YANG Suite RESTCONF¶
RESTCONF- protocol for communicating with YANG defined interfaces (RFC 8040)
Author |
Michael Ott |
Maintainers |
RESTCONF is the REST sister of the NETCONF protocol and uses all the normal REST calls over HTTP/S protocol. GET, PATCH, POST, PUT, and DELETE. It must follow all the strict rules defined in dozens of HTTP/S related RFC’s.
Rather than create an entire new REST client for users to learn, we thought best to use the popular Swagger interface https://swagger.io/. Swagger uses a YAML or JSON input to describe the REST functionality of your REST APIs. This plugin will create that Swagger JSON file based on the YANG file of your choice, and present the Swagger interface.
Setting Device RESTCONF Parameters¶
After installing the yangsuite-restconf plugin, go to “Setup–>Device profile”. Select the profile of the device that supports RESTCONF (or create a new proflie). You will see a new section containing RESTCONF parameters. Click on the “Device supports RESTCONF” checkbox. The default settings for other parameters will probably be fine.
Generating Swagger APIs¶
Choose the YANG set containing the model you want RESTCONF APIs generated from. After selecting the model and loading, a tree will appear below.
Select the device you want to send your RESTCONF message to. Expand the model tree to the branch or leaf that you want an API for and click on “Generate APIs”.
If the model is large, you can use “Search module”. Enter the keyword of the branch you are looking for, click on “Search”, and you will be given a list of xpaths within the model to chose from. Select the xpath and click on “Show selected node(s). This will open the tree to the location you are looking for. Click on “Generate APIs”.
When you try out an API, the URL will not be pointing directly to the device. Browsers do not allow you to go directly to another URL unless the server specifically returns a message that it is ok. More than likely, the RESTCONF device will not give that ok, so, the URL is first sent to the YANG Suite server and then proxied to your device.