Author: James Morse
Cloud Developer, FSi Strategies
Application Programming Interface in action
Since portals was purchased from ADX Studio, and then integrated into Power Apps, the platform has lacked customization and integration, limiting it to specific use cases. Fortunately, with the introduction of Web API in Portals, these limitations are lifted. We are now able to use ajax expressions to read/write/create/associate records, as well as call bound actions.
Here’s what we’re reviewing below in detail:
1. Add Site Settings to enable Web API
2. Create an ajax helper file
3. Upload ajax file to Web Files
4. Call on ajax helper in Web Template First, go to Portal Management
From here, navigate to Site Settings:
Now, we will be creating multiple site settings to enable Web API for your table. Create a New Site Setting by clicking “New” at the top of the Site Settings page. Name the setting “Webapi/tablename/enabled“, replacing tablename with the table that you would like to expose to the API. Save and close.
Now, select the fields that you would like to expose. For name, name it “Webapi/tablename/fields“. Under “Value”, you can use an asterisk (*) to expose all fields, or specify your fields and separate them by commas. Save and Close.
The option to Read records via API is in preview, so this last setting will enable this functionality. Name: WebAPI/enableReadOperationPreview, Value: True.
Now we need a way to use all these settings. Microsoft provides an ajax helper file to assist.
Expand the code below:
(function (webapi, $) {
function safeAjax(ajaxOptions) {
var deferredAjax = $.Deferred();
shell.getTokenDeferred().done(function (token) {
//add headers for ajax
if (!ajaxOptions.headers) {
$.extend(ajaxOptions, {
headers: {
“__RequestVerificationToken”: token
}
});
} else {
ajaxOptions.headers[“__RequestVerificationToken”] = token;
}
$.ajax(ajaxOptions)
.done(function (data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
validateLoginSession(data, textStatus, jqXHR, deferredAjax.resolve);
}).fail(deferredAjax.reject); //ajax
}).fail(function () {
deferredAjax.rejectWith(this, arguments); // on token failure, pass the token ajax and args
});
return deferredAjax.promise();
}
webapi.safeAjax = safeAjax;
})(window.webapi = window.webapi || {}, jQuery
To upload this to Portals, we will create a new Web File and upload the code as a .txt file in Notes.
The final step – we need to call on this ajax helper function in order to use the API! The best way to do this is to put it in the footer. Every page has a footer, so calling the script from there will allow you to use it on every page of your website. If you don’t wish to do this, you are welcome to call the script on every page that you plan to use Web API.
Navigate to Web Templates, then Footer. Add the script tag and the name (partial URL).
Now, you’re ready to use Web API in Portals!
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