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cPanel API cURL - Creating a session

Answered
Martin Ward

Hi all,

I am in need of guidance. I am an old hat with linux, computers, the web and development but I am struggling to actually start working with accessing cPanel via API. Partly it is confusion with APIs and UAPI. I'm going to ask questions, please answer those that you can.

  1. The docs all push towards using UAPI but I cannot work out what UAPI is. Can you explain this please?
  2. I cannot find a simple 'Hello World' example for accessing the cPanel API, does such a thing exist?
  3. I have generated an API token, which is required, but do i need to create a session token using it or can I just make API calls straight off?
  4. Can I use the API token I generated with UAPI as well as API v2?
  5. I am currently starting simple and using cURL but will want to move across to Python, is there an example of using Python, a cPanel-specific library or do I just use the 'requests' module? 

 

Thanks for your time and patience.

 

|\/|artin

Comments

8 comments

Date Votes
  • Martin Ward

    As a follow-up, I have been trying different cURL commands and they pretty much al return with:

    <p>Token authentication allows access to UAPI or API 2 calls only.</p>

    My latest failure was:

    $ curl -u 'user:password' -H"Authorization: cpanel user:TOKEN" "https://example.com:2083/ServerInformation/get_information?api.version=2.0"

    I've tried it with and without "?api.version=2.0" at the end of the URL.

    I've tried it with and without the "-u user:password".

    The result is the same as detailed above.

    0
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Hey there!  I'll answer these in order to make sure nothing gets missed:

    1- I like to think of the cPanel API as two levels - just like there is a WHM for root tasks and a cPanel for user tasks, there is a whmap1 and uapi system for those types of calls.

    2 - No, that isn't really how it works.  You call a specific API to perform the function you want.

    3 - My best answer to this is "maybe" but in your case probably not.  You only need the session if you want to access a specific service as the user.  https://api.docs.cpanel.net/specifications/whm.openapi/session#/specifications/whm.openapi/session/session-create_user_session.  For most calls involving a URL, it will create a new session for your specific work automatically.

    4 - No - this is covered in the blue notification box here - https://docs.cpanel.net/knowledge-base/security/how-to-use-cpanel-api-tokens/

    5 - Correct, you would just use the "requests" module to get this working inside other code.

    0
  • Martin Ward

    Thanks for the responses. 

    1. My tools will be accessing cPanel at the user level so I will use UAPI for my needs. These will are simply going to speed up the tasks that I would otherwise have to do using the web interface.

    2. Understood, thank you.

    3. Given that the number of tasks a tool will be required to do is going to be small (add a new domain and create three email boxes or display the domain information) I doubt I will need a session. There will be no interaction between my tool and the user.

    4. Thank you. I can use the API token for both UAPI and APIv2 calls, just not the API ones.

    So that leaves one final question: Where are the cPanel function documents? I'm trying to find a reference document but my search-fu is not up to scruff this week, sadly.

    0
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Can you let me know what you mean when you say "cPanel function documents"?  Anything that's a uapi call would be related to user level tools.

    0
  • Martin Ward

    OK so as an example I will want to add a new domain that I have bought and then create an email address for it. 

    In the web interface I would login, then:

    Click [Domains]
    Click [Create a new domain]
    Type in the new domain and click [Submit]

    Then I would:

    Click [Email accounts]
    Click [+Create]
    Select the domain
    Type in the user name
    Type in a password
    Click [+Create]

    I understand that this can be done via the API but how do I find out what API calls to make?

    I am expecting there to be a document that provides a list of API calls and descriptions of what each of them do, or alternatively a list of the web interface functions and a link to their API alternatives.

     

    0
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Gotcha - you'll start here:

    https://api.docs.cpanel.net/

    There's too many to make a nice list, but the search tool will get you to the page you need.

    0
  • Martin Ward

    Thanks, that's just what I need. Thanks for your assistance :-) 

     

    0
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    You're very welcome!

    0

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