Upgrade Guide

This upgrade guide lists all breaking changes in plone.restapi and explains the necessary steps that are needed to upgrade to the lastest version.

Upgrading to plone.restapi 4.x

plone.restapi 4.0.0 introduces the following breaking changes:

  1. Fields with vocabularies now return the token and title instead of the stored value.
  2. Choice and list fields return a hyperlink to a vocabulary instead of choices, enum, and enumNames.
  3. Serialize widget parameters into a widgetOptions object instead of adding them to the top level of the schema property.
  4. The vocabularies endpoint does no longer returns an @id for terms, the results are batched, and terms are now listed as items instead of terms to match other batched responses.

Serialization and Deserialization of fields with vocabularies

The serialization of fields with vocabularies (e.g. Choice) now return the token and the title of the vocabulary term instead of the stored value. This is allows displaying the term (title) without additionally querying the vocabulary. However it’s necessary to adopt existing client implementations.

The date and time controlpanel previously returned a number for the first_weekday property:

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/@controlpanels/date-and-time",
  "data": {
      ...
      "first_weekday": 0,
      ...
  }
  ...
}

Now it returns an object with a token and a title:

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/@controlpanels/date-and-time",
  "data": {
      ...
      "first_weekday": {
          "title": "Monday",
          "token": "0"
      },
      ...
  }
  ...
}

Deserialization accepts objects that contain a token, but also just the token or the value.

However it’s highly recommended to always use the token as vocabulary terms may contain values that are not JSON serializable.

Serialize widget parameters into a widgetOptions object

Serialize widget parameters into a widgetOptions object instead of adding them to the top level of the schema property.

Old response:

"vocabulary": "plone.app.vocabularies.Users"

New response:

"widgetOptions": {
  "pattern_options": {
    "recentlyUsed": true
  },
  "vocabulary": { "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/@vocabularies/plone.app.vocabularies.Users" }
}

Example: Vocabularies Subjects Field

The subjects field is now serialized as an array of string items using the plone.app.vocabularies.Keywords vocabulary.

Old response:

"subjects": {
  "choices": [...],
  "enum": [...],
  "enumNames": [...],
}
"type": "string"

New response:

"additionalItems": true,
"type": "array",
"uniqueItems": true,
"widgetOptions": {
    "vocabulary": {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/@vocabularies/plone.app.vocabularies.Keywords"
  }
},
"items": {
  "description": "",
  "title": "",
  "type": "string"
},

Example: Available Time Zones Field (vocabulary in items)

Old response:

"available_timezones": {
  "additionalItems": true,
  "default": [],
  "description": "The timezones, which should be available for the portal. Can be set for users and events",
  "items": {
    "choices": [
      [
        "Africa/Abidjan",
        "Africa/Abidjan"
      ],
      [
        "Africa/Accra",
        "Africa/Accra"
      ],
      ...
    "enum": [
      ...
    ],
    "enumNames": [
      ...
    ]
  },
  title: "Available timezones",
  type: "array",
  uniqueItems: true,
}

New response:

"available_timezones": {
  "additionalItems": true,
  "default": [],
  "description": "The timezones, which should be available for the portal. Can be set for users and events",
  "items": {
    "description": "",
    "title": "",
    "type": "string",
    "vocabulary": {
      "@id": "http://localhost:8080/Plone/@vocabularies/plone.app.vocabularies.Timezones"
    }
  },
  "title": "Available timezones",
  "type": "array",
  "uniqueItems": true
},

Example: Weekday Field (vocabulary in main property)

Old response:

"first_weekday": {
  "choices": [
    [
      "0",
      "Monday"
    ],
    [
      "1",
      "Tuesday"
    ],
    [
      "2",
      "Wednesday"
    ],
    [
      "3",
      "Thursday"
    ],
    [
      "4",
      "Friday"
    ],
    [
      "5",
      "Saturday"
    ],
    [
      "6",
      "Sunday"
    ]
  ],
  "description": "First day in the week.",
  "enum": [
    "0",
    "1",
    "2",
    "3",
    "4",
    "5",
    "6"
  ],
  "enumNames": [
    "Monday",
    "Tuesday",
    "Wednesday",
    "Thursday",
    "Friday",
    "Saturday",
    "Sunday"
  ],
  "title": "First weekday",
  "type": "string"
},

New response:

"first_weekday": {
  "description": "First day in the week.",
  "title": "First weekday",
  "type": "string",
  "vocabulary": {
    "@id": "http://localhost:8080/Plone/@vocabularies/plone.app.vocabularies.Weekdays"
  }
},

Vocabularies Endpoint

The vocabularies endpoint does no longer returns an @id for terms.

