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Chainels API Specification (DEPRECATED)

This is documentation for an old version of our API (v1). Check out the latest documentation on our developer page

Date

Description

24-Sep-2013

Initial draft

19-Oct-2013

Major update

05-Dec-2013

Examples and fixes

06-Jan-2014

Updates, new functions

08-Jan-2014

Indicator for toggles

13-Jan-2014

Update company & post

14-Mar-2014

New image functions, rawpages > rawpagesnew,

deleted rawvotes

02-Apr-2014

Fix bug in example, remove trailing slashes, statuscodes

07-May-2014

Remove landing, add full images/logos/covers

23-Jun-2014

Add multi-language abouttexts and isWebshop, removed know-from

02-Jul-2014

Add rawemployees function, fix typos

07-Aug-2014

Fix typos

27-Aug-2014

Fix documentation for opening hours (company)

19-Okt-2014

Add new output to various functions, i.e. files at messages and more

05-Jan-2015

Update rawcompany with type and retail-group

13-Apr-2015

Update chain-types (new set), update rawvalidate, rawpagesnew,

and rawpost (new data added), add rawswitch and rawevents (new)

Conventions

  • The API base-URL is always: https://www.chainels.com/ajax/
  • Please do not forget to use HTTPS (SSL) at all times, and make sure that tokens or passwords can never be accessed by anyone except from yourself (and are frequently refreshed).
  • All responses are in JSON format. Integers are passed as numeric strings by default.
  • All request parameters are mandatory unless explicitly marked as [optional].
  • All allowed action-names are prefixed with ‘raw’, and for these actions a valid ‘token’ parameter should always be provided.
  • Do not forget to (raw)urlencode all passed parameters. UTF-8 is fully supported and UTF-8 characters might be returned in the replies as well (as html-entities).
  • All IDs are built like this: prefix (2) + time in seconds (10)  + microseconds (6) = length 18. Use substring(id,2,10) to get the Unix timestamp in seconds of creation for a certain object. Note that these IDs do not fit into integers, and are thus (numeric) strings at all times.
  • All parameter(key)s are case-sensitive.

See the end of this document for an example of an API call procedure in PHP code.

Status Codes

All returned status codes are standard HTTP 1.1 codes. The below ones are used in this API.

2XX - Success of some kind

4XX - Error occurred in client’s part

5XX - Error occurred in server’s part

Status Code

Description

200

OK (success)

400

Bad Request (non-existing action)

401

Unauthorized (no/invalid authentication)

403

Forbidden (illegal action)

404

Resource Not Found (the URL is completely wrong or a required parameter is missing)

405

Method Not Allowed (wrong request method, e.g. GET/POST)

500

Internal Server Error (contact us!)

502/503/504

Bad Gateway / Service Unavailable / Gateway Timeout

(servers are down, network malfunction, DOS protection, ..)

1. login

Authenticate with the system and obtain a token. This token can be used indefinitely right now. Please logout (see function 2) if this token will no longer be used.

Request

Method

URL            

POST

menu?action=rawlogin

Params

Values

mail

token

string

string

mail

mail indicates the full email-address of the main account of the CHAINels company wanting to authenticate itself.

token

token is used for the user’s password here; in all subsequent requests, the token retrieved with this action should be used instead for any token parameter.

Response

Response

{

    "stat": <boolean>

    "msg": <string>

}

stat - Indicates the success of the action.

msg - If stat is true, this contains the generated token for use in all subsequent requests.

If stat is false, this contains a message reporting on the failure.

2. logout

Deauthenticate with the system. All further uses of the given token will be blocked. Please do this at all times when a token will no longer be used. Disposing or refreshing a token frequently is recommended for security reasons.

Request

Method

URL            

POST

menu?action=rawlogout

Params

Values

token

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

Response

Response

{

    "stat": <boolean>

    "msg": <string>

}

stat - Indicates the success of the action.

msg - If stat is false, this contains a message reporting on the failure.

If stat is true, this field is not set.

