App config/settings REST/OCS API

[weeman1337]

Story
As an app developer I want to have an API for reading and storing app config/settings,
so I save time that I can spend on implementing amazing features in my app ;)

Background
Some apps use app config/setting values. Currently they're all implementing an own "store settings handler". It would be handy to have an API that can be used for this.

This is about making the app part of IConfig available as an API.

Outline

• Endpoint for reading all, one or more app config values
• Endpoint for storing one or more app config values
• Endpoint for deleting app config values
• Update of the NC app development documentation settings section

[nextcloud-bot]

GitMate.io thinks possibly related issues are #3617 (Setting Favorite API), #9856 (Introducing user config provisionning api), #4159 (Shared API ), #676 (Search API), and #3923 (Preview API).

[MorrisJobke]

This is about making the app part of IConfig available as an API.

IConfig is already public API and can be used for this. ;)

Inject it into the constructor:

server/apps/dav/lib/Controller/BirthdayCalendarController.php

Line 77 in 2b51d84

IDBConnection $db, IConfig $config,

Set it:

server/apps/dav/lib/Controller/BirthdayCalendarController.php

Line 93 in 2b51d84

$this->config->setAppValue($this->appName, 'generateBirthdayCalendar', 'yes');

🙌

[weeman1337]

@MorrisJobke maybe the title is a bit misleading. It's about a REST API.

[MorrisJobke]

@rullzer @nickvergessen @blizzz Isn't there already an OCS API endpoint for this?

[rullzer]

I have been thinking about this as well.

For me it would make sense to have a basic controller. That exposes the appconfig for a specific app

The dev can then set some types for the config values they have
like setType('foo', 'int') etc.

And then it can also write some functions like

function fromFoo(int $var): string
funtion toFoo(string $var): int
`function validateFoo(string $var): bool

etc. That way there is an easy framework to validate appconfig vars of an app. And the dev only has to worry about the part specific for their app and variables. The rest is all magically handled by the controller.

[nickvergessen]

server/apps/provisioning_api/appinfo/routes.php

Lines 64 to 69 in 47cc5e5

	// Config
	['name' => 'AppConfig#getApps', 'url' => '/api/v1/config/apps', 'verb' => 'GET'],
	['name' => 'AppConfig#getKeys', 'url' => '/api/v1/config/apps/{app}', 'verb' => 'GET'],
	['name' => 'AppConfig#getValue', 'url' => '/api/v1/config/apps/{app}/{key}', 'verb' => 'GET'],
	['name' => 'AppConfig#setValue', 'url' => '/api/v1/config/apps/{app}/{key}', 'verb' => 'POST'],
	['name' => 'AppConfig#deleteKey', 'url' => '/api/v1/config/apps/{app}/{key}', 'verb' => 'DELETE'],

So try /ocs/v2.php/apps/provisioning_api/api/v1/config/apps*

Does exactly that with the IConfig::*AppValue methods:
https://github.com/nextcloud/server/blob/47cc5e5895ded011a42cfc02957017aa61a42979/apps/provisioning_api/lib/Controller/AppConfigController.php

The only thing it does not allow is setting the install/enable/type configs, because they should not be set manually.