Downloading models

Downloading models from a BIMserver is a two-step process.

Step 1, initiate the download

The method you call is "ServiceInterface.download". This method returns a TopicId (Long). This TopicId can be passed to ServiceInterface.getDownloadData to get the actual data (see step 2). This process has been split over 2 methods because the process potentially takes a long time and could produce errors along the way. The TopicId can also be used to get information about the progress.

The download method method has 4 parameters.

• roids (A set/list of roid). A roid can be acquired by called .oid on a Revision, .lastRevisionId on a Project
• query (A valid JSON query) When you are using the BIMserver API over JSON, you need to base64 this
• serializerOid. Tell BIMserver how to serialize the results of the query. See (Acquire serializer)
• sync. Whether this method should return right away (async) or wait for the process to finsh (sync)

The typical order of methods you would call are

project = ServiceInterface.getProjectsByName("project name")[0];
serializer = ServiceInterface.getSerializerByContentType("application/ifc");
roid = project.getLastRevisionId;
long topicId = ServiceInterface.download([roid], query, serializer.oid, false);

More information about (Projects)[]

Step 2, downloading the data

Using JSON/SOAP/Protocol Buffers

This is the most consistent way, because all other communications with BIMserver happens in the same way.

ServiceInterface.getDownloadData(topicId);

Using the download servlet (direct HTTP)

There are two reasons why this alternative method exists:

• To allow the models to be downloaded by browsers, in a way that the downloaded file does not have to be "extracted" from another file (for example JSON).
• For efficiency reasons (for example JSON would have to encode binary data in base64)

The way to use this method is to send a HTTP GET to [yourbimserver]/download. The required parameters:

Name	Description	Required
token	Your BIMserver auth token	Yes
topicId	The TopicId returned by either the download method	Yes
zip	Whether to download the content in a ZIP file. Even if this argument is not "on" or not supplied, the content might still be compressed, this depends on the HTTP headers sent/received	No