README.txt

Description
============

This package has been designed to facilitate browsing and retrieving content 
from the Public Media Platform (PMP) API. It makes it easy to generate signed 
requests and browser hypermedia resources returned by the PMP API.

For more information about PMP, `read the documentation 
<https://github.com/publicmediaplatform/pmpdocs/wiki>`_

This application has been created at KBPS Public Broadcasting in San Diego by 
Erik Aker and it has been licensed under GPL v2.

To Do
-----

1. Testing: pmp_client module requires unit-tests
2. Documentation: Clean and write more.
3. Create Collectiondoc class for creating new collectiondocs

Installation
============

py3-pmp-wrapper has been written for Python3.3 and Python3.4. It is not 
compatible with Python2.7 and below.  All references below to installing this 
application refer only to Python versions 3.3 and 3.4.


Distribute & Pip
----------------

To install py3-pmp-wrapper with `pip <https://pip.pypa.io>`_, just run
this in your terminal::

    $ pip install py3-pmp-wrapper

or, with `easy_install <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools>`_::

    $ easy_install py3-pmp-wrapper


Get the Code
------------

py3-pmp-wrapper is on GitHub, where the code is
`available <https://github.com/KPBS/py3-pmp-wrapper>`_.

You can clone the public repository::

    $ git clone https://github.com/KPBS/py3-pmp-wrapper

Once you have a copy of the source, you can embed it in your Python package,
or install it into your site-packages easily::

    $ python setup.py install
.. _quickstart:

Quickstart
==========

Create a PMP Client
-------------------

After the application has been installed, you can create a `Client` object:

    >>> from pmp_api.pmp_client import Client
    >>> client = Client("https://api-pilot.pmp.io")


Authenticate Your Client
------------------------

With a working client, you will need to authenticate using your client-id and 
client-secret

    >>> client.gain_access(CLIENT-ID, CLIENT-SECRET)


Make Requests
-------------

Now you're ready to make requests:

    >>> home_doc = client.home() # Get homedoc
    >>> random_request = client.get("https://Some/arbitrary/endpoint?params=someparam")
    >>> random_request
    <Navigable Doc: https://Some/arbitrary/endpoint?params=someparam>
     >>> client.document # Most recent result is saved here
    <NavigableDoc: https://api-pilot.pmp.io/docs?params=someparam>

The `Client` will automatically sign all requests and it should renew your 
access token if it expires.

Navigating
----------
   
Using the fetched document's `navigation` object, the `Client` can follow 
navigation, if it's present:

    # If the document defines a 'next' navigation element, we can follow it
    >>> client.next() 
    <NavigableDoc: https://api-pilot.pmp.io/docs?guid=SOME_GUID&offset=10>
    >>> client.prev() # Same as above, returns None if nothing there...
    >>>
    >>> client.last()  # requests 'last' page of results as given by document
    >>> client.first() # requests 'first' page of results as given by document

We can also go `back` or `forward`, like a browser, re-requesting the previous 
document:

     >>> client.document
    <NavigableDoc: https://api-pilot.pmp.io/docs?params=someparam>
    >>> client.back()  # This issues a new request; does not pull from cache
    <NavigableDoc: https://api-pilot.pmp.io/docs?guid=SOME_GUID>
    >>> client.forward()  # same as `back`
    <NavigableDoc: https://api-pilot.pmp.io/docs?params=someparam>


Most of the useful navigation is done via `urn`, the primary method for 
accessing content, and the Client object provides a `query` method for use with 
a `urn`. For example, let's look at `urn:collectiondoc:query:docs`, which 
contains information for querying documents.

    >>> document = client.query('urn:collectiondoc:query:docs', 
    		   		params={"tag": "samplecontent", 
				        "profile": "story"})
    <NavigableDoc: https://api-pilot.pmp.io/docs?guid=SOME_GUID>

NavigableDoc objects
====================

To really get interesting information back, we need to have some way of 
managing it. For this reason, the `Client` object returns `NavigableDoc` 
elements. These have a number of methods and properties, which should make it 
easier to extract information from the document.

    >>> document = client.query('urn:collectiondoc:query:docs', 
    		   		params={"tag": "samplecontent", 
					"profile": "story"})
    <NavigableDoc: https://api-pilot.pmp.io/docs?guid=SOME_GUID> 
    >>> document.links
    {'item': [{'href': 'https://api-pilot.pmp.io/docs/SOMEGUID ...
    >>> client.document.items
    [{'attributes': {'valid': {'to': '3014-07-29T18:08:11+00:00', 'from': ...
    >>> document.querylinks
    [{'rels': ['urn:collectiondoc:query:users'], 'href-template': ...

In order to get interesting results back, we generally want to issue queries, 
but it can be tough to know how to make queries. The `NavigableDoc` object can 
help with that.

    >>> document.template('urn:collectiondoc:query:docs')
    'https://api-pilot.pmp.io/docs{?guid,limit,offset,tag,collection,text,searchsort,has,author,distributor,distributorgroup,startdate,enddate,profile,language}'

In addition, we can find options associated with the `urn`:

    >>> document.options('urn:collectiondoc:query:docs')
    {'rels': ['urn:collectiondoc:query:docs'], 'href-template': ...

What if we want to know which `urns` are listed at a particular endpoint? We 
must ask the document for its `query_types`:

    >>> for item in document.query_types():
    ...     print(item)
    ('Query for users', ['urn:collectiondoc:query:users'])
    ('Query for schemas', ['urn:collectiondoc:query:schemas'])
    ('Access documents', ['urn:collectiondoc:hreftpl:docs'])
    ('Query for documents', ['urn:collectiondoc:query:docs'])
    etc.

Finally, you can always retrieve all of the results inside a document by 
accessing its `collectiondoc` attribute. This will return a dictionary of all 
values contained in the document:

    >>> document.collectiondoc
    {ALL-The_Data ...}

This should cover most use-cases for browsing PMP API content.