wrapper for the MailStore Server Administration API provided on this website, represents an example implementation of an API client. This wrapper should help system administrators and developers to quickly understand how the Administration API of MailStore Server works and how to use it in own scripts. Please understand that beyond this documentation no further support for the Python API wrapper is provided.</p>
  
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This document explains the installation and usage of the MailStore Server Administration API wrapper for Python. In order to prevent loss of data, service interruption or any other problems, it is highly recommended to use a non-productive test environment for this tutorial as well as for script development in general. The 30-day-trial version of MailStore Server is perfectly suited for this.
+
This document explains the installation and usage of the Python API wrapper for the MailStore Server Administration API. In order to prevent loss of data, service interruption or other problems, it is highly recommended to use a non-productive test environment for this tutorial as well as for script development in general. The 30-day-trial version of MailStore Server is perfectly suited for this.
  
 
== Installation ==
 
== Installation ==
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The API library is tested against Python 3.2 to Python 3.4. It is compatible with the 32bit and the 64bit versions of Python.  
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The API wrapper library is tested against Python 3.2 to Python 3.4 and is compatible with 32bit and 64bit versions of Python.  
  
 
Python binaries for various operating systems can be downloaded from the [http://www.python.org/download/ Python download page] or installed using the package manager of most Linux distributions.
 
Python binaries for various operating systems can be downloaded from the [http://www.python.org/download/ Python download page] or installed using the package manager of most Linux distributions.
  
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Additionally the [ftp://ftp.mailstore.com/pub/Scripts/Python/Python-MailStore-API-Wrapper.zip Python API Wrapper library] has to be installed in the ''mailstore'' subdirectory of Python's site-packages directory. The location of the site-packages directory can be found by executing the following command:
+
Additionally the [ftp://ftp.mailstore.com/pub/Scripts/Python/Python-MailStore-API-Wrapper.zip Python API wrapper library] has to be installed in the ''mailstore'' subdirectory of Python's site-packages directory. The location of the site-packages directory can be found by executing the following command:
  
 
<source lang="python" smart-tabs="true" toolbar="false" gutter="false">
 
<source lang="python" smart-tabs="true" toolbar="false" gutter="false">
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python3 -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print(get_python_lib())"
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python3 -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print(get_python_lib())"
 
</source>
 
</source>
  
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<source lang="python" smart-tabs="true" toolbar="false" gutter="false">
 
<source lang="python" smart-tabs="true" toolbar="false" gutter="false">
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serverClient = mailstore.server.Client(username="admin", password="admin", host="127.0.0.1", port=8463)
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serverClient = mailstore.server.Client(username="admin", password="admin", host="127.0.0.1", port=8463)
 
</source>
 
</source>
  
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</source>
 
</source>
  
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If ''autoHanldeToken'' was set to ''False'' and the ''statusCode'' returns ''running'', manual token handling is required as described in the [[#Auto Handle Token]] section.
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If ''autoHandleToken'' was set to ''False'' and the ''statusCode'' returns ''running'', manual token handling is required as described in the [[#Auto Handle Token]] section.
  
 
For any other ''statusCode'' value than ''succeeded'' and ''running'' the occurrence of an error has to be assumed, in which further information such as the error message and error details are available in the dictionary ''error'' as shown below:
 
For any other ''statusCode'' value than ''succeeded'' and ''running'' the occurrence of an error has to be assumed, in which further information such as the error message and error details are available in the dictionary ''error'' as shown below:
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=== Examples ===
 
=== Examples ===
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Create a list of all assigned email addresses.  
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Create a list of all email addresses assigned to MailStore users.  
  
