REST API

Frappe framework generates REST API for all of your DocTypes out of the box. You can also run arbitrary python methods using their dotted module path.

Authentication

There are two ways to authenticate through Frappe REST API. Token based authentication and password based authentication.

1. Token Based Authentication

A token is a pair of API Key and API Secret. To generate these tokens follow these steps:

  1. Go to User list and open a user.

  2. Click on the "Settings" tab. (skip this step if you don't see tabs)

  3. Expand the API Access section and click on Generate Keys.

  4. You will get a popup with the API Secret. Copy this value and keep it somewhere safe (Password Manager).

  5. You will also see another field "API Key" in this section.

The token is generated by concatenating api_key and api_secret with a colon : . Pass the string token api_key:api_secret to the Authorization header in the request. 

fetch('http://<base-url>/api/method/frappe.auth.get_logged_user', {
    headers: {
        'Authorization': 'token api_key:api_secret'
    }
})
.then(r => r.json())
.then(r => {
    console.log(r);
})

➜ curl http://<base-url>/api/method/frappe.auth.get_logged_user -H "Authorization: token api_key:api_secret"

Every request you make with these tokens will be logged against the user you selected in Step 1. This also means that roles will be checked against this user. You can also create a new user just for API calls.

2. Password Based Authentication

Password based authentication relies on cookies and session data to maintain authentication in subsequent requests. In most cases, the library you are using to issue REST calls will handle session data, but if it doesn't you should use Token based authentication. 

fetch('http://<base-url>/api/method/login', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Accept': 'application/json',
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
        usr: 'username or email',
        pwd: 'password'
    })
})
.then(r => r.json())
.then(r => {
    console.log(r);
})

➜ curl --cookie-jar snowcookie --request POST "http://<base-url>/api/method/login" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json' --data-raw "{ \"usr\" : \"<username>\", \"pwd\": \"<password>\" }"
{"message":"Logged In","home_page":"/app","full_name":"<user:full_name>","dashboard_route":"/sites"}

➜ curl --cookie snowcookie --request POST "http://<base-url>/api/method/frappe.auth.get_logged_user" -H 'Accept: application/json'
{"message":"<username>"}

3. Access Token

Refer documentation for How to setup OAuth .

Use the generated access_token in request header. 

fetch('http://<base-url>/api/method/frappe.auth.get_logged_user', {
    headers: {
        'Authorization': 'Bearer access_token'
    }
})
.then(r => r.json())
.then(r => {
    console.log(r);
})

Listing Documents

To get a list of records of a DocType, send a GET request at /api/resource/:doctype . By default, it will return 20 records and will only fetch the name of the records. The result for the query can be found under data of the payload.

We'll be using the ToDo DocType to show example responses for the queries below. 

GET /api/resource/:doctype

Response 

{
  "data":[
    {"name":"f765eef382"},
    {"name":"2a26fa1c64"},
    {"name":"f32c68060f"},
    {"name":"9065fa9832"},
    {"name":"419082fc38"},
    {"name":"6234d15099"},
    {"name":"62f2181ee0"},
    {"name":"a50afbbfaa"},
    ...
  ]
}

You can specify which fields to fetch in the fields param. It should be a JSON array. 

GET /api/resource/:doctype?fields=["field1", "field2"]

Response 

{
  "data":[
    {"description":"Business worker talk society. Each try theory prove notice middle. Crime couple trouble guy project hit.","name":"f765eef382"},
    {"description":"This reveal as look near sister. Car staff bar specific address.","name":"2a26fa1c64"},
    {"description":"Wear bag some walk. Movie partner new class tough run. Brother Democrat imagine.","name":"f32c68060f"},
    {"description":"Break laugh apply reveal new now focus heavy. Outside local staff research total. Else point try despite.","name":"9065fa9832"},
    {"description":"Truth reduce baby artist actually model. Cost phone us others himself wife almost. Language thing wonder share talk. Factor glass significant could window certain yet.","name":"419082fc38"},
    {"description":"Tv memory understand opportunity window beat physical.","name":"6234d15099"},
    {"description":"Should floor situation in response sell. Our assume company mean red majority shoulder.","name":"62f2181ee0"},
    {"description":"Performance seem sign recent. Court form me tonight simple trouble. Address job garden play teach. Happy speech amount offer change then.","name":"a50afbbfaa"},
    ...
  ]
}

You can filter the records by passing filters param. Filters should be an array, where each filter is of the format: [field, operator, value] 

GET /api/resource/:doctype?filters=[["field1", "=", "value1"], ["field2", ">", "value2"]]

Response 

{
  "data":[
    {"name":"f765eef382"},
    {"name":"2a26fa1c64"},
    {"name":"f32c68060f"},
    {"name":"9065fa9832"},
    {"name":"419082fc38"},
    {"name":"6234d15099"},
    {"name":"62f2181ee0"},
    {"name":"a50afbbfaa"},
    ...
  ]
}

filters parameter joins all the specified filters using AND SQL operator, if you want OR filters you can use the or_filters param. Syntax for or_filters is same as `filters.

You can also provide the sort field and order. It should be of the format fieldname asc or fieldname desc . The space should be URL encoded. In the following line, we're taking fieldname to be title . 