3. validate

Validate the authentication with the system.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

menu?action=rawvalidate

Params

Values

token

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

Response

Response

{

    "stat": <boolean>

    "msg": <mixed>

}

stat - True if the token was valid; false otherwise.

msg - If stat is false, this contains a message reporting on why the token is not valid.

If stat is true, this contains an array of the following form:

        CID - The unique ID of the user’s (current) company.

        name - The name of the user’s (current) company.

        group - 1 if the user’s (current) company is a group; 0 otherwise.

        companies - A key->value array of name->company ID, indicating the set of companies that this account is managing (e.g. can switch to).

        rights - A number indicating the right level of the account (currently not company-dependent): 1 (manager), 2 (profile editor), 3 (spectator).

4. switch

Switch the currently active company for an account. The set of companies that an account manages can be retrieved in the rawvalidate function.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

menu?action=rawswitch

Params

Values

token

string

CID

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

CID

the CID of the company that we want to switch to (e.g. manage now).

Response

Response

None (status-codes only)

5. chains

Fetch all chains (connections) of a company.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

chain?action=rawchains

Params

Values

token

string

CID [optional]

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

CID

the CID of the company requesting the chains for. If left empty, the company belonging to the current session’s account will be used.

Response

Response

[

  {

    "id": <string>

    "type": <integer>

    "cid": <string>

    "name": <string>

    "logo": <string>

    "fullLogo": <string>

  }, ...

]

The result is an array of zero or more objects with the following data:

id - The unique identifier of the chain (18 chars: ‘21’ followed by a timestamp).

type - The type of the chain. 1: member, 2: partner.

cid - The unique identifier of the ‘other’ company in the chain (18 chars; ‘11’ followed by a timestamp).

name - The name of the ‘other’ company in the chain (2-50 chars).

logo - The URL to the thumb-sized logo (64px) of the ‘other’ company.

fullLogo - The URL to the thumb-sized logo (original source) of the ‘other’ company.

6. company

Fetch the static information of a company.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

company?action=rawcompany

Params

Values

token

string

CID [optional]

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

CID

the CID of the company requesting the information for. If left empty, the company belonging to the current session’s account will be used.

Response

Response

{

    "ID": <string>

    "name": <string>

    "industryKey": <string>

    "industryLabel": <string>

    "status": <integer>

    "isGroup": <boolean>

    "termsStamp": <integer>

    "logo": <string>

    "logoSmall": <string>

    "fullLogo": <string>

    "fullLogoSmall": <string>

    "size": <string>

    "aLong": <string>

    "aLongFull": <array>

    "miss": <string>

    "year": <integer>

    "COC": <integer>

    "hours": <array>

    "sName": <string>

    "sNum": <string>

    "zip": <string>

    "state": <string>

    "city": <string>

    "country": <string>

    "geohash": <string>

    "lat": <float>

    "long": <float>

    "phone": <string>

    "web": <string>

    "shop": <integer>

    "mail": <string>

    "sector": <string>

    "branch": <string>

    "type": <string>

    "typeName": <string>

    "retailKey": <string>

    "retailName": <string>

}

ID - The unique identifier of the company (18 chars; ‘11’ followed by a timestamp).

name - The full name of the company (2-50 chars).

industryKey - A 2 char key indicating the main industry of the company.

industryLabel - A 2-3 char key indicating indicating the specific (sub)industry of the company.

status - The status of the company. 1: new, 2: completed signup step 1, 3: completed signup step 2, 4: completed signup, 5: has a logo and an abouttext, 6: has filled in all possible fields (the fields returned in this object).

isGroup - When true, the company is a group.

termsStamp - A Unix timestamp (in seconds) of when the company accepted the terms of use. If this value is empty (0), the company has not been active on CHAINels yet.

logo - The URL to the full-sized logo (400px) of the company.

logoSmall - The URL to the thumb-sized logo (64px) of the company.

fullLogo - The URL to the full-sized logo (original source) of the company.

fullLogoSmall - The URL to the thumb-sized logo (original source) of the company.

size - A small text indicating the size of the company (‘2-5’ in example; possibly empty).

aLong - A text that gives information about the company itself (0-5000 chars), preferably in the requesting account’s language (takes first available language otherwise).

aLongFull - A key->value array: languageKey->text that gives information about the company itself (0-5000 chars). The current possible languages are: ‘NL’, ‘EN’, and ‘DE’.

miss - A text that indicates the mission of the company (0-500 chars).

year - The year in which the company was founded (0 or 4 chars).

