REST API

Managing large amounts of information by using the application user interface can be time-consuming. You can use the REST APIs as an alternative to the graphical user interface to reduce the time that is needed to manage your software inventory and the content of your software catalog.

REST API for retrieving authentication token

Important: If you want to use REST API when you are not logged in to BigFix Inventory, you must provide the token parameter for each query. To check the token, log in to BigFix Inventory, hover over the User icon User icon, and click Profile. Then, click Show token.

The token parameter is not required when you are logged in to BigFix Inventory.

REST API for retrieving the BigFix Inventory version

Although using single API requests to retrieve data only from a selected subset of computers does not greatly impact the performance of BigFix Inventory, this is not true when retrieving data in bulk for all your computer systems at the same time. To improve the performance of a REST API, retrieve the data in chunks. For more information, see: REST API considerations.

Restriction: Do not use REST API during the import as you might encounter a problem with the database connection. If the problem occurs, wait until the import finishes and ensure that the BigFix Inventory server is up and running. Then, repeat the API call.

API response language

The language of API response depends on the below criteria:
When the user is authenticated
  • The user's profile language is set to default language:
    • If the 'Accept-Language' header is defined in the request and the language is supported in BigFix Inventory, the API response appears in the defined language. If the language is not supported in BigFix Inventory, the response appears in the fallback language.
    • If the browser's language is supported in BigFix Inventory, the response appears in the selected language. If the browser's language is not supported in BigFix Inventory, the response appears in English language.
  • The user's profile language is not set to default:
    • The API response appears in the selected user profile language.
When the user is not authenticated
  • If the 'Accept-Language' header is defined in the request and the language is supported in BigFix Inventory, the API response appears in the defined language. If the language is not supported in BigFix Inventory, the response appears in fallback language.
  • If the 'Accept-Language' header is not defined in the request, the response appears in English language.
Note: The fallback language setting depends on the language that you set in the config file, such as pristine_installer_language property in the config/lmt_settings.yml. It should be set as a supported language. When the language is not supported, the default language becomes English.

Abbreviations

The following abbreviations are used in the documentation that is related to REST API:

HTTP
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP version 1.1 is defined in RFC 2616. Unless otherwise noted, the use of the term HTTP indicates both HTTP and HTTPS.
HTTPS
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure, as defined in RFC 2818
JSON
JavaScript™ Object Notation, as defined in ECMA-262
REST
Representational State Transfer, as originally and informally described in Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures
URI
Uniform Resource Identifier, as defined in RFC 3986, Draft 5