© 2011 autodesk automating autodesk® revit® server rod howarth software development manager –...

© 2011 Autodesk

Automating Autodesk® Revit® Server

Rod HowarthSoftware Development Manager – Bornhorst + Ward

© 2011 Autodesk

Class Summary

This class will explore the API’s that are exposed by Autodesk Revit Server and how we can make use of them in some interesting applications.

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Learning Objectives

At the end of this class, you will be able to:Explain how Revit server automation can be integrated into existing software processesDescribe the REST interface to Revit ServerCombine the Revit Server command line and the Revit API to perform a task in a Revit model on a scheduleUse the supplied command line utility to create local files from Revit Server

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Agenda

Revit Server Background REST API Overview

Intro What is REST? How to access it Rest API overview

What can I use it for? HTML Server Admin Interface with existing system

Revit Server Command Line Tools Creating local files

Opportunities

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Revit Server Background

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Revit Server Background

Young product

Replaces file system storage of central files

Optimizes network traffic

Allows replication

Hosted in IIS

Web based administration tool

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Admin Tool

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REST API Overview

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Revit Server API – What is it?

Allows administration of folders and models

Exposes the functionality from the online admin tool

User guide available in the Revit SDK

Web based API

Uses REST

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What is REST?

Representational State Transfer (REST)

Web based API that uses URLs to interact

Based on HTTP specification

Browsers access websites in the same way

Uses HTTP Verbs

GET - Read only retrieval of a resource

POST – Modify/update a resource

PUT – Create/Overwrite a resource

DELETE - Delete a resource

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What is a resource?

A resource is identified by a URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

Browsers request a ‘resource’ from a web server (usually GET requests)

Verbs and query string define what to do to this resource

Querystring is the ?parameter=value&parameter2=value

Server responds with response code and data

404 is a HTTP response code for resource not found

200 is the code for success

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Anatomy of a HTTP request

GET http://usa.autodesk.com/company/ HTTP/1.1

Header: value

Header2: value2

Host Name Resource

Protocol

Verb

Header list

HTTP Version

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Anatomy of a HTTP Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8

Header: Value

Header2: Value2

<html><head><title>About Autodesk</title>

</head><body>We are a software

company that make Revit</body>

</html>

Content Type

Raw Data

Response Code

Header list

Data can be HTML, JSON, XML, Binary or other formats

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REST APIs

URL and the Verb combine to act as a sort of method call URL identifies what you what resource you are using Verb specifies what action to take

Same URL with different verbs can be totally different GET http://servername/resource returns the resource DELETE http://servername/resource deletes it Big difference!

Querystring can be used to supply extra parameters DELETE http://servername/resource?newObjectName=newName could rename to

newName Leave out Querystring to delete

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How to access REST services

Standard HTTP request

Use anything capable of HTTP requests

C# and VB have System.Net.HttpWebRequest

Jquery(Javascript) has $.ajax()

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Why REST?

Many advantages

Hosted on a web server

Use them with any programming language capable of a web request

Consistent and self describing interface

Very popular on the web Flickr is well known for having a good REST API

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More on REST

Further Resources Nettuts+ - http://goo.gl/EHxmH O’Reilly RESTful Web Services Book - http://goo.gl/NiuAh

Probably more for people making RESTful API’s

View HTTP requests Firebug in Firefox F12 in Chrome and IE then click ‘Network’ Fiddler2 (http://fiddler2.com) lets you view ALL request on your system

Very useful for testing your Revit Server API access

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JSON

JavaScript Object Notation

Alternative to XML/HTML for displaying data

Easy to use with Jquery

Requires parsing in .NET

{

"Path": string,

"Items":

[

{

"Comment": string,

"Date": DateTime,

"User": string,

"VersionNumber": int,

"ModelSize": int

}

]

}

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The Revit Server REST API

Specification in SDK

Base URL:

http://servername/RevitServerAdminRESTService/AdminRESTService.svc Required headers to identify yourself when making requests Information Querying APIs

Get server properties, folder contents, directory info, model save history Data Managing APIs

Lock models/folders, delete locks Create, delete, move, rename and copy folders/models

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Quick Examples

GET /{folderPath}/contents

Returns a JSON object listing the models and folders

For example GET http://BASEURL/AUJob/contents

To get the contents of the parent dir use a space GET http://baseurl/ /contents

PUT /{objectPath}/lock

Locks the specified folder or model (object can be either)

For example PUT /AUJob|Subfolder|Model_01.rvt/lock

Notice that | is used instead of the familiar / in the path

This is because the / would form part of the URL

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What can I use it for?

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HTML Server Admin

Existing interface is Silverlight based

This is ok, but requires installation and won’t work on mobile

Revit Server API gives us same functionality

We can use this API to build a HTML replica

With a little help from JQuery

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Demo

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Interface with existing system

A more likely scenario is linking with an

existing system

For example, a project records system

User enters project details, and it is stored in a database

Want to make a Revit Server folder automatically for new projects

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Revit Server Command Line Utilities

2 similarly named utilities

RevitServerCommand

Allows you to lock/unlock models/folders

Already seen 2 other ways of doing this

Ships in Revit Server folder

RevitServerToolCommand

Ships in the Revit Directory on all users PC’s

Lets you create local files from a Revit Server

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Opportunities

Already seen some potential use cases, but more to ponder…

Revit Server has all of your files stored on your servers

This data is replicated automatically to all locations

Quick access to Revit files on any Revit Server

Ability to lock and unlock files

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Revit Remote Boot

Last example of what you could do with these API’s

This tool lets you run some code on a model at scheduled times

Very fragile, prototype only

(Revit isn’t meant for this kind of thing)

May give you ideas for your own tools

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Conclusion

Revit Server is still a young product

But already has a great API

REST lets you access from anywhere

Command line tools provide even more access

Plenty of things you could make

Contact me via [email protected] or twitter.com/rodh257

© 2011 Autodesk

Autodesk, AutoCAD* [*if/when mentioned in the pertinent material, followed by an alphabetical list of all other trademarks mentioned in the material] are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2011 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2011 autodesk automating autodesk® revit® server rod howarth software development manager –...

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