GET /api/resource/:doctype?order_by=title%20desc

You can also page the results by providing the limit_start and limit_page_length params. 

GET /api/resource/:doctype?limit_start=5&amp;limit_page_length=10

Response 

{
  "data": [
    {"name":"6234d15099"},
    {"name":"62f2181ee0"},
    {"name":"a50afbbfaa"},
    {"name":"aa12a5cf71"},
    {"name":"6ac9800d4e"},
    {"name":"4bcf8b701c"},
    {"name":"aee15f4c20"},
    {"name":"6ba753afef"},
    ...
  ]
}

limit is an alias for limit_page_length for accessing /api/resource in Version 13. This means the following should also return the same payload as the above query. 

GET /api/resource/:doctype?limit_start=5&amp;limit=10

By default, you will receive the data as List[dict] . You can retrieve your data as List[List] by passing as_dict=False . 

GET /api/resource/:doctype?limit_start=5&amp;limit=5&amp;as_dict=False

Response 

{
  "data": [
    ["6234d15099"],
    ["62f2181ee0"],
    ["a50afbbfaa"],
    ["aa12a5cf71"],
    ["6ac9800d4e"]
  ]
}

To debug the query built for your reqeusts, you can pass debug=True with the request. This returns the executed query and execution time under exc of the payload. 

GET /api/resource/:doctype?limit_start=10&amp;limit=5&amp;debug=True

Response 

{
  "data": [
    {"name":"4bcf8b701c"},
    {"name":"aee15f4c20"},
    {"name":"6ba753afef"},
    {"name":"f4b7e24abc"},
    {"name":"bd9156096c"}
  ],
  "exc": "[\"select `tabToDo`.`name`\\n\\t\\t\\tfrom `tabToDo`\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t order by `tabToDo`.`modified` DESC\\n\\t\\t\\tlimit 5 offset 10\", \"Execution time: 0.0 sec\"]"
}

CRUD Operations

Frappe generates REST endpoints for CRUD operations for all DocTypes automatically. Make sure you set the following headers in your requests so that you get proper JSON responses. 

{
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
}

Create

Create a new document by sending a POST request to /api/resource/:doctype . Send the document as JSON in the Request Body. 

POST /api/resource/:doctype

# Body
{"description": "New ToDo"}

Response 

{
  "data": {
    "name": "af2e2d0e33",
    "owner": "Administrator",
    "creation": "2019-06-03 14:19:00.281026",
    "modified": "2019-06-03 14:19:00.281026",
    "modified_by": "Administrator",
    "idx": 0,
    "docstatus": 0,
    "status": "Open",
    "priority": "Medium",
    "description": "New ToDo",
    "doctype": "ToDo"
  }
}

Read

Get a document by sending a GET request to /api/resource/:doctype/:name . 

GET /api/resource/:doctype/:name

Response 

{
  "data": {
    "name": "bf2e760e13",
    "owner": "Administrator",
    "creation": "2019-06-03 14:19:00.281026",
    "modified": "2019-06-03 14:19:00.281026",
    "modified_by": "Administrator",
    "idx": 0,
    "docstatus": 0,
    "status": "Open",
    "priority": "Medium",
    "description": "<p>Test description</p>",
    "doctype": "ToDo"
  }
}

Update

Update a document by sending a PUT request to /api/resource/:doctype/:name . You don't need to send the whole document, instead you can just send the fields that you want to update. 

PUT /api/resource/:doctype/:name

# Body
{"description": "New description"}

Response 

{
  "data": {
    "name": "bf2e760e13",
    "owner": "Administrator",
    "creation": "2019-06-03 14:19:00.281026",
    "modified": "2019-06-03 14:21:00.785117",
    "modified_by": "Administrator",
    "idx": 0,
    "docstatus": 0,
    "status": "Open",
    "priority": "Medium",
    "description": "New description",
    "doctype": "ToDo"
  }
}

Delete

Delete a document by sending a DELETE request to /api/resource/:doctype/:name . 

DELETE /api/resource/:doctype/:name

Response 

{"message": "ok"}

Remote Method Calls

Frappe allows you to trigger arbitrary python methods using the REST API for handling custom logic. These methods must be marked as whitelisted to make them accessible via REST.

To run a whitelisted python method at frappe.auth.get_logged_user , send a request to the endpoint /api/method/frappe.auth.get_logged_user . 

GET /api/method/frappe.auth.get_logged_user

Response 

{
  "message": "john@doe.com"
}

  • If your method returns some values, you should send a GET request.

  • If your method changes the state of the database, use POST . After a successful POST request, the framework will automatically call frappe.db.commit() to commit the changes to the database.

  • A successful response will return a JSON object with a message key.

  • An errored response will return a JSON object with exc key which contains the stack trace and exc_type which contains the thrown Exception.

  • The return value of the method will be converted to a JSON and sent as the response.

File Uploads

There is a dedicated method /api/method/upload_file that accepts binary file data and uploads it into the system.

Here is the curl command for it: 

➜ curl -X POST \
  http://<base-url>/api/method/upload_file \
  -H 'Accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Authorization: token xxxx:yyyy' \
  -F file=@/path/to/file/file.png

If you are using client side Javascript to upload files, you can append the uploaded files as FormData and send an XHR request. Here is the implementation code in Frappe Desk.

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