 
<source lang="python" smart-tabs="true" toolbar="false" gutter="false">
 
<source lang="python" smart-tabs="true" toolbar="false" gutter="false">
−
serverClient = mailstore.server.Client(username="admin", password="admin", host="127.0.0.1", port=8463)
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serverClient = mailstore.server.Client()
 
emailAddresses = list()
 
emailAddresses = list()
 
for user in serverClient.GetUsers()["result"]:
 
for user in serverClient.GetUsers()["result"]:
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== Long Running Tasks ==
 
== Long Running Tasks ==
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The execution of certain API methods like ''VerifyStore'' typically takes several minutes or even hours until it finishes. There are different options available to deal with these tasks:
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The execution of certain API methods like ''VerifyStore'' may take several minutes or even hours until it finishes. There are different options available to deal with these long running tasks:
  
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1) automatic token handling
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# [[#Automatic Token Handling|Automatic Token Handling]]
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2) automatic token handling with callback function
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# [[#Automatic Token Handling with Callback Function|Automatic Token Handling with Callback Function]]
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3) manual token handling
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# [[#Manual Token Handling|Manual Token Handling]]
  
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Generally it is recommended to expect that every method call can become a long running task, depending on the ''waitTime'' value, the called method or the overall load on the server. Thus it is not advisable to globally turn of automatic token handling when instantiating the API client.
+
Generally it is recommended to expect that every method call can become a long running task, as this depends on the ''waitTime'' value, the called method but also the overall load on the server. Thus it is not advisable to globally turn of automatic token handling when instantiating the API client.
  
 
If desired, automatic token handling can be enabled or disabled for each invoked method by adding ''autoHandleToken=True'' to the method's argument list.
 
If desired, automatic token handling can be enabled or disabled for each invoked method by adding ''autoHandleToken=True'' to the method's argument list.
  
−
'''Important note:''' Once a method has been invoked, its thread cannot be cancelled. This is not a limitation of the Python wrapper, but of the MailStore Server Administration API itself.  
+
'''Important note:''' Once a method has been invoked, its thread cannot be cancelled. This is not a limitation of the Python wrapper, but of the MailStore Server Administration API itself.
  
 
=== Automatic Token Handling ===
 
=== Automatic Token Handling ===
−
When ''autoHandleToken'' is set to ''True'' (default), the wrapper polls the status of long running tasks automatically in the background and will return the final result when the process has ended.  
+
When ''autoHandleToken'' is set to ''True'' (default), the wrapper polls the status of long running tasks automatically in the background and will return the final result when the process has ended.
  
 
==== Code ====
 
==== Code ====
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=== Automatic Token Handling with Callback Function ===
 
=== Automatic Token Handling with Callback Function ===
−
If a caller wants to keep track of the progress of a long running task (i.e. to inform the user about the progress), although automatic token handling was enabled, he could pass the name of a function as value of the ''callbackStatus'' argument to the instance of the API client.
+
If a caller wants to keep track of the progress of a long running task (i.e. to inform the user about the progress), although automatic token handling was enabled, he could pass the name of a function as ''callbackStatus'' argument to the instance of the API client.
  
 
==== Code ====
 
==== Code ====
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=== Manual Token Handling ===
 
=== Manual Token Handling ===
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If ''autoHandleToken'' is set to ''False'' the caller must handle the token all by itself. To poll for status updates manually call the ''GetStatus'' method and use the last returned value as parameter. ''GetStatus'' will extract the status token itself, poll for the latest update and return the received data to the caller again. The main call has finished when the ''statusCode'' changed to something different than ''running''. Calling ''GetStatus'' without passing a status token will result in a corresponding exception.
+
If ''autoHandleToken'' is set to ''False'' the caller must handle long running tasks and the corresponding tokens all by itself. To poll for status updates, the ''GetStatus'' method must be called periodically passing the last returned result as parameter. ''GetStatus'' will extract the status token itself, poll for the latest update and return the received data to the caller again. The main call has finished when the ''statusCode'' changes to something different than ''running''. Calling ''GetStatus'' without passing a status token will result in an exception.
  
 
==== Code ====
 
==== Code ====
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== Methods Overview ==
 
== Methods Overview ==
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All the methods listed in [[MailStore_Server_Administration_API_Commands|the method overview]] are implemented in the Python API library. Use  
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All methods listed in [[MailStore_Server_Administration_API_Commands|the method overview]] are implemented in the Python API library. Use  
  
−
   pydoc mailstore.server
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   pydoc3 mailstore.server
  
 
to access the build in documentation, which also includes an overview of all methods and their parameters.
 
to access the build in documentation, which also includes an overview of all methods and their parameters.