COC - The Chamber of Commerce number of the company (validated; possibly empty).

hours - A key-value array in the following format: array($day=>array(timeFrom=>string,timeTimo=>string), ...). All values are optional.

sName - The street name in the address of the company (3-100 chars).

sNume - The street number in the address of the company (1-20 chars).

zip - The zip code in the address of the company (validated; possibly empty).

state - The state in the address of the company (validated).

city - The name of the city in the address of the company (1-100 chars).

country - A standard 2-character key for the country in the address of the company.

geohash - The geohash indicating the location of the company.

lat - The latitude of the company’s location (0.1 for an invalid address).

long - The longitude of the company’s location (0.1 for an invalid address).

phone - The phone number of the company (validated; possibly empty).

web - The website of the company (validated; possibly empty).

shop - 1 if the company’s website is/has a webshop (user-indicated); 0 otherwise.

mail - The e-mailaddress of the company (validated; possibly empty).

sector - A full string indicating the sector of the company (based on the industryKey, dependent on the current account’s language)

branch - A full string indicating the branch of the company (based on the industryLabel, dependent on the current account’s language)

type - A key (0, 1, 2 or 3) indicating the type of the company (0 by default)

typeName - A full string indicating the type of the company (based on the type, dependent on the current account’s language: 0=Other, 1=Entrepreneur, 2=Franchise, 3=ChainStore)

retailKey - A key indicating the retail-branch specific company sector

retailName - A full string indicating the retail-branch specific company sector

(based on the retailKey, dependent on the current account’s language)

7. supply

Fetch the (static) supply of a company.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

company?action=rawsupply

Params

Values

token

string

CID [optional]

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

CID

the CID of the company requesting the information for. If left empty, the company belonging to the current session’s account will be used.

Response

Response

{

    "id": <string>

    "title": <string>

    "content": <string>

    "img": <string>

    "fullimg": <string>

    "tags": <array>

}

id - The unique identifier of the supply (18 chars; ‘18’ followed by a timestamp).

title - The title of the supply (1-100 chars).

content - The full content of the supply (description, 1-10000 chars).

img - A full URL to the (optional) image (400px) belonging to the supply.

fullimg - A full URL to the (optional) image (original source) belonging to the supply.

tags - A plain array of strings containing 1 to 3 tags (labels) for the supply.

8. employees

Fetch the employees of a company. Please note that ‘employee’ is interpreted as ‘board member‘ when the company is a group.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

company?action=rawemployees

Params

Values

token

string

CID [optional]

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

CID

the CID of the company requesting the information for. If left empty, the company belonging to the current session’s account will be used.

Response

Response

{

    "id": <string>

    "name": <string>

    "function": <string>

    "male": <integer>

    "img": <string>

    "fullimg": <string>

    "phone": <string>

    "web": <string>

    "mail": <string>

}

id - The unique identifier of the employee (18 chars; ‘10’ followed by a timestamp).

name - The full name of the employee (0-50 chars).

function - The function of the employee within the company (0-50 chars).

male - 1 if the employee is a male; 0 otherwise (female).

img - A full URL to the (optional) image (150px) belonging to the employee.

fullimg - A full URL to the (optional) image (original source) belonging to the employee.

phone - The phone number of the employee (validated; possibly empty).

web - The website of the employee (validated; possibly empty).

mail - The e-mailaddress of the employee (validated; possibly empty).

9. journalpages

Fetch the available pages in the journal of a company.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

journal?action=rawpagesnew

Params

Values

token

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action. The company belonging to this token will be used for retrieving the pages.

Response

Response

[

  {

    "id": <string>

    "name": <string>

    "color": <array>

    "default": <boolean>

  }, ...