The results are batched, and terms are now listed as items instead of terms to match other batched responses.

Batch size is 25 by default but can be overridden using the b_size parameter.

Old response:

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/@vocabularies/plone.app.vocabularies.ReallyUserFriendlyTypes",
  "terms": [
    {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/@vocabularies/plone.app.vocabularies.ReallyUserFriendlyTypes/Collection",
      "title": "Collection",
      "token": "Collection"
    },
    ...
  ]
}

New response:

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/@vocabularies/plone.app.vocabularies.ReallyUserFriendlyTypes",
  "items": [
      {
        "title": "Collection",
        "token": "Collection"
      },
      ...
  ],
  "items_total": 12
}

Upgrading to plone.restapi 3.x

Image scales

Image download URLs and image scale URLs are created using the UID based url formats. This allows Plone to create different URLs when the image changes and thus ensuring caches are updated.

Old Response:

{
  "icon": {
    "download": "http://localhost:55001/plone/image/@@images/image/icon",
    "height": 32,
    "width": 24
  },
  "large": {
    "download": "http://localhost:55001/plone/image/@@images/image/large",
    "height": 768,
    "width": 576
  },
  ...
 }

New Response:

{
  "icon": {
    "download": "http://localhost:55001/plone/image/@@images/8eed3f80-5e1f-4115-85b8-650a10a6ca84.png",
    "height": 32,
    "width": 24
  },
  "large": {
    "download": "http://localhost:55001/plone/image/@@images/0d1824d1-2672-4b62-9277-aeb220d3bf15.png",
    "height": 768,
    "width": 576
  },
 ...
 }

@sharing endpoint

The available_roles property in the response to a GET request to the @sharing endpoint has changed: Instead of a flat list of strings, it now contains a list of dicts, with the role ID and their translated title:

Old Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "available_roles": [
    "Contributor",
    "Editor",
    "Reviewer",
    "Reader"
  ],
  "entries": [
      "..."
  ],
  "inherit": true
}

New Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "available_roles": [
    {
      "id": "Contributor",
      "title": "Can add"
    },
    {
      "id": "Editor",
      "title": "Can edit"
    },
    {
      "id": "Reader",
      "title": "Can view"
    },
    {
      "id": "Reviewer",
      "title": "Can review"
    }
  ],
  "entries": [
      "..."
  ],
  "inherit": true
}

Custom Content Deserializers

If you have implemented custom content deserializers, you have to handle the new create keyword in the __call__ method, which determines if deserialization is performed during object creation or while updating an object.

Deserializers should only fire an IObjectModifiedEvent event if an object has been updated. They should not fire it, when a new object has been created.

See Dexterity content deserializer for an example.

Upgrading to plone.restapi 2.x

plone.restapi 2.0.0 converts all datetime, DateTime and time to UTC before serializing. The translations endpoint becomes “expandable”, which introduces the following breaking changes.

Translations

When using the @translations endpoint in plone.restapi 1.x, the endpoint returned a language key with the content object’s language and a translations key with all its translations.

Now, as the endpoint is expandable we want the endpoint to behave like the other expandable endpoints. As top level information we only include the name of the endpoint on the @id attribute and the actual translations of the content object in an attribute called items.

This means that now the JSON response to a GET request to the Translations endpoint does not include anymore the language of the actual content item and the translations in an attribute called items instead of translations.

Old response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/en/test-document",
  "language": "en",
  "translations": [
    {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/es/test-document",
      "language": "es"
    }
  ]
}

New response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/en/test-document/@translations",
  "items": [
    {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/es/test-document",
      "language": "es"
    }
  ]
}

Upgrading to plone.restapi 1.0b1

In plone.restapi 1.0b1 the ‘url’ attribute on the Navigation and Breadcrumbs endpoint was renamed to @id’ to be consistent with other links/URLs used in plone.restapi.

