dhis-mobile-devs team mailing list archive

[Rowena Luk <rluk@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear DHIS mobile team in general, and Jo in specific,

Lars recommended that we talk to you about some questions we have getting
data into DHIS2 for Ministry of Health in Uganda. As many of you probably
know already, there's been a big push to get DHIS2 implemented, configured,
and (hopefully soon) deployed nationwise in Uganda, which is really
exciting. David and I are working on getting indicator data into the system
(specifically, data about disease occurrence and ACT stock levels), which is
a key part of being able to present one integrated platform (DHIS2) that
holds all the data relevant to MOH. Our timelines are very short, so we're
planning on working through whatever API is currently available and working
in DHIS2, in recognition of the fact that these APIs may evolve in the
future (and so will we).

Now, down to the specifics: can anyone help clarify some of the specifics of
the web API, i.e. http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/api/.

Specifically:
* What response should we be expecting from the DHIS2 system when everything
is processed correctly? HTTP 200 OK, and then what in the body?
* What responses do we get in case of error? HTTP 4XX or 5XX? Will we get an
error message in the body, and if so, is that in plaintext, json, xml, or
other?

This isn't really a question, but more of a request: when I try to hit the
DHIS2 api with an unauthenticated POST, the system responds with the html of
the login screen and an HTTP 200 status code. Since this is an automated
API, it would be great if the system could somehow indicate in a
machine-friendly manner that the authentication failed, e.g. typically one
might expect a 401 message. Just raising the suggestion; this isn't a
dealbreaker for us.


Really hope you can help us out here. I've gotten as far as submitting a
POST with the right HTTP basic auth credentials to apps.dhis2.org, but am
getting an empty response message with HTTP 200 OK, and nothing is showing
up in the DB. Knowing what the expected behaviour should be will help me
debug.

Thanks everyone!

Rowena
(Senior Engineer, Dimagi Inc.)