Using Plesk Expand Integration API

This chapter focuses on the operation of the Plesk Expand Integration API.

The Plesk Expand Integration API is based on the following principles: a request for and parameters of a certain action (create/delete a domain, add/delete IP address and so on) is placed in the XML packet which is communicated to Plesk Expand together with the corresponding Plesk Expand Operator indicating the type of the action to be performed (manage a domain, manage IP addresses, etc.). All the three "call" APIs: the XML API, the Remote XML API and the CLI API, provide different ways to communicate this pair "XML query + Operator" to Plesk Expand.

Therefore, the main things you need to know is the XML API composing principles and the list of available Plesk Expand Operators. Other APIs described in this manual are more or less based on this main API and are used in certain special cases:

• use CLI API when XML statement appears too bulky, and if using command line statements is more convenient for you
• use Remote XML API when you need to communicate with Plesk Expand from a remote host. This API works through the HTTPS gateway and provides secure communication with the Plesk Expand server
• use Plesk Expand Events when you need to configure automatic two-way interaction between Plesk Expand and some external application.

In this section, you will find information about the operation principles all the four APIs used in Plesk Expand: the XML API, the CLI API, the Remote XML API, and Plesk Expand Events. You will learn to compose commands for all these APIs in order to perform all available operations in Plesk Expand.

You will also find here sample statements for one of the most typical operations - creating a domain. These samples illustrate the work of three available "call" interfaces:

• the XML API - see Sample statement
• the CPI API - see Sample statement
• the Remote XML API - see Sample statements using Perl and PHP scripts.

Each sample contains detailed comments.

For details about using XML in Plesk Expand, see Composing XML Commands.

As it was mentioned above, the Plesk Expand Integration API includes a set of Plesk Expand Integration operators, which are used for performing various tasks on Plesk Expand and Plesk hosts. A full list of available Plesk Management Operators and Plesk Expand Management Operators is provided in Chapter 4. Reference Materials.