Categories and Vocabulary API Basics

Liferay’s REST APIs provide services for Liferay’s categories and vocabularies functionality. You can create and edit vocabularies with the API. You can also associate and edit categories with the API. Start by seeing an example of adding a new vocabulary.

Adding a Vocabulary

Start a new Liferay DXP instance by running

docker run -it -m 8g -p 8080:8080 liferay/dxp:7.4.13-u55

Sign in to Liferay at http://localhost:8080 using the email address [email protected] and the password test. When prompted, change the password to learn.

Then, follow these steps:

1. Download and unzip Categories and Vocabulary API Basics.

   curl https://resources.learn.liferay.com/dxp/latest/en/content-authoring-and-management/tags-and-categories/developer-guide/liferay-f5w3.zip -O
   

   unzip liferay-f5w3.zip
   

2. Find your Site’s ID. You’ll use this in different service calls below.

3. Use the cURL script to add a new vocabulary to your Site. On the command line, navigate to the curl folder. Execute the TaxonomyVocabulary_POST_ToSite.sh script with your Site ID as a parameter.

   ./TaxonomyVocabulary_POST_ToSite.sh 1234
   

   The JSON response shows a new vocabulary has been added:

   "availableLanguages" : [ "en-US" ],
   "creator" : {
     "additionalName" : "",
     "contentType" : "UserAccount",
     "familyName" : "Test",
     "givenName" : "Test",
     "id" : 20129,
     "name" : "Test Test",
     "profileURL" : "/web/test"
   },
   "dateCreated" : "2021-09-09T21:03:15Z",
   "dateModified" : "2021-09-09T21:03:15Z",
   "description" : "Foo",
   "id" : 40126,
   "name" : "Able",
   "numberOfTaxonomyCategories" : 0,
   "siteId" : 20125
   

4. Go to the Categories application by navigating to Administration Menu → Categorization → Categories. See that a new vocabulary has been added.

   

5. The REST service can also be called using the Java client. Navigate out of the curl folder and into the java folder. Compile the source files with the following command:

   javac -classpath .:* *.java
   

6. Run the TaxonomyVocabulary_POST_ToSite class with the following command. Replace the siteId value with your Site’s ID:

   java -classpath .:* -DsiteId=1234 TaxonomyVocabulary_POST_ToSite
   

Examine the cURL Command

The TaxonomyVocabulary_POST_ToSite.sh script calls the REST service with a cURL command.

curl \
	-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
	-X POST \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-taxonomy/v1.0/sites/${1}/taxonomy-vocabularies" \
	-d "{\"description\": \"Foo\", \"name\": \"Able\"}" \
	-u "[email protected]:learn"

Here are the command’s arguments:

Arguments	Description
-H "Content-Type: application/json"	Indicates that the request body format is JSON.
-X POST	The HTTP method to invoke at the specified endpoint
"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-taxonomy/v1.0/sites/${1}/taxonomy-vocabularies"	The REST service endpoint
-d "{\"description\": \"Foo\", \"name\": \"Able\"}"	The data you are requesting to post
-u "[email protected]:learn"	Basic authentication credentials

note

Basic authentication is used here for demonstration purposes. For production, you should authorize users via OAuth2. See Using OAuth2 to Authorize Users for a sample React application that uses OAuth2.

The other cURL commands use similar JSON arguments.

Examine the Java Class

The TaxonomyVocabulary_POST_ToSite.java class adds a vocabulary by calling the vocabulary related service.

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	TaxonomyVocabularyResource.Builder builder =
		TaxonomyVocabularyResource.builder();

	TaxonomyVocabularyResource taxonomyVocabularyResource =
		builder.authentication(
			"[email protected]", "learn"
		).build();

	TaxonomyVocabulary taxonomyVocabulary =
		taxonomyVocabularyResource.postSiteTaxonomyVocabulary(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("siteId")),
			new TaxonomyVocabulary() {
				{
					description = "Foo";
					name = "Baker";
				}
			});

This class invokes the REST service using only three lines of code:

Line (abbreviated)	Description
TaxonomyVocabularyResource.Builder builder = ...	Gets a Builder for generating a TaxonomyVocabularyResource service instance.
TaxonomyVocabularyResource taxonomyVocabularyResource = builder.authentication(...).build();	Specifies basic authentication and generates a TaxonomyVocabularyResource service instance.
TaxonomyVocabulary taxonomyVocabulary = taxonomyVocabularyResource.postSiteTaxonomyVocabulary(...);	Calls the postSiteTaxonomyVocabulary method and passes the data to post.

Note that the project includes the com.liferay.headless.admin.taxonomy.client.jar file as a dependency. You can find client JAR dependency information for all REST applications in the API explorer in your installation at /o/api.

note

The main method’s comment demonstrates running the class.

The other example Java classes are similar to this one, but call different TaxonomyVocabularyResource methods.

important

See TaxonomyVocabularyResource for service details.

Below are examples of calling other TaxonomyVocabulary REST services using cURL and Java.

Get Vocabularies from Site

You can list a Site’s vocabularies by executing the following cURL or Java command. As above, replace 1234 with your Site’s ID.