Revision as of 08:17, 26 August 2014


Important notice: The Python API wrapper for the MailStore Server Administration API provided on this website, represents an example implementation of an API client. This wrapper should help system administrators and developers to quickly understand how the Administration API of MailStore Server works and how to use it in own scripts. Please understand that beyond this documentation no further support for the Python API wrapper is provided.

This document explains the installation and usage of the Python API wrapper for the MailStore Server Administration API. In order to prevent loss of data, service interruption or other problems, it is highly recommended to use a non-productive test environment for this tutorial as well as for script development in general. The 30-day-trial version of MailStore Server is perfectly suited for this.

Installation

The API wrapper library is tested against Python 3.2 to Python 3.4 and is compatible with 32bit and 64bit versions of Python.

Python binaries for various operating systems can be downloaded from the Python download page or installed using the package manager of most Linux distributions.

Additionally the Python API wrapper library has to be installed in the mailstore subdirectory of Python's site-packages directory. The location of the site-packages directory can be found by executing the following command: 

python3 -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print(get_python_lib())"

Instantiating the API Client

Before the API wrapper library can be used, it must first be imported with: 

 import mailstore

Now the mailstore.server.Client class can be instantiated as follows: 

serverClient = mailstore.server.Client(username="admin", password="admin", host="127.0.0.1", port=8463)

Default values can be omitted. The default admin credentials (username and password set to admin) are only usable when connecting from the MailStore Server computer itself to localhost. Find a listing of all default values in the following table:

Parameter Default Value Description
username admin Username used for connecting to the API.
password admin Password used for connecting to the API.
host 127.0.0.1 Hostname or IP address of the MailStore Server computer.
port 8463 TCP port on which MailStore Server is listening for API requests.
autoHandleToken True If set to True, the caller does not need to handle tokens of long running tasks, but instead has to wait for the result. When set to False and the statusCode is running, a status token is returned and must be handled appropriately by the caller of the method. Further details about token handling is described the corresponding section #Automatic Token Handling of this document.
waitTime 1000 Specifies the number of milliseconds the API should wait for a final result. Otherwise the process is treated as running, in which case token handling as defined by the status of autoHandleToken becomes necessary.
callbackStatus None Name of callback function to which interim statuses of long running tasks should be passed. This allows keeping track of the tasks' progress even if autoHandleToken is enabled. This can be quite useful in order to notify users about the progress without having to deal with the token logic as a whole.
logLevel 2 Has to be in the range 0 to 4, where 0 (NONE) has the lowest verbosity and 4 (DEBUG) the highest. The loglevels are defined in the following order (low to high verbosity) NONE, ERROR, WARNING, INFO and DEBUG. Log entries will always be printed to stdout.

Invoking API Method

After the API client has been successfully instantiated, API methods can easily be invoked. When the method call was successful, the statusCode is succeeded and the result is stored in the dictionary result as shown in the following example: 

print(serverClient.GetServerInfo()["result"])
 
{'logOutput': None, 'statusText': None, 'error': None, 'percentProgress': None, 'token': None, 'result': {'machineName': 'WIN-2012-R2-X64', 'version': '9.0.3.9857'}, 'statusVersion': 2, 'statusCode': 'succeeded'}

If autoHandleToken was set to False and the statusCode returns running, manual token handling is required as described in the #Auto Handle Token section.

For any other statusCode value than succeeded and running the occurrence of an error has to be assumed, in which further information such as the error message and error details are available in the dictionary error as shown below: 

userInfo = serverClient.GetUserInfo("john.doe")

if userInfo["statusCode"] == 'succeeded':
    print(userInfo["result"]["emailAddresses"])
else
    print(userInfo["error"]["message"])

Examples

Create a list of all email addresses assigned to MailStore users. 

serverClient = mailstore.server.Client()
emailAddresses = list()
for user in serverClient.GetUsers()["result"]:
	emailAddresses += serverClient.GetUserInfo(user["userName"])["result"]["emailAddresses"]
print(emailAddresses)

Long Running Tasks

The execution of certain API methods like VerifyStore may take several minutes or even hours until it finishes. There are different options available to deal with these long running tasks:

  1. Automatic Token Handling
  2. Automatic Token Handling with Callback Function
  3. Manual Token Handling

Generally it is recommended to expect that every method call can become a long running task, as this depends on the waitTime value, the called method but also the overall load on the server. Thus it is not advisable to globally turn of automatic token handling when instantiating the API client.

