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Zoho Show API
Get started with the Show APIs


Zoho Show provides REST style Web APIs which allows client applications to view, list, edit, save, import and perform a host of useful operations on their presentations. Thus, these APIs provide an easy way to integrate Zoho Show presentations into your application.

The REST specification is often used to describe any simple interface that transmits domain specific data over HTTP without an additional messaging layer such as SOAP. An important concept in REST is the existence of resources (sources of specific information), each of which can be referred to using a global identifier (a URI). In order to manipulate these resources, components of the network (clients and servers) communicate via a standardized interface (e.g. HTTP) and exchange representations of these resources (the actual documents conveying the information).

The calling conventions employed over here for these APIs are GET and POST depending on the kind of operation (Read/Write) that is being performed. In return the user gets a formatted XML/JSON response from the called method.

The previous version of our APIs were loosely based on RPC style. The Web APIs based on XML-RPC specification can be found here.

To get started with the REST APIs, please refer our Show API Reference.

API URL

For accessing the Zoho Show API the users need to pass a couple of additional query parameters. These parameters are:
Please refer here on the process of getting the 'API Key' and 'Ticket'. Once the requisite API Key and Ticket is acquired, the users should use the following format mentioned below to access the API methods:

http://show.zoho.com/api/xml?apikey=[API Key]&ticket=[Ticket]


REST Request Format

The request format will vary depending on the type of operation (Read or Write) being performed by the APIs. The most important HTTP methods are GET and POST. GET calling convention is analogous to READ operation whereas POST method is used where data is to be written or modified. The following basic operations are performed using the Zoho Show APIs:

1. Read Operations:

For read like operations, HTTP GET calling convention is used.

Example - /api/private/xml/presentations -- this will fetch the list of presentations available in your Zoho Show account.

The read APIs are further segregated into user specific details (Private) and details that are made available for everyone to view (Public).

-- URIs for manipulating user specific details start with "/api/private/"

For example, to get the list of presentations available in your account the url "http://show.zoho.com/api/private/xml/presentations" can be used.
 
-- URIs for exposing public details start with "/api/public/"

For example, to get the list of public presentations in ZohoShow the url "http://show.zoho.com/api/public/xml/presentations" can be used.Moreover these set of APIs do not require authentication and hence users need not pass 'ticket' as query parameter.

2. Write Operations:

For write operations like renaming or editing/saving a presentation, HTTP POST calling convention is used.


REST Response Format

The type of the response format will be based on the 'format' specified in the request URL.

The URL will be of the form

 http://show.zoho.com/api/[private or public]/[format]/...

Currently, the following response formats are supported
For example,

-- "http://show.zoho.com/api/public/xml/presentations" will return the list of publicly available presentations in XML format.
-- "http://show.zoho.com/api/public/json/presentations" will return the list of publicly available presentations in JSON format.

a. Response Structure

The response will have the <response> tag as the root node. It might either contain a <result> or <error> node as it's child, but not both. The <result> node will be present under normal circumstances, whereas <error> node will be present in case of error conditions.

Thus, normal response will be of the form
 

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
  <response uri="[request URI]">
	<result>
        	[specific XML response here]
	</result>
  </response>

In case of error conditions, say we are referring to a presentation not available in ZohoShow, the response will be of the form 

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
  <response uri="[request URI]">
	<error>
        	<code> [error code] </code>
		<message> [error description] </message>                                
	</error>
  </response>



Error Codes and Messages

The list of exceptions that you will get while accessing the API methods are basically segregated into two categories -

General - This entails authentication errors as well as internal server errors while processing the request.

Input - This error may occur as a result of user missing out on providing mandatory arguments for the method, incorrect parameter values etc.

The error report will be in the form of HTTP error code and an XML error response. The list of error codes and a generalised XML error response is mentioned below:

Error Codes

The list of HTTP error codes are tabulated below:

Code
Category
Description
3401
General
Authentication failed because of invalid "ticket"
3402
General
The specified operation (GET or POST) is not supported for this request.
3404
General
No such version exists for the specified presentation.
3890
General
The "apikey" specified in the request is invalid.
3891
General
Bad Request URI
3500, 3502
General
Internal Server Error while processing the request



3831
Input
Missing argument error. Mandatory arguments, required for processing this request is missing
3832
InputSpecified value is not consistent for the present request. Request range not satisfied.
3833
InputSpecified value is of wrong datatype.



3851

The specified presentation [presentation Id] is not available in your account
3852

The specified presentation [presentation Id] is already trashed and not accessible.
3856

The specified presentation [presentation Id] is not in trashed list.
3857

The specified presentation [presentation Id] is already made as public
3858

The specified presentation [presentation Id] is not public
3859

The specified presentation [presentation Id] is not been shared
3800

Import of presentation failed.
3900

Not a valid email id.


API Reference

To get started with the REST APIs, please refer our Show API Reference.