Implementing the Open Supporter Data Interface (OSDI) API for CiviCRM - GSoC Concluding Blog Post

This extension is capable of handling the following actions, let's look up to them briefly:

• GET -requests are automatically invoked when you want to retrieve the People's data or any individual person's data. You can look up to the desired data through the API explorer on your own CiviCRM site at /civicrm/api (available from the menubar at Help -> Developer -> Api Explorer). Also you can execute a REST call having entity as 'People' and action as 'get' passing along the user key and site key, parameters like options or limits can be added to these REST URI requests.

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• POST -these requests are used to add a new person's record into the system. The 'Person Sign-up Helper' accepts these requests in JSON format having fields' name according to OSDI specification.To POST a new record click on the NON-GET button (orange color) and provide the data in JSON format. The fields provided should be based OSDI specification in order to get this request accepted into the system.

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• PUT -This is primarily used to update an existing person's record. You need to provide the 'Method' while using the HAL-browser interface at the person's endpoint whose record has to be updated.

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• DELETE -It deletes the person's record. Similarly, just fill the 'Method' field as 'DELETE' to remove that record.

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Using the extension
You can follow the documentation present in the GitHub repository of this project. Here : https://github.com/anuditverma/org.civicrm.osdi

Conclusion
This project fulfills the basic requirements to be considered as an extension for implementing OSDI into the CiviCRM system. The 'Person Sign-up Helper' is developed to post a new record into the system based on OSDI specification. Similarly, various actions like GET, POST, PUT and DELETE are used to perform control actions as per OSDI specification. So as per GSoC and other mandatory fulfillments this project stands complete. Right now, its alpha version would be released and uploaded on the CiviCRM extension directory. Though I would continue contributing to the Git Hub repository, testing the extension more, fixing self-raised issues and issues reported by others. I would add more helpers which are defined in the OSDI specification.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thanks Joe McLaughlin and Eileen McNaughton who were the mentors assigned to me for this project.

• Joe Sir, thank you for believing in me as many may not be knowing that originally I applied in CiviCRM with a different proposal which was not very much similar from this project. So I am very thankful for selecting me and how we worked together in understanding OSDI by attending the weekly OSDI Technology Committee meetings which was very helpful for moving ahead in the completion of this project.
• Eileen ma'am, we had a time zone difference in which it was sometimes difficult to match our work timings. Despite of this I am very much grateful to you as whenever I had a query regarding CiviCRM you always responded in quickly whether it was late in night at your end or us hanging out on IRC for hours. So thank you for assisting me in understanding CiviCRM.
• I would like to thanks Joe Murray who encouraged me and pushed me ahead when I needed the most. Thank you Sir for advising me on setup-ing my development environment and helping on other Civi issues.
• Thanks to Jason Rosenbaum from Action Network who helped me getting an insight on an existing OSDI implementation at their organization. Well Jason and I discussed on the issues he raised on my Git Hub repository which helped this implementation work effectively and as per OSDI specification. So thanks to him for contributing his time in this project.
• Josh Cohen, founder of OSDI for hosting weekly online OSDI Technology Committee meetings that helped me gain knowledge about OSDI significantly.
• Edsel Roque Lopez, who works for JMA consulting, Joe Murray got us introduced to each other. We share same time zone and Edsel's expertise on CiviCRM also helped me a gain a lot about background working of this software. So Thanks to him as well for contributing his valuable time into this project.
• Thanks to Timothy Anderegg for joining in the discussioin of this project and for sharing your valueble thoughts on it.

See Also

• Project discussion thread on the CiviCRM developer's forum.

• Project repository on GitHub here https://github.com/anuditverma/org.civicrm.osdi

• Learn more about OSDI.