Tag Management API: Examples

This section illustrates use of the Tag Management API through the use of comprehensive examples of realistic scenarios.

BASH: Initial upload of inventory items

In this example, we will take a small data set representing an inventory list and create a new tag for each item in it.

The data

Our "inventory.csv" file contains comma-delimited data for "SKU", "Name", and "Description"

item-001,Item One,An Item One in every pot
item-002,Item Two,Item Two for what ails ya
item-003,Item Three,An Item Three in every garage
item-004,Item Four,Item Four will open the door
item-005,Item Five,Item Five is staying alive
item-006,Item Six,Item Six pick up sticks!

The script

This script performs the following:

• Reads each line from our file
• Splits each line's data based on the comma as a separator to get the different fields
• Sends an HTTP POST for each item in our inventory
• Writes out the full response body for each document to a response.$sku.txt for inspection if necessary

The curl command here provides a clean, abbreviated response that shows only the HTTP Status Code and the URL for this new item.

upload_inventory.sh

	#!/usr/bin/env bash

	while IFS=, read sku name description ; do
		echo "Uploading: $sku ($name):"
		description=${description%?} # Remove newline
		curl -w "    %{http_code} %{url_effective}\\n" \
			 -H 'X-ActiveTag-AccessToken: 16cc9f55-8c34-433e-af7a-0054884f7648' \
			 -X POST https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/item/$sku \
			 --data-binary @- \
			 -o response.$sku.txt 2> /dev/null \
	<<EOF
	{
	   "title": "$name",
	   "description": "$description",
	   "category": "Web Items",
	   "thumbnail": "http://www.example.com/images/$sku.png",
	   "action": {
		   "type": "url",
		   "data": "http://www.example.com/$sku.html"
	   }
	}
	EOF
	done < inventory.csv

The results

When run, it produces the following result. Note the 201 "Created" response: this is the success message we want.

	./upload_inventory.sh
	Uploading: item-001 (Item One):
		201 https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/item/item-001
	Uploading: item-002 (Item Two):
		201 https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/item/item-002
	Uploading: item-003 (Item Three):
		201 https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/item/item-003
	Uploading: item-004 (Item Four):
		201 https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/item/item-004
	Uploading: item-005 (Item Five):
		201 https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/item/item-005
	Uploading: item-006 (Item Six):
		201 https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/item/item-006

We can also verify that these tags have all been created.

	curl -X GET  \
			-H "X-ActiveTag-AccessToken: 16cc9f55-8c34-433e-af7a-0054884f7648" \
			"https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/items"
	["item-002","item-004","item-001","item-005","item-006","item-003"]

BASH: Download all QR codes

In this example, we will retrieve a list of our tags and then iterate over that, downloading each QR code with the default PNG settings.

The script

This script executes as follows:

• Retrieve a list of all tags
• Strip off the JSON array formatting and set each item on its own line
• Loop over each item, downloading its QR code as a PNG image
• Verify the success of the download by outputting basic file information

download_qrcodes.sh

	#!/usr/bin/env bash

	item_array=$(curl -X GET \
		-H 'X-ActiveTag-AccessToken: 16cc9f55-8c34-433e-af7a-0054884f7648' \
		https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/items 2> /dev/null)

	for i in $(echo $item_array | sed -e 's/\["//g; s/"\]//g; s/","/\'$'\n/g'); do
		echo "Downloading QR code for $i:"
		curl -X GET \
			-H 'X-ActiveTag-AccessToken: 16cc9f55-8c34-433e-af7a-0054884f7648' \
			-o $i.png \
			https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/item/$i/qrcode 2> /dev/null
		echo "    Got" $(file $i.png)
	done

The results

	$ ./download_qrcodes.sh
	Downloading QR code for item-003:
		Got item-003.png: PNG image data, 528 x 528, 1-bit colormap, non-interlaced
	Downloading QR code for item-004:
		Got item-004.png: PNG image data, 528 x 528, 1-bit colormap, non-interlaced
	Downloading QR code for item-001:
		Got item-001.png: PNG image data, 528 x 528, 1-bit colormap, non-interlaced
	Downloading QR code for item-006:
		Got item-006.png: PNG image data, 528 x 528, 1-bit colormap, non-interlaced
	Downloading QR code for item-005:
		Got item-005.png: PNG image data, 528 x 528, 1-bit colormap, non-interlaced
	Downloading QR code for item-002:
		Got item-002.png: PNG image data, 528 x 528, 1-bit colormap, non-interlaced

PHP: Mobile Optimized Web Page Template

In this example, we will create a single web page in PHP that acts as a template capable of handling an unlimited number of tags. It will receive tag data in the URL and will programmatically request this data from the API, showing a single page that changes its contents in response to the URL. Each individual tag is configured to provide a URL that maps back to itself, making it easy to use the API to provide the correct content for the page.

The prequisites

These can be set via the API or by the Administrative Portal.

• Each tag has been configured to point to the web page below
• Each tag's URL also specifies its own "Item ID" required to perform the subsequent API call
• Each tag's description field provides all additional tag-specific communication

The script

The script executes as follows:

• Read the "item-id" from a query parameter in the URL
• Send an API request to get the data for the item
• Paint the web page with the data retrieved from the API response

tag-template.php

	<?php
	$accessToken = '184e5586-83b2-4615-a25d-8b9ee51eedec';
	$apiUrl = "https://api.taglabsinc.com/tags/item/{$_GET['id']}";
	$apiResult = curlGet($apiUrl, $accessToken);
	$apiResult = json_decode($apiResult, TRUE); // Get an associative array
	?>
	<html>
		<head>
			<title><?php echo $apiResult['title']; ?></title>
		</head>
		<body>
			<p><img src="<?php echo $apiResult['thumbnail']; ?>" /></p>
			<p><?php echo $apiResult['description']; ?></p>
		</body>
	</html>
	<?php
	function curlGet($url, $accessToken) {
		$ch = curl_init($url);
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array ("X-ActiveTag-AccessToken: $accessToken"));
		$result = curl_exec($ch);
		curl_close($ch);
		return $result;
	}

Setup

Copy this script to a directory on your web server. If the URL for this script is http://www.mydomain.com/tag-template.php, then each tag would look like http://www.mydomain.com/tag-template.php?id=item-id-here when configured through the API or the Portal.

When the mobile device scans your tag, this will be the web page that is shown. This web page will take the "id" from the query parameter and use it to query the API server. The API server will find the item with the same "id" and will return the correct data to be safely displayed by this web page. Easy!