NOTE: This is VERY early. This is changing as N-central updates their API & as we get a better understanding of the API. There are broken tests & some missing code, but we will firm this up over the next few weeks.

SPINEN's N-central PHP Client

PHP package to interface with N-able's N-central Server. We strongly encourage you to review N-central's API docs to get a feel for what this package can do, as we are just wrapping their API. We have based the majority of this code from our Halo PHP Client.

We solely use Laravel for our applications, so this package is written with Laravel in mind. We have tried to make it work outside of Laravel. If there is a request from the community to split this package into 2 parts, then we will consider doing that work.

Build Status

Branch	Status	Coverage	Code Quality
Develop
Master

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Laravel Setup
  • Configuration
• Generic PHP Setup
  • Examples
• Authentication
  • JWT
• Usage
  • Supported Actions
  • Using the Client
    • Getting the Client object
    • Models
    • Relationships
    • Collections
    • Filtering using "where"
    • Search
    • Limit records returned
    • Order By
    • Pagination
  • More Examples
• Known Issues

Installation

Install N-central PHP Package via Composer:

$ composer require spinen/n-central-php-rest-client

Laravel Setup

1. Add the appropriate values to your .env file

   Keys

   NCENTRAL_ACCESS_OVERRIDE=<Optional Override Access Token Expiration>
   NCENTRAL_JWT=<Administration → User Management → Users → Click on user → API Access → GENERATE JSON WEB TOKEN>
   NCENTRAL_REFRESH_OVERRIDE=<Optional Override Refresh Token Expiration>
   NCENTRAL_URL=<Server URL i.e. https://some.domain.tld/api/>

2. [Optional] If you would like to use the client with API calls per user in your application, you will need to make your User object implement includes the Spinen\Ncentral\Concerns\HasNcentral trait which will allow it to access the Client as an attribute like this: $user->ncentral

   <?php
   
   namespace App;
   
   use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\MustVerifyEmail;
   use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
   use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;
   use Spinen\Ncentral\Concerns\HasNcentral;
   
   class User extends Authenticatable
   {
       use HasNcentral, Notifiable;
   
       // ...
   }

3. [Optional] Publish config & migration

   Config

   A configuration file named ncentral.php can be published to config/ by running...

   php artisan vendor:publish --tag=ncentral-config

   Migration

   Migrations files can be published by running...

   php artisan vendor:publish --tag=ncentral-migrations

   You'll need the migration to set the N-central API token on your User model.

Generic PHP Setup

1. You need to build up an array of configs to pass into the N-central object. You review the ncentral.php file in the configs directory. All of the properties are documented in the file.

2. Depending on your needs, you can either work with the N-central client or the Builder

   To get a Spinen\Ncentral\Api\Client instance for Client Credentials...

   $ psysh
   Psy Shell v0.11.22 (PHP 8.2.12 — cli) by Justin Hileman
   > $configs = [
       "jwt" => "sometoken",
       "url" => "https://some.host.tld/api",
   ]
   
   > $ncentral = new Spinen\Ncentral\Api\Client(configs: $configs);
   = Spinen\Ncentral\Api\Client {#2744}

   To get a Spinen\Ncentral\Support\Builder instance...

   $ psysh
   Psy Shell v0.11.22 (PHP 8.2.12 — cli) by Justin Hileman
   > // Get a $ncentral instance from above
   
   > $builder = (new Spinen\Ncentral\Support\Builder)->setClient($ncentral);
   = Spinen\Ncentral\Support\Builder {#2757}
   
   >

   If using the ncentral property from the user model, it the will work exactly like all of the examples below where $builder is used.

Authentication

N-central uses a JWT token for a user that is limited to only API calls. This prevents ths account from being able to log directly into the application. To obtain the "N-central User-API Token (JWT)", visit the N-central UI. Then navigate to Administration → User Management → Users → Click on user → API Access → GENERATE JSON WEB TOKEN.

Usage

Supported Actions for Spinen\Ncentral\Api\Client

• [NOT YET SUPPORTED BY API] delete(string $path) - Shortcut to the request() method with 'DELETE' as the last parameter

• get(string $path) - Shortcut to the request() method with 'GET' as the last parameter

• getToken() - Get, return, or refresh the token.