]

The result is an array of zero or more objects with the following data:

id - The page identifier; this can be a company id (the current company’s own id or

groups that the company is a member of), ‘network’, or ‘local’.

name - A display-name for the identifier (the company name or a localized descriptor).

color - An array of (R,G,B) indicating an associated color with the page (e.g. header).

default - True for one page in the response: this should be the default page to be open.

targets - A key->value array of id -> description, indicating the set of possible targets for a message (all group members, your own street, specific public clusters, etcetera).

10. journalmessages

Fetch the messages that would normally appear in the business magazine.

This only fetches the meta-data that is required to load each message individually (see next function).

Request

Method

URL            

GET

journal?action=rawmessages

Params

Values

token

string

type

string

p

integer

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

type

the type of magazine-page we want to display, which is an ID as fetched by the journalpages action (see function 8).

page

the current page to display; messages are grouped in 5s, sorted by date (latest first).

Response

Response

[

  {

    "msg": <string>

    "holder": <string>

   }, ...

]

The result is an array of zero or more objects with the following data:

msg - The unique identifier of the message (18 chars; a message-type dependent prefix followed by a timestamp).

holder - Internal information (see next function)

11. journalmessage

Fetch messages that would normally appear in the business magazine.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

journal?action=rawmessage

Params

Values

token

string

msg

string

holder

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

msg

the identifier of the message we want to fetch, which is an ID as fetched by the journalmessages action (see previous function).

holder

internal information, which is needed as fetched by the journalmessages action (see previous function).

Response

Response

{

  "id": <string>

  "title": <string>

  "content": <string>

  "private": <integer>

  "img": <string>

  "fullImg": <string>

  "file": <string>

  "filename": <string>

  "filetype": <string>

  "type": <integer>

  "time": <string>

  "recoms": <integer>

  "reps": <integer>

  "presences": <integer>

  "recomA": <integer>

  "repA": <integer>

  "presenceA": <integer>

  "fromID": <string>

  "from": <string>

  "fromName": <string>

  "inGroupID": <string>

  "inGroup": <string>

  "logo": <string>

  "fullLogo": <string>

  "logoID": <string>

  "links": <array>

  (2: "place": <string>)

  (2: "date": <integer>)

  (2: "dateTime": <string>)

  (3: "endTime": <integer>)

  (3: "tags": <array of strings>)

  (4: "poll": <string>)

  (4: "votes": <string>)

  (4: "voteA": <integer>)

  (5: "alerttype": <string>)

  (5: "what": <string>)

  (5: "where": <string>)

  (5: "who": <string>)

  (6: "holdertype": <string>)

}

id - The unique identifier of the message (18 chars; a message-type dependent prefix followed by a timestamp).

title - The title of the message (1-100 chars).

content - The content of the message (1-10000 chars, HTML).

private - 0 (public) or 1 (private; group only).

img - The URL to the (optional) image (400px) belonging to the message.

fullimg - The URL to the (optional) image (original source) belonging to the message.

file - The URL to the (optional) file belonging to the message.

filename - The name (including extension) of the (optional) file belonging to the message.

filetype - The general type of the (optional) file belonging to the message: txt, video, audio, presentation, spreadsheet, pdf, or document (the default).

type - A digit  indicating the message-type: 1 (news), 2 (event), 3 (supply), 4 (question),

5 (alert), 6 (other; first message and alike).

time - A full string indicating the date and time at which the message was posted (format: %H:%M %d %b).

recoms - The amount of recommends (follows/stay-up-to-dates/likes) for the message.

recomA - If the current user’s company has recommended the message (0/1).

reps - The amount of replies on the message.

repA - If the current user’s company has replied on the message (0/1).

fromID - The unique identifier of the company that has posted the message.

from - The name of the company that has posted the message.

fromName - The (optional) name of the actual person (account of the from-company) that has posted the message.

inGroupID - The unique identifier of the (optional) group that the message is posted in.

inGroup - The name of the (optional) group that the message is posted in.

logo - The URL to the thumb-sized logo (64px) of the company that has posted the msg.

fullLogo - The URL to the thumb-sized logo (original source) of the company that has posted the msg.

logoID - The unique identifier of the company’s logo (useful for caching).

links - An array of all URLs that were possibly in the message content.