TaxonomyVocabularies_GET_FromSite.sh

Command:

./TaxonomyVocabularies_GET_FromSite.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-taxonomy/v1.0/sites/${1}/taxonomy-vocabularies" \
	-u "[email protected]:learn"

TaxonomyVocabularies_GET_FromSite.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DsiteId=1234 TaxonomyVocabularies_GET_FromSite

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	TaxonomyVocabularyResource.Builder builder =
		TaxonomyVocabularyResource.builder();

	TaxonomyVocabularyResource taxonomyVocabularyResource =
		builder.authentication(
			"[email protected]", "learn"
		).build();

	Page<TaxonomyVocabulary> page =
		taxonomyVocabularyResource.getSiteTaxonomyVocabulariesPage(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("siteId")), null, null,
			Pagination.of(1, 2), null);

The Site’s TaxonomyVocabulary objects are listed in JSON.

Get a Vocabulary

Get a specific vocabulary with the following cURL or Java command. Replace 1234 with the vocabulary’s ID.

tip

Use TaxonomyVocabularies_GET_FromSite.[java|sh] to get Vocabulary IDs.

TaxonomyVocabulary_GET_ById.sh

Command:

./TaxonomyVocabulary_GET_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-taxonomy/v1.0/taxonomy-vocabularies/${1}" \
	-u "[email protected]:learn"

TaxonomyVocabulary_GET_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DtaxonomyVocabularyId=1234 TaxonomyVocabulary_GET_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	TaxonomyVocabularyResource.Builder builder =
		TaxonomyVocabularyResource.builder();

	TaxonomyVocabularyResource taxonomyVocabularyResource =
		builder.authentication(
			"[email protected]", "learn"
		).build();

	System.out.println(
		taxonomyVocabularyResource.getTaxonomyVocabulary(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("taxonomyVocabularyId"))));
}

The TaxonomyVocabulary fields are listed in JSON.

Patch a Vocabulary

Do a partial edit of an existing vocabulary with the following cURL and Java commands. Note, replace 1234 with your vocabulary’s ID.

TaxonomyVocabulary_PATCH_ById.sh

Command:

./TaxonomyVocabulary_PATCH_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
	-X PATCH \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-taxonomy/v1.0/taxonomy-vocabularies/${1}" \
	-d "{\"description\": \"Bar\", \"name\": \"Able\"}" \
	-u "[email protected]:learn"

TaxonomyVocabulary_PATCH_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DtaxonomyVocabularyId=1234 TaxonomyVocabulary_PATCH_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	TaxonomyVocabularyResource.Builder builder =
		TaxonomyVocabularyResource.builder();

	TaxonomyVocabularyResource taxonomyVocabularyResource =
		builder.authentication(
			"[email protected]", "learn"
		).build();

	TaxonomyVocabulary taxonomyVocabulary =
		taxonomyVocabularyResource.patchTaxonomyVocabulary(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("taxonomyVocabularyId")),
			new TaxonomyVocabulary() {
				{
					description = "Bar";
					name = "Baker";
				}

In this example the description is changed from Foo to Bar.

Put a Vocabulary

Overwrite an existing vocabulary with the following cURL and Java commands. Note, replace 1234 with your vocabulary’s ID.

TaxonomyVocabulary_PUT_ById.sh

Command:

./TaxonomyVocabulary_PUT_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
	-X PUT \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-taxonomy/v1.0/taxonomy-vocabularies/${1}" \
	-d "{\"description\": \"Goo\", \"name\": \"Able\"}" \
	-u "[email protected]:learn"

TaxonomyVocabulary_PUT_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DtaxonomyVocabularyId=1234 TaxonomyVocabulary_PUT_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	TaxonomyVocabularyResource.Builder builder =
		TaxonomyVocabularyResource.builder();

	TaxonomyVocabularyResource taxonomyVocabularyResource =
		builder.authentication(
			"[email protected]", "learn"
		).build();

	TaxonomyVocabulary taxonomyVocabulary =
		taxonomyVocabularyResource.putTaxonomyVocabulary(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("taxonomyVocabularyId")),
			new TaxonomyVocabulary() {
				{
					description = "Goo";
					name = "Baker";
				}
			});

	System.out.println(taxonomyVocabulary);
}

Delete a Vocabulary

Delete an existing vocabulary with the following cURL and Java commands. Note, replace 1234 with your vocabulary’s ID.

TaxonomyVocabulary_DELETE_ById.sh

Command:

./TaxonomyVocabulary_DELETE_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	-X DELETE \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-taxonomy/v1.0/taxonomy-vocabularies/${1}" \
	-u "[email protected]:learn"

TaxonomyVocabulary_DELETE_ById.java

Command

java -classpath .:* -DtaxonomyVocabularyId=1234 TaxonomyVocabulary_DELETE_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	TaxonomyVocabularyResource.Builder builder =
		TaxonomyVocabularyResource.builder();

	TaxonomyVocabularyResource taxonomyVocabularyResource =
		builder.authentication(
			"[email protected]", "learn"
		).build();

	taxonomyVocabularyResource.deleteTaxonomyVocabulary(

Taxonomy Category Services

The cURL commands and Java classes for taxonomy categories work similarly to taxonomy vocabularies. Note that some services require the taxonomy vocabulary ID.

Files	Description
TaxonomyCategories_GET_FromTaxonomyVocabulary.[java\|sh]	Get a list of categories from a vocabulary.
TaxonomyCategory_DELETE_ById.[java\|sh]	Delete a category.
TaxonomyCategory_GET_ById[java\|sh]	Get a specific category by ID.
TaxonomyCategory_PATCH_ById.[java\|sh]	Patch a category.
TaxonomyCategory_POST_ToTaxonomyVocabulary.[java\|sh]	Post a category to a vocabulary.
TaxonomyCategory_PUT_ById.[java\|sh]	Put a category.

The API Explorer lists all of the TaxonomyVocabulary and TaxonomyCategory services and schemas and has an interface to try out each service.

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