API ==== This document will provide an overview of ZoneMinder's API. This is work in progress. Overview ^^^^^^^^ In an effort to further 'open up' ZoneMinder, an API was needed. This will allow quick integration with and development of ZoneMinder. The API is built in CakePHP and lives under the ``/api`` directory. It provides a RESTful service and supports CRUD (create, retrieve, update, delete) functions for Monitors, Events, Frames, Zones and Config. Enabling API ^^^^^^^^^^^^ A default ZoneMinder installs with APIs enabled. You can explictly enable/disable the APIs via the Options->System menu by enabling/disabling ``OPT_USE_API``. Note that if you intend to use APIs with 3rd party apps, such as zmNinja or others that use APIs, you should also enable ``AUTH_HASH_LOGINS``. Login, Logout & API Security ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The APIs tie into ZoneMinder's existing security model. This means if you have OPT_AUTH enabled, you need to log into ZoneMinder using the same browser you plan to use the APIs from. If you are developing an app that relies on the API, you need to do a POST login from the app into ZoneMinder before you can access the API. Then, you need to re-use the authentication information of the login (returned as cookie states) with subsequent APIs for the authentication information to flow through to the APIs. This means if you plan to use cuRL to experiment with these APIs, you first need to login: **Login process for ZoneMinder v1.32.0 and above** :: curl -XPOST -d "user=XXXX&pass=YYYY" -c cookies.txt http://yourzmip/zm/api/host/login.json Staring ZM 1.32.0, you also have a `logout` API that basically clears your session. It looks like this: :: curl -b cookies.txt http://yourzmip/zm/api/host/logout.json **Login process for older versions of ZoneMinder** :: curl -d "username=XXXX&password=YYYY&action=login&view=console" -c cookies.txt http://yourzmip/zm/index.php The equivalent logout process for older versions of ZoneMinder is: :: curl -XPOST -d "username=XXXX&password=YYYY&action=logout&view=console" -b cookies.txt http://yourzmip/zm/index.php replacing *XXXX* and *YYYY* with your username and password, respectively. Please make sure you do this in a directory where you have write permissions, otherwise cookies.txt will not be created and the command will silently fail. What the "-c cookies.txt" does is store a cookie state reflecting that you have logged into ZM. You now need to apply that cookie state to all subsequent APIs. You do that by using a '-b cookies.txt' to subsequent APIs if you are using CuRL like so: :: curl -b cookies.txt http://yourzmip/zm/api/monitors.json This would return a list of monitors and pass on the authentication information to the ZM API layer. A deeper dive into the login process ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ As you might have seen above, there are two ways to login, one that uses the `login.json` API and the other that logs in using the ZM portal. If you are running ZoneMinder 1.32.0 and above, it is *strongly* recommended you use the `login.json` approach. The "old" approach will still work but is not as powerful as the API based login. Here are the reasons why: * The "old" approach basically uses the same login webpage (`index.php`) that a user would log into when viewing the ZM console. This is not really using an API and more importantly, if you have additional components like reCAPTCHA enabled, this will not work. Using the API approach is much cleaner and will work irrespective of reCAPTCHA * The new login API returns important information that you can use to stream videos as well, right after login. Consider for example, a typical response to the login API (`/login.json`): :: { "credentials": "auth=f5b9cf48693fe8552503c8ABCD5", "append_password": 0, "version": "1.31.44", "apiversion": "1.0" } In this example I have `OPT_AUTH` enabled in ZoneMinder and it returns my credential key. You can then use this key to stream images like so: :: Where `authval` is the credentials returned to start streaming videos. The `append_password` field will contain 1 when it is necessary for you to append your ZM password. This is the case when you set `AUTH_RELAY` in ZM options to "plain", for example. In that case, the `credentials` field may contain something like `&user=admin&pass=` and you have to add your password to that string. .. NOTE:: It is recommended you invoke the `login` API once every 60 minutes to make sure the session stays alive. The same is true if you use the old login method too. Examples (please read security notice above) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Please remember, if you are using authentication, please add a ``-b cookies.txt`` to each of the commands below if you are using CuRL. If you are not using CuRL and writing your own app, you need to make sure you pass on cookies to subsequent requests in your app. (In all examples, replace 'server' with IP or hostname & port where ZoneMinder is running) API Version ^^^^^^^^^^^ To retrieve the API version: :: curl http://server/zm/api/host/getVersion.json Return a list of all monitors ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :: curl http://server/zm/api/monitors.json Retrieve monitor 1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :: curl http://server/zm/api/monitors/1.json Change State of Monitor 1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This API changes monitor 1 to Modect and Enabled :: curl -XPOST http://server/zm/api/monitors/1.json -d "Monitor[Function]=Modect&Monitor[Enabled]=1" Get Daemon Status of Monitor 1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :: curl http://server/zm/api/monitors/daemonStatus/id:1/daemon:zmc.json Add a monitor ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This command will add a new http monitor. :: curl -XPOST http://server/zm/api/monitors.json -d "Monitor[Name]=Cliff-Burton\ &Monitor[Function]=Modect\ &Monitor[Protocol]=http\ &Monitor[Method]=simple\ &Monitor[Host]=usr:pass@192.168.11.20\ &Monitor[Port]=80\ &Monitor[Path]=/mjpg/video.mjpg\ &Monitor[Width]=704\ &Monitor[Height]=480\ &Monitor[Colours]=4" Edit monitor 1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This command will change the 'Name' field of Monitor 1 to 'test1' :: curl -XPUT http://server/zm/api/monitors/1.json -d "Monitor[Name]=test1" Delete monitor 1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This command will delete Monitor 1, but will _not_ delete any Events which depend on it. :: curl -XDELETE http://server/zm/api/monitors/1.json Arm/Disarm monitors ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This command will force an alarm on Monitor 1: :: curl http://server/zm/api/monitors/alarm/id:1/command:on.json This command will disable the alarm on Monitor 1: :: curl http://server/zm/api/monitors/alarm/id:1/command:off.json This command will report the status of the alarm Monitor 1: :: curl http://server/zm/api/monitors/alarm/id:1/command:status.json Return a list of all events ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :: http://server/zm/api/events.json Note that events list can be quite large and this API (as with all other APIs in ZM) uses pagination. Each page returns a specific set of entries. By default this is 25 and ties into WEB_EVENTS_PER_PAGE in the ZM options menu. So the logic to iterate through all events should be something like this (pseudocode): (unfortunately there is no way to get pageCount without getting the first page) :: data = http://server/zm/api/events.json?page=1 # this returns the first page # The json object returned now has a property called data.pagination.pageCount count = data.pagination.pageCount; for (i=1, i=:2015-05-15 18:43:56/EndTime <=:2015-05-16 18:43:56.json To try this in CuRL, you need to URL escape the spaces like so: :: curl -XGET "http://server/zm/api/events/index/MonitorId:5/StartTime%20>=:2015-05-15%2018:43:56/EndTime%20<=:2015-05-16%2018:43:56.json" Return a list of events for all monitors within a specified date/time range ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :: curl -XGET "http://server/zm/api/events/index/StartTime%20>=:2015-05-15%2018:43:56/EndTime%20<=:208:43:56.json" Return event count based on times and conditions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The API also supports a handy mechanism to return a count of events for a period of time. This returns number of events per monitor that were recorded in the last one hour :: curl "http://server/zm/api/events/consoleEvents/1%20hour.json" This returns number of events per monitor that were recorded in the last day where there were atleast 10 frames that were alarms" :: curl "http://server/zm/api/events/consoleEvents/1%20day.json/AlarmFrames >=: 10.json" Configuration Apis ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The APIs allow you to access all the configuration parameters of ZM that you typically set inside the web console. This returns the full list of configuration parameters: :: curl -XGET http://server/zm/api/configs.json Each configuration parameter has an Id, Name, Value and other fields. Chances are you are likely only going to focus on these 3. The edit function of the Configs API is a little quirky at the moment. Its format deviates from the usual edit flow of other APIs. This will be fixed, eventually. For now, to change the "Value" of ZM_X10_HOUSE_CODE from A to B: :: curl -XPUT http://server/zm/api/configs/edit/ZM_X10_HOUSE_CODE.json -d "Config[Value]=B" To validate changes have been made: :: curl -XGET http://server/zm/api/configs/view/ZM_X10_HOUSE_CODE.json Run State Apis ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ZM API can be used to start/stop/restart/list states of ZM as well Examples: :: curl -XGET http://server/zm/api/states.json # returns list of run states curl -XPOST http://server/zm/api/states/change/restart.json #restarts ZM curl -XPOST http://server/zm/api/states/change/stop.json #Stops ZM curl -XPOST http://server/zm/api/states/change/start.json #Starts ZM Create a Zone ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :: curl -XPOST http://server/zm/api/zones.json -d "Zone[Name]=Jason-Newsted\ &Zone[MonitorId]=3\ &Zone[Type]=Active\ &Zone[Units]=Percent\ &Zone[NumCoords]=4\ &Zone[Coords]=0,0 639,0 639,479 0,479\ &Zone[AlarmRGB]=16711680\ &Zone[CheckMethod]=Blobs\ &Zone[MinPixelThreshold]=25\ &Zone[MaxPixelThreshold]=\ &Zone[MinAlarmPixels]=9216\ &Zone[MaxAlarmPixels]=\ &Zone[FilterX]=3\ &Zone[FilterY]=3\ &Zone[MinFilterPixels]=9216\ &Zone[MaxFilterPixels]=230400\ &Zone[MinBlobPixels]=6144\ &Zone[MaxBlobPixels]=\ &Zone[MinBlobs]=1\ &Zone[MaxBlobs]=\ &Zone[OverloadFrames]=0" PTZ Control APIs ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ PTZ controls associated with a monitor are stored in the Controls table and not the Monitors table inside ZM. What that means is when you get the details of a Monitor, you will only know if it is controllable (isControllable:true) and the control ID. To be able to retrieve PTZ information related to that Control ID, you need to use the controls API This returns all the control definitions: :: curl http://server/zm/api/controls.json This returns control definitions for a specific control ID=5 :: curl http://server/zm/api/controls/5.json Host APIs ^^^^^^^^^^ ZM APIs have various APIs that help you in determining host (aka ZM) daemon status, load etc. Some examples: :: curl -XGET http://server/zm/api/host/daemonCheck.json # 1 = ZM running 0=not running curl -XGET http://server/zm/api/host/getLoad.json # returns current load of ZM curl -XGET http://server/zm/api/host/getDiskPercent.json # returns in GB (not percentage), disk usage per monitor (that is, space taken to store various event related information,images etc. per monitor)