And depending on the message type, these fields might also be present:

presences - The amount of companies that have indicated to be present at the event.

presenceA - If the current user’s company has indicated to be present at the event (0/1).

place - Event: an optional string indicating the location of the event (0-150 chars)

date - Event: a Unix timestamp (seconds) indicating the date of the event

(mandatory; use only the date here, not the exact time).

dateTime - Event: a full string using the required date of the event, but possibly also an end-date, starting-time, or ending-time (all optionally set).

endTime - Supply: a Unix timestamp (seconds) indicating the expiration date of the

dynamic supply (mandatory; use only the date here, not the exact time).

tags - Supply: a plain array of strings (with at least 1 element) indicating the tags belonging to this supply object (plain words, no spaces).

poll - Question: if a question message is multiple choice (which does not have to be the case), this field contains the ID of the corresponding poll object, used for the voting action.

votes - Question: if a question message is multiple choice (which does not have to be the case), this field contains information about the questions/votes, in an array of zero or more objects with the following ordered data (the index matters for voting):

        label - The (unique) label for a certain answer (1 to 500 chars).

        value - The amount of current votes for the answer.

        active - If the current user’s company has voted for this answer (1) or not (0).

voteA - Question: if the current user’s company has voted for this question already (1) or not (0). If so, the company is not allowed to vote (or change vote) anymore!

alerttype - Alert: a string indicating the (mandatory) alert-type (crime/calamity/warning)

what - Alert: an (optional) string of 0-150 characters giving additional alert information.

where - Alert: an (optional) string of 0-150 characters giving additional alert information.

who - Alert: an (optional) string of 0-150 characters giving additional alert information.

holdertype - Other: when applicable, a string indicating the type of a system-generated message: ‘loner’ (empty neighborhood journal page), ‘new’ (the first message of a company, generated using its abouttext), ‘first’ (empty journal page of the current company),

‘firstgroup’ (empty journal page of a group the company is a member of).

12. replies

Fetch the replies for a certain message.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

journal?action=rawreplies

Params

Values

token

string

MID

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

MID

the MID of the message we want to get the replies for.

Response

Response

[

  {

    "id": <string>

    "content": <string>

    "time": <string>

    "fromID": <string>

    "from": <string>

    "fromName": <string>

    "logo": <string>

    "fullLogo": <string>

    "logoID": <string>

  }, ...

]

The result is an array of zero or more objects with the following data:

id - The unique identifier of the reply (18 chars; ‘16’ followed by a timestamp).

content - The content of the reply (1-10000 chars, HTML).

time - A full string indicating the date and time at which the reply was posted (format: %H:%M %d %b).

fromID - The unique identifier of the company that has posted the reply.

from - The name of the company that has posted the reply.

fromName - The (optional) name of the actual person (account of the from-company) that has posted the reply.

logo - The URL to the thumb-sized logo (64px) of the company that has posted the reply.

fullLogo - The URL to the thumb-sized logo (original source) of the company that has posted the reply.

logoID - The unique identifier of the company’s logo (useful for caching).

13. suptd

Toggle recommending (stay-up-to-date, follow, like, etc.) a message, so enable or disable depending on currently enabled or disabled.

Request

Method

URL            

POST

message?action=rawsuptd

Params

Values

token

string

MID

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

MID

the MID of the message we want to toggle the recommend-status for.

Response

Response

{

    "stat": <boolean>

    "msg": <string>

    "active": <integer>

}

stat - Indicates the success of the action.

msg - If stat is true, this contains the (new) total amount of recommends for the given message. If stat is false, this contains a message reporting on the failure.

active - If, after this action, the current user’s company is still recommending the

message (1) or not (0).

14. present

Toggle being present at an event, so enable or disable depending on currently enabled or disabled (only possible for eventmessages).