The JSON response to a GET request to the Breadcrumbs endpoint changed from using the ‘url’ attribute for ‘items’:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page/@breadcrumbs",
  "items": [
    {
      "title": "Welcome to Plone",
      "url": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page"
    }
  ]
}

to using the @id’ for the URL of ‘items’:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page/@breadcrumbs",
  "items": [
    {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page",
      "title": "Welcome to Plone"
    }
  ]
}

The JSON response to a GET request to the Navigation endpoint changed from using the ‘url’ attribute for ‘items’:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page/@navigation",
  "items": [
    {
      "title": "Home",
      "url": "http://localhost:55001/plone",
    },
    {
      "title": "Welcome to Plone",
      "url": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page"
    }
  ]
}

to using the @id’ for the URL of ‘items’:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page/@navigation",
  "items": [
    {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone",
      "title": "Home"
    },
    {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page",
      "title": "Welcome to Plone"
    }
  ]
}

The expansion mechanism is also affected by this change when Navigation or Breadcrumbs endpoints are expanded.

From using ‘url’ in the breadcrumb ‘items’:

{
  "@components": {
    "breadcrumbs": {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page/@breadcrumbs",
      "items": [
        {
          "title": "Welcome to Plone",
          "url": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page"
        }
      ]
    },
    "navigation": {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page/@navigation",
      "items": [
        {
          "title": "Home",
          "url": "http://localhost:55001/plone",
        },
        {
          "title": "Welcome to Plone",
          "url": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page"
        }
      ]
    },
    ...
}

to using @id’ in the breadcrumb ‘items’:

{
  "@components": {
    "breadcrumbs": {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page/@breadcrumbs",
      "items": [
        {
          "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page",
          "title": "Welcome to Plone"
        }
      ]
    },
    "navigation": {
      "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page/@navigation",
      "items": [
        {
          "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone",
          "title": "Home"
        },
        {
          "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/front-page",
          "title": "Welcome to Plone"
        }
      ]
    },
    ...
}

Changelog:

- Rename 'url' attribute on navigation / breadcrumb to '@id'. [timo]

Pull Request:

Upgrading to plone.restapi 1.0a25

plone.restapi 1.0a25 introduced three breaking changes:

  • Remove @components navigation and breadcrumbs. Use top level @navigation and @breadcrumb endpoints instead. [timo]
  • Remove “sharing” attributes from GET response. [timo,jaroel]
  • Convert richtext using .output_relative_to. Direct conversion from RichText if no longer supported as we always need a context for the ITransformer. [jaroel]

Remove @components endpoint

plone.restapi 1.0a25 removed the @components endpoint which used to provide a Navigation and a Breadcrumbs endpoint.

Instead of using “@components/navigation”:

http://localhost:8080/Plone/@components/navigation

Use just “@navigation”:

http://localhost:8080/Plone/@navigation

Instead of using “@components/breadcrumbs”:

http://localhost:8080/Plone/@components/breadcrumbs

Use just “@breadcrumbs”:

http://localhost:8080/Plone/@breadcrumbs

Changelog:

- Remove @components navigation and breadcrumbs. Use top level @navigation and @breadcrumb endpoints instead. [timo]

Pull Request:

Remove “sharing” attributes

The “sharing” attribute was removed from all content GET responses:

"sharing": {
  "@id": "http://localhost:55001/plone/collection/@sharing",
  "title": "Sharing"
},

Use the Sharing endpoint that can be expanded instead.

Changelog:

- Remove "sharing" attributes from GET response. [timo,jaroel]

Pull Request:

Convert richtext using .output_relative_to

Using “.output_relative_to” in the

Changelog:

- Convert richtext using .output_relative_to. Direct conversion from RichText if no longer supported as we *always* need a context for the ITransformer. [jaroel]

Pull Request:

https://github.com/plone/plone.restapi/pull/428

Upgrading to plone.restapi 1.0a17

plone.restapi 1.0a17 changed the serialization of the rich-text “text” field for content objects from using ‘raw’ (a unicode string with the original input markup):

"text": {
  "content-type": "text/plain",
  "data": "Lorem ipsum",
  "encoding": "utf-8"
},

to using ‘output’ (a unicode object representing the transformed output):

"text": {
  "content-type": "text/plain",
  "data": "<p>Lorem ipsum</p>",
  "encoding": "utf-8"
},

Changelog:

- Change RichText field value to use 'output' instead of 'raw' to fix inline paths. This fixes #302. [erral]

Pull Request:

https://github.com/plone/plone.restapi/pull/346