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EFS Service Layer, our API, allows to access EFS key functionalities from outside EFS. Thus, applications relying on EFS data and functionalities can be created outside of EFS with different technologies. The services can be called from outside via HTTPS, using SOAP or REST as protocolsspecifications. Various data exchange formats can be used (e.g. JSON or XML).
A list of all available EFS Service-Layer services is available can be found on this page.
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The EFS Service Layer is available since EFS 9.1, however some installations may still have access to the older Web-Services (Options > Service-Layer > Web services). The use of Web-Services is no longer recommended, as this functionality is deprecated and will be removed soon. |
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A dedicated configuration menu allows to view viewing and configure configuring of the services, which are available on your EFS installation. The menu is in Options → Service-Layer. The Service-Layer menu is only available if Questback’s Support-Team our support team has activated usage of services for your installation. To view and access the menu, you need either read rights for the ACL right webservice_conf or membership in the root team.
The following steps are necessary to use a specific service:
Questback’s Support-Team Our support team has to add the service.
The service must be activated. If necessary, the button Activate all services allows activation of all available services at once.
The staff account used to access the service is allocated to a specific staff team. This staff team must have the necessary access rights to the service. Access rights to individual services can be assigned on the tab Access groups.
Furthermore, many services include a check for object rights. To use sur- vey.questionnaire.createPage or survey.questionnaire.deletePage, for example, the staff team needs write rights for the target project.
All calls are logged on the Access log tab. The entries can be searched by IP address, name of the admin account used, service name and date.
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When requesting access to the EFS Service-Layer, all format handlers can be used as needed. So one of your applications could access EFS using SOAP, while another using REST, through the same token or user authentication.
Currently the service layer supports HTTPS and four handlers:
SOAP: The Provides API access using the SOAP protocol is used to transfer data.
To activate the handler, use the URL parameter "handler" with the value "soap".
The name of the invoked method is handed over in the URL parameter "method". The method name is structured as follows: MODULENAME_ACTORNAME_METHODNAME (separator: underscore, ”_”).
If the URL parameter "wsdl" is set in the request, the description mode will be triggered and a WSDL will be generated. Otherwise, the transaction mode will be used. Since the WSDL also specifies a Stylesheet, the file is also viewable in a browser.
REST: See REST API documentation on this pageProvides REST API access, see the full list of services for REST examples.
To activate the handler, just create the REST request, as specified in the documentation or RAML file, e.g.
GET https://efs-installation.com/service/survey/surveys/?token=TOKEN
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The content type of all requests containing a HTTP body must beapplication/json
and therefore all request bodies must be JSON encoded.To get the RAML description file, triggering the description mode, create a request to /service/ using the URL parameters "handler=rest&raml=1", e.g.
GET https://efs-installation.com/service/?handler=rest&raml=1&token=TOKEN
PHP-serialized: Here, the input and output parameters are transferred as serialized PHP arrays. This is the recommended approach for PHP clients.
To activate the handler, use the URL parameter "handler" with the value "php".
The name of the invoked method is handed over in the URL parameter "method". The method name is structured as follows: MODULENAME.ACTORNAME.METHODNAME (separator: periods).
If the request is an HTTP GET request, the description mode will be triggered. Otherwise, the transaction mode will be used.
JSON: Data are transferred in JSON encoding. See the example below.
To activate the handler, use the URL parameter "handler" with the value "json".
The name of the invoked method is handed over in the URL parameter "method". The method name is structured as follows: MODULENAME.ACTORNAME.METHODNAME (separator: periods)
If the request is an HTTP GET request, the description mode will be triggered. Otherwise, the transaction mode will be used.
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Two authentication methods can be used:
Tokens: (recommended) QuestBack Support Our support can provide tokens for you and your staff members. These tokens can be used for authentication when invoking a service (parameter name: "token").
Account name and password for the EFS admin area: Uses basic authentication of the HTTP protocol. The passwords are the same as for the administration area of EFS. QuestBack recommends We recommend to use tokens.
Calling the Service Description
Calling Requesting the WSDL for SOAP access:
https://your-efs-installation.com/service/?handler=soap&wsdl=1Calling
the WSDLRequesting the RAML file for REST access:
https://your-efs-installation.com/service/?handler=rest&raml=1
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When accessing the service layer, you will find a dynamic list of services activated on your installation and which are accessible by the user. A list of all available services can be found on this page. |
Important Parameters
These are the most important parameters:
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The full EFS Service-Layer service overview provides example REST requests and responses. |
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You need to have the full URL to the WSDL description, as described above, and the token. Basic authentication is also possible, the client will ask you to provide login information automatically. In this example we use SoapUI will read the description and create example SOAP requests for all available services. Double-clicking on a request will open the following window, click on the green execute button to submit the request and a response will be shown. |
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You will need to download the RAML file (https:/can create single requests by clicking on “New” and selecting “Request”, selecting the correct method and pasting the link to the service. When using POST requests, you need to specify the Body, selecting “raw” and “JSON” in the respective settings. All other tabs can be left to default values. To import all available EFS Service-Layer REST services, you will need to download the RAML file ( The collections tab will now have a list of all available services on the EFS installation.
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Filtering results with conditions
Requests with “ByCriteria” in their name have the possibility to filter results by condition. These conditions can be simple one to one comparisons and complex requests joined by an operator. All examples are based on the POST /panel/circles/listByCondition REST service, which returns a list of Portals groups (circles).
Comparison
This is the easiest request, it matches the items based on a single property of the item, in this case the circleType. Please note, that condition
must be replaced with the string logicalCondition
for some services.
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{
"condition": {
"comparison": {
"variable": "circleType",
"operator": "EQUAL",
"value": "COMPANY_MANAGED"
}
}
} |
Possible operator
values for comparison: EQUAL, UNEQUAL, LESS_EQUAL, LESS_THAN, GREATER_EQUAL, GREATER_THAN, CONTAINS
. Greater/smaller operators should only be applied to numeric values.
InComparison
This request allows comparison of a property to a list of acceptable values.
Code Block |
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{
"condition": {
"inComparison": {
"variable": "circleType",
"operator": "IN",
"value": [
"COMPANY_MANAGED",
"USER_MANAGED"
]
}
}
} |
The only acceptable operator
value for inComparison is IN
.
Join
This type allows more complex requests, allowing two conditions (comparison, inComparison or join) to be joined by an AND
or OR
operator.
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{
"condition": {
"join": {
"operator": "AND",
"condition1": {
"comparison": {
"variable": "title",
"operator": "CONTAINS",
"value": "Test"
}
},
"condition2": {
"inComparison": {
"variable": "circleType",
"operator": "IN",
"value": [
"COMPANY_MANAGED",
"USER_MANAGED"
]
}
}
}
}
} |
The operator
for joining two or more conditions can be AND, OR
, the individual conditions are similarly structured as their single instances. Since join is an acceptable condition, more complex structures are allowed:
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{
"condition": {
"join": {
"operator": "AND",
"condition1": {
"join": {
"operator": "AND",
"condition1": {
"comparison": {
"variable": "title",
"operator": "CONTAINS",
"value": "Test"
}
},
"condition2": {
"inComparison": {
"variable": "circleProcessStatus",
"operator": "IN",
"value": [
"IDLE","IN_PROGRESS"
]
}
}
}
},
"condition2": {
"inComparison": {
"variable": "circleType",
"operator": "IN",
"value": [
"COMPANY_MANAGED",
"USER_MANAGED"
]
}
}
}
}
} |
List of available services
A list of all available EFS Service-Layer services can be found on this page.