If desired, automatic token handling can be enabled or disabled for each invoked method by adding autoHandleToken=True to the method's argument list.

Important note: Once a method has been invoked, its thread cannot be cancelled. This is not a limitation of the Python wrapper, but of the MailStore Server Administration API itself.

Automatic Token Handling

When autoHandleToken is set to True (default), the wrapper polls the status of long running tasks automatically in the background and will return the final result when the process has ended.

Code

import mailstore

serverClient = mailstore.server.Client(autoHandleToken=True)
storeId = 1
print(serverClient.VerifyStore(storeId))

Output

{'logOutput': None, 'statusText': None, 'error': None, 'percentProgress': 100, 'token': 'd242d822a59bd4db308eef8b85af7d2a', 'result': None, 'statusVersion': 71, 'statusCode': 'succeeded'}

Automatic Token Handling with Callback Function

If a caller wants to keep track of the progress of a long running task (i.e. to inform the user about the progress), although automatic token handling was enabled, he could pass the name of a function as callbackStatus argument to the instance of the API client.

Code

import mailstore

def showProgress(progress):
   print(progress["logOutput"], end="")

serverClient = mailstore.server.Client(autoHandleToken=True, callbackStatus=showProgress)
storeId = 3
print(serverClient.VerifyStore(storeId))

Output

Verifying file group #3...
Creating a list of messages to be verified...
1249 messages are about to be verified.
Verifying...
  100 messages verified...
  200 messages verified...
  300 messages verified...
  400 messages verified...
  500 messages verified...
  600 messages verified...
  700 messages verified...
  800 messages verified...
  900 messages verified...
  1000 messages verified...
  1100 messages verified...
  1200 messages verified...
  1249 messages verified.
Finished. No errors have been found.
{'error': None, 'result': None, 'logOutput': '  1000 messages verified...\r\n  1100 messages verified...\r\n  1200 messages verified...\r\n  1249 messages verified.\r\nFinished. No errors have been found.\r\n', 'token': 'c56f032d9db263133c1a413f79744b84', 'statusVersion': 71, 'statusText': None, 'percentProgress': 100, 'statusCode': 'succeeded'}

Manual Token Handling

If autoHandleToken is set to False the caller must handle long running tasks and the corresponding tokens all by itself. To poll for status updates, the GetStatus method must be called periodically passing the last returned result as parameter. GetStatus will extract the status token itself, poll for the latest update and return the received data to the caller again. The main call has finished when the statusCode changes to something different than running. Calling GetStatus without passing a status token will result in an exception.

Code

import mailstore
import time

serverClient = mailstore.server.Client(password="Passw0rd", host="192.168.250.217", autoHandleToken=False)
storeID = 3
status = serverClient.VerifyStore(storeID)

while True:
    if status["statusCode"] != "running":
        break
    print(status["logOutput"], end="")
    status = serverClient.GetStatus(status)
    time.sleep(1)

Output

Verifying file group #3...
Creating a list of messages to be verified...
1249 messages are about to be verified.
Verifying...
  100 messages verified...
  200 messages verified...
  300 messages verified...
  400 messages verified...
  500 messages verified...
  600 messages verified...
  700 messages verified...
  800 messages verified...
  900 messages verified...
  1000 messages verified...
  1100 messages verified...
  1200 messages verified...
  1249 messages verified.
Finished. No errors have been found.

Methods Overview

All methods listed in the method overview are implemented in the Python API library. Use 

 pydoc3 mailstore.server

to access the build in documentation, which also includes an overview of all methods and their parameters.

Retrieved from "https://help.mailstore.com/en/server/index.php?title=Python_API_Wrapper_Tutorial&oldid=4673"