General API RPC advice please

[Atari Boy]

Hi,

I new to all this but working hard to try and understand.

I am trying to get to grips with the API RPC via PHP on the following setup:
Parallels Plesk Panel v10.4.4_build1013111102.18 os_CentOS 6

I have been using the example code in the documentation as follows:



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?php

/**
* Reports error during API RPC request
*/
class ApiRequestException extends Exception {}

/**
* Returns DOM object representing request for information about all
available domains
* @return DOMDocument
*/

function createSubdomain() //this function is called further down
{
$xmldoc = new DomDocument('1.0', 'UTF-8');
$xmldoc->formatOutput = true;
// <packet>
$packet = $xmldoc->createElement('packet');
$packet->setAttribute('version', '1.6.2.0');
$xmldoc->appendChild($packet);
// <packet/domain>
$domain = $xmldoc->createElement('domain');
$packet->appendChild($domain);
// <packet/domain/get>
$get = $xmldoc->createElement('get');
$domain->appendChild($get);

// <packet/domain/get/filter>
$filter = $xmldoc->createElement('filter');
$get->appendChild($filter);
// <packet/domain/get/dataset>
$dataset = $xmldoc->createElement('dataset');
$get->appendChild($dataset);
// dataset elements
$dataset->appendChild($xmldoc->createElement('hosting'));
$dataset->appendChild($xmldoc->createElement('gen_info'));
return $xmldoc;
}

/**
* Prepares CURL to perform the Panel API request
* @return resource
*/
function curlInit($host, $login, $password)
{
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL,
"https://{$host}:8443/enterprise/control/agent.php");
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,
array("HTTP_AUTH_LOGIN: {$login}",
"HTTP_AUTH_PASSWD: {$password}",
"HTTP_PRETTY_PRINT: TRUE",
"Content-Type: text/xml")
);

return $curl;
}

/**
* Performs a Panel API request, returns raw API response text
*
* @return string
* @throws ApiRequestException
*/
function sendRequest($curl, $packet)
{
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $packet);
$result = curl_exec($curl);
if (curl_errno($curl)) {
$errmsg = curl_error($curl);
$errcode = curl_errno($curl);
curl_close($curl);
throw new ApiRequestException($errmsg, $errcode);
}
curl_close($curl);
return $result;
}

/**
* Looks if API responded with correct data
*
* @return SimpleXMLElement
* @throws ApiRequestException
*/
function parseResponse($response_string)
{
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($response_string);
if (!is_a($xml, 'SimpleXMLElement'))
throw new ApiRequestException("Cannot parse server
response: {$response_string}");
return $xml;
}

/**
* Check data in API response
* @return void
* @throws ApiRequestException
*/
function checkResponse(SimpleXMLElement $response)
{
$resultNode = $response->domain->get->result;
// check if request was successful

if ('error' == (string)$resultNode->status)
throw new ApiRequestException("The Panel API returned an
error: " . (string)$resultNode->result->errtext);
}

//
// int main()
//
$host = 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx';
$login = 'admin';
$password = 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx';

$curl = curlInit($host, $login, $password);
try {
$response = sendRequest($curl, createSubdomain()->saveXML());
$responseXml = parseResponse($response);
checkResponse($responseXml);
} catch (ApiRequestException $e) {
echo $e;
die();
}

// Explore the result
foreach ($responseXml->xpath('/packet/domain/get/result') as
$resultNode) {
echo "Domain id: " . (string)$resultNode->id . " ";
echo (string)$resultNode->data->gen_info->name . " (" .
(string)$resultNode->data->gen_info->dns_ip_address . ")\n";
}

?>

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This works fine. However in the API RPC 1.6.3.1 Reference and other forum posts I see people quoting XML examples like this:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<packet version="1.6.3.3">
<subdomain>
<add>
<parent>domain.com</parent>
<name>test</name>
</add>
</subdomain>
</packet>



Why is the above used when in the PHP example given the XML is structured differently.

I obviously have a gap in my knowledge, can someone please explain and give me a nudge in the right direction?

Many thanks in advance.

Atari Boy