Request

Method

URL            

POST

message?action=rawpresence

Params

Values

token

string

MID

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

MID

the MID of the (event)message we want to toggle the presence-status for.

Response

Response

{

    "stat": <boolean>

    "msg": <string>

    "active": <integer>

}

stat - Indicates the success of the action.

msg - If stat is true, this contains the (new) total amount of presencies for the given event(message). If stat is false, this contains a message reporting on the failure.

active - If, after this action, the current user’s company is still indicating to be  present at the event (1) or not (0).

15. reply

Post a reply on a message.

Request

Method

URL            

POST

message?action=rawreply

Params

Values

token

string

MID

string

content

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

MID

the MID of the message we want to reply on.

content

the actual content of the reply; should be properly encoded and 1-10000 chars long.

Response

Response

{

    "stat": <boolean>

    "msg": <string>

    "active": <integer>

}

stat - Indicates the success of the action.

msg - If stat is true, this contains the (new) total amount of replies for the given message.

If stat is false, this contains a message reporting on the failure.

active - If the current user’s company has replied on the message (always true if stat is true of course, but this might differ if posting the reply failed).

16. vote

Vote on a poll.

Request

Method

URL            

POST

message?action=rawvote

Params

Values

token

string

poll

string

choice

integer

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

poll

the identifier of the poll we want to vote on, which is an ID as fetched by a rawmessage action (see function 10) if applicable.

choice

the actual choice for the vote, which is the exact 1-based position (so not starting at 0) of the desired option in the array as returned by the rawvotes action (see function 10).

Response

Response

{

    "stat": <boolean>

    "msg": <string>

}

stat - Indicates the success of the action. Note that currently, the company cannot retract this vote or vote again if this is true.

msg - If stat is true, this contains the poll’s (new) information in an array, as returned from

the rawvotes function (so for all answers; see function 10).

If stat is false, this contains a message reporting on the failure.

17. post

Post a (new) message.

Request

Method

URL            

POST

message?action=rawpost

Params

Values

token

string

type

integer

title

string

cont

string

img

string

tag1 [optional]

string

tag2 [optional]

string

tag3 [optional]

string

place [optional]

string

timeFrom [optional]

integer

timeTo [optional]

integer

etime [optional]

string

date [optional]

string

edate [optional]

string

range [optional]

string

target [optional]

string

alert [optional]

string

who [optional]

string

what [optional]

string

where [optional]

string

img [optional]

string

answer# [optional]

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

type

the (numeric) type of the message we want to post. Depending on this, some parameters become required. An overview:

  1. News message; no extra parameters required
  2. Event message; date is required, timeFrom, timeTo, edate, and place are optionally applicable.
  3. Supply message; at least 1 of the 3 tags is required, and etime is optionally applicable.
  4. Question message; no extra parameters required, and poll is optionally applicable.
  5. Alert message; alert is required, and who/what/where are optionally applicable (notice an alert is only applicable to companies that are in a group and will be sent to all companies in that group; see the range parameter for more information on this).

title

the title of the message; should be properly encoded and 1-10000 chars long.

img

the ID of the image of an image that should be added to the message. An image can be added by POSTing the image’s raw data to https://cdn.chainels.com/image/?CID=cid, where cid is the ID of the company that is adding the image. The reply will be a JSON array in the following form:

success - Present only if everything went well (value doesn’t matter).

error - Present only if an error occurred, and contains a reason for the error.

      imgid - The ID of the newly created image, present on success only.

cont

the actual content of the message; should be properly encoded and 1-10000 chars long.

tag1, tag2, tag3

an applicable tag (1 to 3) tag for a (dynamic) supply message; should be 1-60 chars long, and at least one should be set (in the right order; so tag1 first).

place

the optional place for an event(message); should be 0-150 chars long.

timeFrom

the optional starting time for an event(message); indicated by a Unix timestamp (a time on any date will suffice).

timeTo

the optional ending time for an event(message); indicated by a Unix timestamp (a time on any date will suffice).

