restemplate/README.md

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# restemplate
restemplate is a simple tool I wrote, to simplify queries against REST services.
Usually I used curl together with a lot of text files containing the requests I send and manually replaced the necessary content within the URL and the payload.
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To ease this, I wrote restemplate.
## Features
* Supports all HTTP methods
* Simple templates/profiles specifying how a call looks like
* Variable replacement in Headers, URIs and the Payload
* Query users for variables
* Store "last" variable values to be easily reused
* SSL support via openssl
- dynamically loads openssl, so if you don't use it, you don't need it
* Entirely written in FreePascal
- ... it is therefore cross-platform (compilable :-))
## Usage
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Calling restemplate is as easy as calling `restemplate [options] <template>`.
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`[options]` may be:
`-h` or `--help`
: Shows a help screen with all available options.
`-l` or `--list`
: Lists all global templates
`<template>` is either a filename or a global template (more on that later).
## Example
Let's start with a simple example, and explain the seen features later.
```
Ask username
Ask key
Ask value
Header X-UserName: @username
Method POST
Call http://localhost/myservice/keys/@key
{
"value": "@value"
}
```
Executing this profile will result in:
```
$ restemplate example.rest
username: myuser
key: somekey
value: foobar
Calling http://localhost/myservice/keys/somekey
Status: 200 (OK)
Headers:
Content-Type: application/json
{"statusCode": 0}
```
## Fileformat
The profiles are simple text files, parsed line by line.
The parser starts in command mode. Each line has to start with a valid command.
Empty lines or lines starting with "#" are ignored (which can be used to make profiles more readable and comment out commands without deleting them).
Once the first none-empty line is unrecognized (no command found), the parser will treat the remaining part of the profile as payload to be sent within the request.
### Commands
`Ask <variablename>`
: Prompts the user for the input of `<variablename>`. If the value has been given in a previous run, it is suggested as default value so the user can simply accept the "last" value. This eases re-runs of the same profile with only minor (or no) changes.
This can be repeated multiple times.
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`Ask#<variablename>`
: Prompts the user for the hidden input of `<variablename>`. This can be used to input passwords. These values are not persisted and therefore no default values are suggested.
This can be repeated multiple times.
`Header <http header>`
: Sets the given http header for the request.
This can be repeated multiple times.
Variables in the form of `@<variablename>` are replaced accordingly.
`BasicAuth <username> <password>`
: Sets the necessary header for basic authentication. The first char after `BasicAuth` (usually a space) is treated as separator for `<username>` and `<password>`. So in case the username itself contains a space, you can safely use a different char here. Example: `BasicAuth#Complicated Username With Spaces#andsomepassword`
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`Highlight <RegEx> [FG<color>] [BG<color>]`
: Highlights the matching parts with the given foreground or background color as specified using colors codes.
`Method <HTTP Method>`
: This sets the method to be used for the call.
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`FormField <key>=<value>`
: Adds a key/value pair to the url-encoded-form-data body.
The encoding will be done automatically!
This can be repeated multiple times but will only be used when Method == POST.
The Content-Type header is set automatically too.
`Compress[ed]`
: Adds support for gzip,deflate compression to the connection.
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`Proxy <server> <port>`
: Enables HTTP proxy support.
`ProxyAuth <username> <password>`
: Sets authentication for the HTTP proxy.
Same syntax as `BasicAuth`.
`Generate <variablename> <generator>`
: Sets a variable with a generated value.
Possible generators:
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* `UUID`
* `unixtime` (a unix timestamp)
* `localtime` (a formatted time)
* `isodatetime` (Date and Time according to ISO8601)
* `isodate` (Date according to ISO8601)
* `isotime` (Time according to ISO8601)
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`Expect <expectation type>=<expecation>`
: Checks expectations after the request.
* `Status=<statuscode>`: checks, if the status code matches
If an expectation fails, the application exists with code 5.
`Call <URL>`
: This prepares the actual call by providing the URL to be called.
Variables in the form of `@<variablename>` are replaced accordingly.
## Profiles
Having a profile in a local file can be inconvenient if you have restemplate in the `$PATH` for example and want to call it from "anywhere".
Therefore you can save profiles in `~/.config/restemplate/templates/*.rest`. The filename of these files (sans `.rest`) will be used as profile name and listed as well as recognized by restemplate.
## Compiling
You need at least FreePascal 3.0 and it is recommended to use Lazarus as IDE.
Compiling from commandline is as easy as: `fpc -XX -CX -Xs -Fujtemplate restemplate.pas`
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If you use Lazarus, you can simply open the project file `restemplate.pas`.
# Appendix A: Color Codes
Taken from the FPC source:
```Pascal
{ Foreground and background color constants }
Black = 0;
Blue = 1;
Green = 2;
Cyan = 3;
Red = 4;
Magenta = 5;
Brown = 6;
LightGray = 7;
{ Foreground color constants }
DarkGray = 8;
LightBlue = 9;
LightGreen = 10;
LightCyan = 11;
LightRed = 12;
LightMagenta = 13;
Yellow = 14;
White = 15;
{ Add-in for blinking }
Blink = 128;
```
Blink can be added by setting the appropriate bit.