NOTE: This is the best way to get a token as it handles expiration

• post(string $path, array $data) - Shortcut to the request() method with 'POST' as the last parameter

• [NOT YET SUPPORTED BY API] put(string $path, array $data) - Shortcut to the request() method with 'PUT' as the last parameter

• refreshToken() - Refresh a token

• request(?string $path, ?array $data = [], ?string $method = 'GET') - Make an API call to N-central to $path with the $data using the JWT for the logged in user.

• requestToken() - Request a token

• setConfigs(array $configs) - Validate & set the configs

• setDebug(bool $debug) - Set Guzzle to debug

• setToken(Token|string $token) - Set the token for the N-central API

• uri(?string $path = null, ?string $url = null) - Generate a full uri for the path to the N-central API.

• validToken() - Is the token valid & if provided a scope, is the token approved for the scope

Using the Client

The Client is meant to emulate Laravel's models with Eloquent. When working with N-central resources, you can access properties and relationships just like you would in Laravel.

Models

The API responses are cast into models with the properties cast into the types as defined in the N-central API documentation. You can review the models in the src/ folder. There is a property named casts on each model that instructs the Client on how to cast the properties from the API response. If the casts property is empty, then the properties are not defined in the API docs, so an array is returned.

NOTE: The documented properties on the models are likely to get stale as N-central is in active development

> $builder->customers->first()
= Spinen\Ncentral\Customer {#4967
    // properties
  }

> $builder->customers->first()->toArray()
= [
    "customerId" => 249,
    "customerName" => "Customer1",
    "isSystem" => true,
    "isServiceOrg" => true,
    "parentId" => 248,
    "city" => null,
    "stateProv" => null,
    "county" => null,
    "postalCode" => "",
    "contactEmail" => null,
  ]

Relationships

NOTE: Not yet setup

Some of the responses have links to the related resources. If a property has a relationship, you can call it as a method and the additional calls are automatically made & returned. The value is stored in place of the original data, so once it is loaded it is cached.

You may also call these relationships as attributes, and the Client will return a Collection for you (just like Eloquent).

Collections

Results are wrapped in a Spinen\Ncentral\Support\Collection, which extends Illuminate\Support\Collection, so you can use any of the collection helper methods documented Laravel Collection methods.

Filtering using "where"

You can do filters by using where on the models. The first parameter is the property being filtered. The second is optional, and is the value to filter the property. If it is left null, then is it true, so it becomes where('<property', true). All of these values are passed in the query string.

There are a few "helper" methods that are aliases to the where filter, to make the calls more expressive.

• whereId('<id>') is an alias to where('id', '<id>')
• whereNot('<property>') is an alias to where('<property', false)

Limit records returned

You can call the take or limit methods (take is an alias to limit) on the builder to limit the records returned to the count parameter.

> $customers = $builder->customers()->take(7)->get()
= Spinen\Ncentral\Support\Collection {#4999
    all: [
      Spinen\Ncentral\Customer {#4991
        // properties
      },
      // more...
    ],
  }

> $customers->count()
= 7

Pagination

Several of the endpoints support pagination. You can use simple pagination by chaining pagination with an optional size value to the builder. You can get a specific page with the page method that takes page number as a parameter. You can condense the call by passing pagination size as the second parameter to the page method.

// Could have been $builder->devices()->paginate(2)->page(2)->get()
> $devices = $builder->devices()->page(3, 2)->get()
= Spinen\Ncentral\Support\Collection {#4761
    all: [
      Spinen\Ncentral\Device {#4763
        // properties
      },
      // more...
    ],
  }

> $devices->count()
= 2

More Examples

> $builder->customers->count()
= 4

$builder->statuses->pluck('customerName', 'customerId')->sort()
= Spinen\Ncentral\Support\Collection {#4959
    all: [
      18 => "Customer A",
      17 => "Customer B",
    ],
  }

Open Items

• Setup the relationships in the models
• Add getters to models
• Add scopes on models

Known Issues

• They are refining the API, so things may break