1.0

Table Of Contents
vCloud API Programming Guide
142 VMware, Inc.
Schema Validation
ThisreleaseofCloudDirectorusesavalidatingXMLparserthatrequireselementsinXMLdocumentstoagree
inbothorderandnumberwiththeschema.Requiredelementsmustappearinrequestbodies.Allelements
thatappearinrequestbodiesmustappearintheorderestablishedbytheschema,andwith
contentthat
conformstothetypeconstraintspecifiedintheschema.Defaultvalues,wheredefined,aresuppliedfor
elementsthatareempty.
IfarequestcontainselementsfrommultipleXMLnamespaces,namespaceidentifiersmustbesuppliedin
requestbodiesandprependedtoelementnames.See“XMLNamespaceIdentifiers”onpage 145.
Content Type
AllrequeststhathaveabodymustincludeanHTTPContentTypeheaderthatspecifiesthecontenttypeof
thebody.Contenttypeshavebeendefinedforanyelementthatcanbeusedasarequestbody,andareshown
alongwiththeschemaandotherreferenceinformationfortheelement.
Object Reference Prototype
EveryobjectinavCloudisuniquelyidentifiedbyaURL.ThisURLisconstructedbytheserverandreturned
inthevalueofthehrefattributeoftheXMLelementthatrepresentstheobject.ItalsoappearsinvariousLink
andReferenceTypeelementsthatprovidereferencestotheobject.This
URLservesasauniqueidentifierthat
persistsforthelifeoftheobjectandisneverreused.WhenaclientmakesanHTTPGETrequesttoanobject
href,theserverreturnsthecurrentXMLrepresentationofthatobject.
AlthoughURLshaveawellknownsyntaxanda
wellunderstoodinterpretation,aclientshouldtreateach
hrefasanopaquestring.Therulesthatgovernconstructionofhrefstringsbytheserverarenotguaranteed
toremainineffectinfuturereleases.Inthisrelease,theyyieldpredictablecontentthatconformstooneoftwo
prototypes:
Objectssuchasorganizations,vDCs,networks,andcatalogshavehrefvaluesoftheform
APIURL/objecttype/id
ObjectssuchasvApptemplates,vApps,andVmshavehrefvaluesoftheformAPIURL/xxxxxx/yyyid
Foreachprototype,APIURLhastheformhttp://vcloud.example.com/api/v1.0,andidisaninteger.An
objecthrefprototypeisincludedinthereferenceinformationforeachobjecttypethathasanhrefattribute.
Common Datatypes
ThevCloud APIusesanumberofprimitiveXMLdatatypes,asdefinedinW3CRecommendation28
(http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema2/).Italsodefinesanumberofcomplextypes,ofwhichvCloud API
elementsareinstances.
Primitive XML Datatypes
AttributesandsomeelementcontentarerepresentedbyprimitiveXMLdatatypes,whichareshownin
Table 82.
N
OTEInthereferencematerial,elementsthataresimplycontainersarelistedbyname,alongwithan
explanationofthepurposeofthecontainer,butdonotincludeaschemareference.
Table 8-2. Primitive XML Data Types Used by the vCloud API
Value Description
xs:boolean Alogicalvalue,includingtrue,false,0,and1.
xs:date Datevalues.
xs:dateTime Date/timevalues(timestamps).
xs:double NumericvaluethatcorrespondstotheIEEEdoubleprecision64bitfloatingpointtype
definedinIEEE7541985.