Use REST with elements

Use the WCM REST service to create, read, update, and delete some types of elements stored in site areas and content items.

The following element types can be used with the WCM REST service.

Element	API type
Date and time element	DateComponent
File resource element	FileComponent
HTML element	HTMLComponent
Image element	ImageComponent
Number element	NumericComponent
Rich text element	RichTextComponent
Short text element	ShortTextComponent
Style sheet element	StyleSheetComponent
Text element	TextComponent

Create

An element can be created by sending a POST request to the following URI with an atom entry representing the title of the element:

/[Content|SiteArea]/<parent-uuid>/elements

The type of the element to be created must be specified in the type field of the entry that is posted. For example:

POST /wps/mycontenthandler/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements HTTP/1.0
Content-type: application/atom+xml
 <entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:wcm="wcm/namespace">
    <title>Number Element Title</title>
    <wcm:name>numericElementName</wcm:name>
    <wcm:type>NumericComponent</wcm:type>
</entry>
  HTTP/1.0 201 Created Content-type: application/atom+xml; type=entry
Content-location: /wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericElementName
 <entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:wcm="wcm/namespace">
    <title>Number Element Title</title>
    <link rel="edit-media" type="text/plain" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericElementName"/>
    <link rel="edit" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericElementName"/>
    <wcm:name>numericElementName</wcm:name>
    <wcm:type>NumericComponent</wcm:type>
</entry>

Update

An element can be updated by sending a PUT request to the following URI with an atom entry including the name and title of the element.

/[Content|SiteArea]/<parent-uuid>/elements/<element-name-encoded>

For example:

PUT /wps/mycontenthandler/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericComponentName HTTP/1.0
Content-type: application/atom+xml
 <atom:entry xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:wcm="wcm/namespace">
    <title>numericElementTitleUpdated</title>
    <wcm:name>numericElementNameUpdated</wcm:name>
</atom:entry>
  HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-type: application/atom+xml; type=entry
 <entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:wcm="wcm/namespace">
    <title>numericComponentTitleUpdated</title>
    <link rel="edit-media" type="text/plain" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericElementNameUpdated"/>
    <link rel="edit" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericElementNameUpdated"/>
    <wcm:name>numericElementNameUpdated</wcm:name>
    <wcm:type>NumericComponent</wcm:type>
</entry>

Read

An element can be read by sending a GET request to the following URI :

/[Content|SiteArea]/<parent-uuid>/elements/<element-name-encoded>

For example:

GET /wps/mycontenthandler/wcmrest/Content/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericElementName HTTP/1.0
  HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-type: application/atom+xml; type=entry
 <entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:wcm="wcm/namespace">
    <title>numericElementTitleUpdated</title>
    <link rel="edit-media" type="application/vnd.ibm.wcm+xml" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericElementName"/>
    <link rel="edit" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/numericElementName"/>
    <wcm:name>numericElementName</wcm:name>
    <wcm:type>NumericComponent</wcm:type>
</entry>

Delete

An element can be deleted by sending a DELETE request to the following URI:

/[Content|SiteArea]/<parent-uuid>/elements/<element-name-encoded>

For example:

DELETE

HTTP/1.1 DELETE http://host:port/wps/mycontenthandler/wcmrest/Content/<parent-uuid>/elements/<element-name-encoded>

Response

Status Code :200 Status Message : OK

Work with raw data

The content of an element is accessed from the media resource specified in the HREF attribute of the edit-media link. The link will also contain a TYPE attribute which contains the accepted media type of the content. For example:

<link rel="edit-media" type="text/html" href="/wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/heading"/>

The media types for supported elements are:

Media type	Component types
text/plain	Text
application/vnd.ibm.wcm+xml	Number Date and Time Image Stylesheet
text/html	HTML Rich text
text/css	Stylesheet
image/*	Image
application/octet-stream	File

To update content of an element PUT content in an accepted media type to the edit-media URL. For example:

PUT /wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/heading HTTP/1.0
Content-type: text/html
 <h1>Heading Text</h1>
  HTTP/1.0 200 OK

To retrieve content from a library component GET content from the edit-media URL. For example:

GET  /wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/heading HTTP/1.0
Accept: text/html
  HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-type: text/plain
 <h1>Heading Text</h1>

An alternative to specifying the media type in the HTTP accept header, is to use the request parameter mime-type. We must URL encode the value. For example:

GET  /wps/mycontenthandler/!ut/p/wcmrest/SiteArea/c6b00ee6-d628-4cbd-9e65-15c90f2093a6/elements/heading?mime-type=text%2Fhtml HTTP/1.0
  HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-type: text/plain
 <h1>Heading Text</h1>

Parent Work with web content items using REST