Tutorial

In this tutorial, we'll step through examples to highlight the capabilities of the Camunda 8 API, such as listing all roles, creating a role, retrieving a role, and deleting a role.

Prerequisites

• If you haven't done so already, create a cluster.
• Upon cluster creation, create your first client. Ensure you check the Zeebe client scope box.

note

Make sure you keep the generated client credentials in a safe place. The Client secret will not be shown again. For your convenience, you can also download the client information to your computer.

• In this tutorial, we utilize a JavaScript-written GitHub repository to write and run requests. Clone this repo before getting started.
• Ensure you have Node.js installed as this will be used for methods that can be called by the CLI (outlined later in this guide). Run npm install to ensure you have updated dependencies.

Getting started

• You need authentication to access the API endpoints. Find more information here.

Set up authentication

If you're interested in how we use a library to handle auth for our code, or to get started, examine the auth.js file in the GitHub repository. This file contains a function named getAccessToken which executes an OAuth 2.0 protocol to retrieve authentication credentials based on your client ID and client secret. Then, we return the actual token that can be passed as an authorization header in each request.

To set up your credentials, create an .env file which will be protected by the .gitignore file. You will need to add the following:

• CAMUNDA_CLIENT_ID
• CAMUNDA_CLIENT_SECRET
• CAMUNDA_REST_ADDRESS (after creating a client and downloading the .env variables, this is reflected in the Console UI as ZEEBE_REST_ADDRESS)
• CAMUNDA_TOKEN_AUDIENCE (represented as ZEEBE_TOKEN_AUDIENCE in the Console UI), which is zeebe.camunda.io in a Camunda 8 SaaS environment. For example, your audience may be defined as CAMUNDA_TOKEN_AUDIENCE=zeebe.camunda.io.

These keys will be consumed by the auth.js file to execute the OAuth protocol, and should be saved when you generate your client credentials in prerequisites.

Examine the existing .env.example file for an example of how your .env file should look upon completion. Do not place your credentials in the .env.example file, as this example file is not protected by the .gitignore.

note

In this tutorial, we will execute arguments to list all roles, create a role, retrieve a role, and delete a role. You can examine the framework for processing these arguments in the cli.js file before getting started.

List all roles (POST)

First, let's script an API call to list all existing roles.

To do this, take the following steps:

1. In the file named camunda-8.js, outline the authentication and authorization configuration in the first few lines. This will pull in your .env variables to obtain an access token before making any API calls:

const authorizationConfiguration = {
  clientId: process.env.CAMUNDA_CLIENT_ID,
  clientSecret: process.env.CAMUNDA_CLIENT_SECRET,
  audience: process.env.CAMUNDA_TOKEN_AUDIENCE,
};

2. Examine the function async function listRoles() below this configuration. This is where you will script out your API call.
3. Within the function, you must first generate an access token for this request, so your function should now look like the following:

async function listRoles() {
  const accessToken = await getAccessToken(authorizationConfiguration);
}

4. Using your generated client credentials from prerequisites, capture your Zeebe API URL beneath your call for an access token by defining camundaApiUrl:

const camundaApiUrl = process.env.CAMUNDA_REST_ADDRESS;

5. On the next line, script the API endpoint to list the existing roles:

const url = `${camundaApiUrl}/roles/search`;

6. Configure your POST request to the appropriate endpoint, including an authorization header based on the previously acquired accessToken:

const options = {
  method: "POST",
  url,
  headers: {
    Accept: "application/json",
    Authorization: `Bearer ${accessToken}`,
  },
  data: {},
};

7. Call the endpoint, process the results from the API call, and emit an error message from the server if necessary:

try {
  // Call the endpoint.
  const response = await axios(options);

  // Process the results from the API call.
  const results = response.data;

  // Emit roles to output.
  results.items.forEach((x) =>
    console.log(`Role Name: ${x.name}; key: ${x.key}`)
  );
} catch (error) {
  // Emit an error from the server.
  console.error(error.message);
}

8. In your terminal, run node cli.js camunda8 list.

note

This list command is connected to the listRoles function at the bottom of the camunda-8.js file, and executed by the cli.js file. While we will work with roles in this tutorial, you may add additional arguments depending on the API calls you would like to make.

The existing roles (if any) will now output. If you have an invalid API name or action name, or no arguments provided, or improper/insufficient credentials configured, an error message will output as outlined in the cli.js file. If no action is provided, it will default to "assign" everywhere, except when unassigning a user.

Create a role (POST)

To create a role, take the following steps:

1. Outline your function, similar to the steps above:

async function createRole([roleName]) {
  const accessToken = await getAccessToken(authorizationConfiguration);
  const camundaApiUrl = process.env.CAMUNDA_REST_ADDRESS;
  const url = `${camundaApiUrl}/roles`;
}

2. Configure the API call:

const options = {
  method: "POST",
  url,
  headers: {
    Accept: "application/json",
    Authorization: `Bearer ${accessToken}`,
  },
  data: {
    name: roleName,
  },
};

3. Process the results from the API call. For example:

try {
  const response = await axios(options);

  // Process the results from the API call.
  const newRole = response.data;

  // Emit new role to output.
  console.log(`Role added! Name: ${roleName}. Key: ${newRole.roleKey}.`);
} catch (error) {
  // Emit an error from the server.
  console.error(error.message);
}

4. In your terminal, run node cli.js camunda8 create <name>, where <name> is the name of the new role.

Retrieve a role (GET)

To retrieve a role, take the following steps:

1. Outline your function, similar to the steps above:

async function getRole([roleKey]) {
  const accessToken = await getAccessToken(authorizationConfiguration);
  const camundaApiUrl = process.env.CAMUNDA_REST_ADDRESS;
  const url = `${camundaApiUrl}/roles/${roleKey}`;
}

2. Configure the API call:

const options = {
  method: "GET",
  url,
  headers: {
    Accept: "application/json",
    Authorization: `Bearer ${accessToken}`,
  },
};

3. Process the results from the API call. For example:

try {
  // Call the endpoint.
  const response = await axios(options);

  // Process the results from the API call.
  const results = response.data;

  // Emit role to output.
  console.log(`Role Name: ${results.name}; Key: ${results.key};`);
} catch (error) {
  // Emit an error from the server.
  console.error(error.message);
}

4. In your terminal, run node cli.js camunda8 view <role>, where <role> is the role key.

Delete a role (DELETE)

To delete a role, take the following steps:

1. Outline your function, similar to the steps above:

async function deleteRole([roleKey]) {
  const accessToken = await getAccessToken(authorizationConfiguration);
  const camundaApiUrl = process.env.CAMUNDA_REST_ADDRESS;
  const url = `${camundaApiUrl}/roles/${roleKey}`;
}

2. Configure the API call:

const options = {
  method: "DELETE",
  url,
  headers: {
    Accept: "application/json",
    Authorization: `Bearer ${accessToken}`,
  },
};

3. Process the results from the API call. For example:

try {
  // Call the delete endpoint.
  const response = await axios(options);

  // Process the results from the API call.
  if (response.status === 204) {
    console.log("Role deleted!");
  } else {
    // Emit an unexpected error message.
    console.error("Unable to delete this role!");
  }
} catch (error) {
  // Emit an error from the server.
  console.error(error.message);
}

4. In your terminal, run node cli.js camunda8 delete <role>, where <role> is the role key.

If you get stuck

Having trouble configuring your API calls or want to examine an example of the completed tutorial? Navigate to the completed folder in the GitHub repository, where you can view an example camunda-8.js file.

Next steps

You can script several additional API calls as outlined in the Camunda 8 API reference material.