Getting started with Collibra REST API

In this tutorial you learn the basics of the REST standard, the different REST applications Collibra provides, where to find the general documentation and how to use it. You also perform a GET call to Collibra Data Intelligence Platform to retrieve version information about the environment:

GET https://<your_dgc_environment_url>/rest/2.0/application/info

About the REST API

The REST APIs are web services following standards allowing you to interact with your data.

The REpresentational State Transfer (REST) is a software architectural style which defines constraints mainly used by web services. Making use of most of the CRUD HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and so on), each API endpoint is characterized as:

• Stateless: no context is stored and each client needs to provide all the necessary information to service the request.
• Cacheable: clients intermediary can cache the responses.
• Uniform interface: all responses are provided as JSON.

While the workflows and the Java APIs run inside Collibra Data Intelligence Platform, the REST API interacts with the Collibra environment from an external service. There are many use cases, from data visualization to mobile clients integration.

You can perform the following operations on most of the Collibra resources:

Operation		Resource
		Assets
Add		Domains
Change		Communities
Find		Relations
Get		Attributes
Remove		Comments
Set		Users
Start (workflows)		Roles
		Permissions

You can perform all the operations only if you have the permissions to do so.

The Collibra REST API applications

There are three main REST applications for the Collibra Data Intelligence Platform and one for the Collibra Console:

API	Description
REST Core API	Create your own integrations with Collibra, create your own UI or build your own application.
REST Import API	Load large volumes of data into Collibra and differentiate between creating and updating data.
REST Catalog API	Ingest information into Data Catalog, including sources that are not natively supported.
Management Console API	Manage backups, configuration and the Collibra Console environment.

The API documentation

The API references are part of your Collibra Platform environment. You need to be logged in to access them.

To access the API documentation:

User access	API documentation
Sysadmin role	In the top-right corner of any Collibra page, click and select API documentation.
All roles	In a browser, go to https://<your_collibra_url>/docs/index.html.
Console	In a browser, go to http://<your_console_url>/docs/index.html.

We use Swagger UI to present the Collibra REST API documentation. The landing page displays the list of all the resources the application contains:

Each resource can be expanded to see the available methods and endpoints. You can expand each end point to see the details:

Using the embedded documentation allows you to:

• Consult documentation that is adapted to your version of the Collibra product.
• Try the API directly.
• Get the CURL request to perform.

The API documentation data is real and any operation you perform here will be reflected in Collibra.

REST call URLs

REST call URLs have three parts:

Description	Example
The instance base URL.	https://<your_dgc_environment_url>
The REST application path.	/rest/2.0
The end point path.	/application/info
Full URL example.	https://<your_dgc_environment_url>/rest/2.0/application/info

The application paths are specific to the API and the application.

Application	API	REST path
Collibra Data Intelligence Platform	Core API	/rest/2.0
	Import API	/rest/2.0
	Catalog API	/rest/catalog/1.0
	Search API	/rest/2.0
Collibra Console	Console API	/rest

Making a GET call

One of the most basic Collibra API GET calls is /application/info. Since the API is intended to work from outside the application it is meant for, the Application resource allows you to check that the Collibra Data Intelligence Platform is up and running and get details about the version.

You don't have to be authenticated to retrieve version information and, since the method is GET, you can make the call by typing the URL in a browser.

GET https://<your_dgc_environment_url>/rest/2.0/application/info

You see the JSON response in your browser window:

{
	"baseUrl":"<your_dgc_environment_url>",
	"version":{
		"major":5,
		"minor":6,
		"fullVersion":"5.6.2-17"
	},
	"buildNumber":"20190322181533"
}

Next steps

The vast majority of Collibra API operations require authentication so the next tutorial shows you how to authenticate with the REST API.

Additional resources

• Consult the REST API documentation provided with your version of Collibra Data Intelligence Platform.
• Read the CollibraAPI documentation.