etime

the optional ending date for (dynamic) supply message; indicated by a string in ‘d-m-Y’ format.

date

the optional ending date for an event(message); indicated by a string in ‘d-m-Y’ format.

enddate

the optional ending date for an event(message); indicated by a string in ‘d-m-Y’ format.

range

the optional range for any message (required for an alert message); this is the unique identifier of a group (CID) the posting company is a member of and this message should be posted in.

target

the optional target for any message; this is the unique identifier of cluster this message should be posted in (see the targets field of the rawpagesnew function for possible options).

alert

the alert type for an alert message; this can be either ‘misdrijf’ (crime, the default), ‘calamiteit’ (calamity), or ‘ongeval’ (warning).

who

for an alert (optionally): who is involved? Should be properly encoded and 0-150 chars long.

what

for an alert (optionally): what has happened? Should be properly encoded and 0-150 chars long.

where

for an alert (optionally): where did it happen? Should be properly encoded and 0-150 chars long.

img

a url-safe base64 encoded (using ‘-’, ‘_’, and ‘,’ instead of ‘+’, ‘/’, and ‘=’) image (png/jpeg/gif) that is to be attached to the message (optional).

answer#

for a question (optionally): the possible (unique) answers  to the poll (multiple-choice question), as indicated by a string. Replace the # with any number from 1 to 26 (ordered of course).

Response

Response

[

  {

    "field": <string>

    "msg": <string>

  }, ...

]

The result is an array of zero or more objects with the following data:

field - The field this result is for (matching the name of the input key)

msg - The relevant error message for the given field.

If the result is an empty array, everything went well, and the message has been posted.

18. register

Register a mobile device for push notifications.

Request

Method

URL            

POST

company?action=rawregister

Params

Values

token

string

device

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

device

the ID of the device to register for notifications, as fetched on an Android/iOS device.

Response

Response

None (status-codes only)

19. unregister

Unregister a mobile device for push notifications.

Request

Method

URL            

POST

company?action=rawunregister

Params

Values

token

string

device

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

device

the ID of the device to unregister for notifications, as fetched on an Android/iOS device.

Response

Response

None (status-codes only)

20. notifications

Fetch the notifications for a company.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

company?action=rawnotifications

Params

Values

token

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

Response

Response

[

  {

    "msg": <string>

    "id": <string>

    "time": <string>

    "read": <integer>

    "logoID": <string>

    "logo": <string>

    "fullLogo": <string>

   }, ...

]

The result is an array of zero or more objects (max 15) with the following data:

msg -  The content of the notification itself.

id - The unique identifier of the message a notification belongs to (possibly empty).

time - A string indicating how long ago the notification was created.

read - 0 if this notification is new (unread); 1 otherwise.

logoID - The unique identifier of the company’s logo (useful for caching).

logo - The URL to the thumb-sized logo (64px) of the company that has caused the notification.

fullLogo - The URL to the thumb-sized logo (original source) of the company that has caused the notification.

21. covers

Fetch the cover images for a company.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

company?action=rawcovers

Params

Values

token

string

CID [optional]

string

full [optional]

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

CID

the CID of the company requesting the cover images for. If left empty, the company belonging to the current session’s account will be used.

full

if set to any value (e.g. 1), the returned images will be the full version, e.g. the original source instead of a version resized to 800px (the default).

Response

Response

A JSON array of strings: the image IDs. The URL to an image can be constructed in the following way: https://cdn.chainels.com/image/ID, replacing ID with a result from the fetched array. A ‘w’ or ‘h’ parameter can be added to the image URL in order to get the image in a specific size (can take some time though, as this is done on-the-fly).

22. events        

Fetch the events created by a company. For a group, member events can be fetched as well.

Request

Method

URL            

GET

journal?action=rawevents

Params

Values

token

string

members

integer

CID [optional]

string

token

the current session token as retrieved by a login-action.

members

if not empty, events of a group’s members will be added as well.

CID

the CID of the company requesting the events for. If left empty, the company belonging to the current session’s account will be used. Otherwise, only public events can be fetched.

