NITRO API Wrapper

This project is a minimalist wrapper around the NetScaler NITRO API. Its purpose is to expedite the process of testing the API and building scripts to do useful tasks.

It is expected that you refer to the NITRO documentation while using this lib.

There are two ways in which this lib can be consumed:

1. The API class can be instantiated from any code. It has a single request method, which is used to make API calls against NITRO.

2. The CLI class is a subclass of API and is designed to be a convenience class for working with stand alone scripts that populate the API constructor using command line arguments parsed by docopt. The command line arguments can be passed in directly or they can be added to a JSON file and the --json flag can be used to reference the JSON file path. A cli_example.py file is included in the package to give a working example of how to use this use case.

The request method takes a NITRO API call and returns a python dictionary with the result.

api.request(self, path, payload=None, method=None)

Builds the request and returns a json object of the result or None.
If 'payload' is specified, the request will be a POST, otherwise it will be a GET.

:param path: a path appended to 'self.base_path' (default of '/nitro/v1'), 
             eg: path='/config' => '/nitro/v1/config'
:type path: str or unicode

:param payload: the object to be passed to the server
:type payload: dict or None

:param method: the request method [ GET | POST | PUT | DELETE ]
:type method: str or unicode

:returns: the result of the request as a dictionary; 
    if result is json: return json as a dict
    if result == '': return {'headers': <headers dict>}
    if result != json and result != '': return {'result': '<text returned>'}
:rtype: dict or None

Examples using the parent API class:

from nitroapi import API

# Recommended usage using WITH (to automatically login and logout):
with API(username="your user", password="your pass", endpoint="ns url") as api:
    system_stats = api.request('/stat/system')

# Manual setup and tear down example (requires explicit logout):
api = API(username="your user", password="your pass", endpoint="ns url")
api.request('/config/login', {
    'login': {
        'username':api.username,
        'password':api.password
    }
})
system_stats = api.request('/stat/system')
api.request('/config/logout', {'logout': {}})

Examples using the CLI sub-class: Duplicate the ./cli_example.py to get started.

from nitroapi import CLI

# Recommended usage using WITH (to automatically login and logout):
with CLI(__doc__) as api:
    pprint.pprint(api.request('/stat/system'))

# Manual setup and tear down example (requires explicit logout):
api = CLI(__doc__)
api.request('/config/login', {
    'login': {
        'username':api.username,
        'password':api.password
    }
})
system_stats = api.request('/stat/system')
api.request('/config/logout', {'logout': {}})

INSTALL

The easiest way to install this library is through pip.

$ pip install nitroapi

Alternatively, you can pull down the source code directly and install manually.

$ git clone https://github.com/swill/nitroapi.git
$ cd nitroapi
$ python setup.py install

USAGE

The core functionality is documented above, but it is worth spending a minute to better describe the CLI use case.

$ ./cli_example.py --help

Usage:
  cli_example.py [--json=<arg>] [--endpoint=<arg> --username=<arg> --password=<arg>] [options]
  cli_example.py (-h | --help)

Options:
  -h --help             Show this screen.
  --json=<arg>          Path to a JSON config file with the same names as the options (without the '--' prefix).
  --endpoint=<arg>      NetScaler URL.
  --username=<arg>      NetScaler username.
  --password=<arg>      NetScaler password.
  --base_path=<arg>     Base NetScaler API path [default: /nitro/v1].
  --logging=<arg>       Boolean to turn on or off logging [default: True].
  --log_level=<arg>     The logging verbosity. [default: DEBUG].
                        Valid entries are: CRITICAL | ERROR | WARNING | INFO | DEBUG | NOTSET
  --log=<arg>           The log file to be used [default: logs/nitroapi.log].
  --clear_log=<arg>     Removes the log each time the API object is created [default: True].
  --verify_ssl=<arg>    Verify the SSL Certificate for a target HTTPS endpoint [default: True].