Design Hub developer guide - REST API

• Authorize requests
• Methods
  • GET /api/user
  • GET /api/projects
  • GET /api/compounds/public
  • POST /upload/api - multipart
  • POST /upload/api - JSON

Available from v20.13.0, Design Hub includes a token based API access layer. Authenticated users of the system can generate API keys to be used to authorize HTTP requests made by other applications, outside of active login sessions.

Authorize requests

Use of most API endpoints requires a successful token based authentication. The user needs ACCESS_REST_API permission to be able to manipulate and view API tokens. The token can be obtained by opening the corner menu on the user interface and creating a new token. Here, previous tokens can be invalidated as well.

Once a token has been obtained, specifying them on HTTP requests can be done in the X-API-KEY header:

user:~/app$ curl -H "X-API-KEY: XFBg+9IVHhTRviLF1WOHgD0U2QS5Ww8oHqqG+405" "http://server:port/api/user"
{
  "user_id": 1,
  "displayName": "Tester"
}

Different HTTP errors are returned for incorrect authentication. The following spreadsheets describes which status code corresponds to which check.

Status code	Description
400 Bad request	X-API-KEY header not specified on the request
401 Unauthorized	X-API-KEY value is invalid
404 Not found	HTTP path or method specified in the request doesn't exist

Methods

Get user details

HTTP Request: GET /api/user

Purpose: Provides basic information about the user authorized by the access token.

Request headers: X-API-KEY required

Response content-type: application/json

Response body:

{
  "user_id": number,
  "displayName": string
}

Property name	Value	Description
user_id	number	internal identifier of the user
displayName	string	user-specified display name

Get projects

HTTP Request: GET /api/projects

Purpose: Provides list of projects accessible to the authorized user.

Request headers: X-API-KEY required

Response content-type: application/json

Response body:

[
  {
    "project_id": number,
    "label": string,
    "last_used": string
  }, ...
}

Property name	Value	Description
project list	list	An unordered list of projects
project list[*].project_id	number	Unique, internal identifier of the project.
project list[*].label	string	Human friendly name of the project.
project list[*].last_used	string	Serialized date object representing when this project was last used, in ISO date format, UTC timezone. May be used for sorting.

List compounds and IDs

HTTP Request: GET /api/compounds/public

Purpose: Provides all IDs and compounds publicly available in the system. May be used to make Design Hub generated IDs usable in other systems.

Request headers : X-API-KEY required

Response content-type: application/json

Query parameters:

Parameter name	type	Description
offset	number (optional)	number of compounds to skip in the beginning of the list, default 0
limit	number (optional)	maximum size of list, default based on Design Hub config parameter limitPublicCompoundsListSize

Response body:

{
  "compounds": [
    {
      "currentId": string,
      "previousIds": [ string, ... ],
      "source": string,
      "url": string
    },
    ...
  ],
  "total": number,
  "limit": number,
  "offset": number
}

Property name	Value	Description
compounds	list	A list of compound records ordered by record creation date
compounds[*].currentId	string	Latest known ID of the compound, e.g. "CXN-123456"
compounds[*].previousIds	list of strings	List of previously known IDs of the compound, e.g.: ["VXN-1234567"]
compounds[*].source	string	MRV formatted source of the compound
compounds[*].url	string	A root relative URL to the compound's dedicated webpage, e.g.: "/compounds/find/CXN-123456"
total	number	Number of all public compounds that can be obtained using this endpoint
offset	number	Index of the first compound in this result set
limit	number	Number of compounds requested

Multipart form upload

HTTP Request: POST /upload/api

Purpose: Provides a way for simple web sites to send molecules to Design Hub.

Request content-type: multipart/form-data

Request body: a chemical structure file recognized by ChemAxon IO system

Response content-type: application/json

Response body: a HTTP redirect that should be opened by the user's browser

Example:

A curl command produces valid multipart request, when the data flag refers to a file using the @ symbol:

user:~/app$ curl -X POST -F structures=@/path/to/file/filename.sdf "http://localhost:8888/upload/api"

A browser form with a file input also produces a valid multipart request, when the form’s action attribute and the file input’s name attribute are specified as below:

<form action="http://design-hub-example.com/upload/api" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post">
  <input type="file" name="structures" />
  <button>Upload</button>
</form>

When submitted, this sends the following HTTP request:

POST /upload/api HTTP/1.1
Host: design-hub-example.com
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary="the_boundary"
Content-Length: number_of_bytes_in_entire_request_body
--the_boundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="structures"; filename="records.mrv"
Content-Type: application/octet-stream

Chemical file data
--the_boundary--

If the request succeeds, the server returns HTTP 302 Moved temporarily status code, along with a redirect URL containing a unique ID that references the parsed contents of the file. Integrating applications should open this URL in the user’s browser. This unique URL is valid for 5 minutes.

HTTP/1.1 302
Location: /new/compound/?cache=1164293e37ca9d47cbdfded5

JSON upload

HTTP Request: POST /upload/api

Purpose:Provides a way for applications to send molecules to Design Hub.

Request content-type: application/json

Request body:

Property name	Value	Description
structures	string	A string serialized representation of a chemical structure file recognized by ChemAxon IO system

Response content-type : application/json

Response body : a JSON object including the following properties:

Property name	Value	Description
url	string	a root relative URL (path) that should be opened by the user's browser

Example:

A valid request has the Content-Type of application/json and the body contains a JSON structure, with the file contents under the structures key:

POST /upload/api HTTP/1.1
Host: design-hub-example.com
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: number_of_bytes_in_entire_request_body
{ "structures": "chemical file data" }

If the request succeeds, the server returns a simple JSON object containing a unique URL that references the parsed contents of the file. Integrating applications should open this URL in the user’s browser. This unique URL is valid for 5 minutes.

HTTP/1.1 200
{
  "url": "/new/compound/?cache=1164293e37ca9d47cbdfded5"
}