Response

Response

[

  {

    "id": <string>

    "title": <string>

    "content": <string>

    "private": <integer>

    "dateOffset": <integer>

    "dateUnix": <integer>

    "endDateOffset": <integer>

    "endDateUnix": <integer>

    "place": <string>

    "datetime": <string>

    "member": <integer>

   }, ...

]

The result is an array of zero or more objects with the following data:

id - The unique identifier of the event(message).

title - The title of the message (1-100 chars).

content - The content of the message (1-10000 chars, HTML).

private - 0 (public) or 1 (private; group only).

dateOffset - The event’s start date in milliseconds (unix timestamp).

dateUnix - The event’s start date in seconds (unix timestamp).

endDateOffset - The event’s end date in milliseconds (unix timestamp; if any).

endDateUnix - The event’s end date in seconds (unix timestamp; if any).

place - An optional string indicating the location of the event (0-150 chars)

datetime -  A full string using the required date of the event, but possibly also an end-date, starting-time, or ending-time (all optionally set).

member - If 1, this is an event from a member of a group.

EXAMPLE

The code below is an example of an API call procedure in PHP:


   function apiCall( $url, $method, $body = null, array $headers = array() )
   {
        if( $method == 'GET' && !empty( $body ) )
       {
           throw new Exception( 'No body expected for GET request' );
       }
        if( $method == 'POST' && !empty( $body ) )
       {
            if( is_array( $body ) ) $body                    = http_build_query( $body, '', '&' );
            if( empty( $headers['Content-Type'] ) ) $headers['Content-Type'] = 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded';
       }
       $parts = parse_url( $url );
        if( empty( $parts ) )
       {
           throw new Exception( 'Invalid URL: ' . $url );
       }
       $headers['Host']       = 'Host: ' . $parts['host'];
       $headers['Connection'] = 'Connection: close';
       $context               = stream_context_create( array(
           'http' => array(
               'method'           => $method,
               'header'           => array_values( $headers ),
               'content'          => $body,
               'protocol_version' => '1.1'
           )) );

       $level    = error_reporting( 0 );
       $response = file_get_contents( $url, false, $context );
       error_reporting( $level );
        if( empty( $response ) )
       {
           $lastError       = error_get_last();
           $responseHeaders = '';
            if( !empty( $http_response_header ) ) $responseHeaders = print_r( $http_response_header, true );
            if( empty( $lastError ) ) throw new Exception( 'Failed to request resource!' . PHP_EOL . $responseHeaders );
           throw new Exception( $lastError['message'] . PHP_EOL . $responseHeaders );
       }
        return $response;
   }

   function example( $debug = true )
   {
       $baseurl = 'https://www.chainels.com/ajax/';
       $login   = array('mail' => 'group@example.com', 'token' => 'password');
       try
       {
           $response = apiCall( $baseurl . 'menu?action=rawlogin', 'POST', $login );
           $result   = json_decode( $response );
            if( $result->stat )
           {
               $token = $result->msg;
           }
            else
           {
               throw new Exception( $result->msg );
           }
       }
       catch( Exception $ex )
       {
           if( $debug ) echo $ex->getMessage();

            else mail( 'developer@example.com', 'API Error', $ex->getMessage() );
            return;
       }

       try
       {
           $response = apiCall( $baseurl . 'company?action=rawcompany&token=' . $token, 'GET' );
           $company  = json_decode( $response );
           print_r( $company );
       }
       catch( Exception $ex )
       {
           if( $debug ) echo $ex->getMessage();

            else mail( 'developer@example.com', 'API Error', $ex->getMessage() );
            return;
       }

       $logout = array('token' => $token);
       try
       {
           $response = apiCall( $baseurl . 'menu?action=rawlogout', 'POST', $logout );
           $result   = json_decode( $response );
            if( !$result->stat )
           {
               throw new Exception( $result->msg );
           }
       }
       catch( Exception $ex )
       {
           if( $debug ) echo $ex->getMessage();

     else mail( 'developer@example.com', 'API Error', $ex->getMessage() );
            return;
       }
   }