Starting Actions from the API

There are several variants of this API call available which might be easier for scripts (or humans) to work with!

There are 4 main methods to start an action in OliveTin, which can be used in scripts or other applications. These methods allow you to trigger actions either immediately or wait for them to complete, and they can be accessed via HTTP requests.

Webhook/API reference table
Function	HTTP Method	Request Type (How to select an action)	Response Type
StartAction	POST	OliveTin request object	Execution Tracking ID
StartActionByGet	GET	Action ID in the URL	Execution Tracking ID
StartActionAndWait	POST	OliveTin request object	Log Entry (waits for the action to finish)
StartActionByGetAndWait	GET	Action ID in the URL	Log Entry (waits for the action to finish)

Request type: Action ID in the URL

Used by:

If you are trying to integrate OliveTin with your own scripts or processes, it’s probably easiest to start actions by using an ID directly in the URL, see the example.

Request type: OliveTin request object

Used by:

OliveTin request object structure

{
  "actionId": "string",
  "arguments": [
    {
      "name": "string",
      "value": "string"
    }
  ],
  "uniqueTrackingId": "string"
}

To find your Action ID, and understand how Action IDs work, see the Action ID documentation

If you need more control over the execution, then the only other option is to submit a OliveTin reqjest object, which is just a very simple JSON structure like this;

{
    "actionId": "Generate cryptocurrency",
    "arguments": [],
    "uniqueTrackingId": "my-tracking-id",
}

More detailed examples can be seen below.

Response type: Execution Tracking ID

Used by:

Example Execution Tracking ID response

{"executionTrackingId":"5bb4860c-bbd0-4bc9-a7d6-42240551500c"}

Response type: LogEntry

Used by:

Example log entry

{
    "logEntry": {
        "datetimeStarted": "2024-02-27 14:14:49",
        "actionTitle": "Restart httpd on server1",
        "stdout": "",
        "stderr": "",
        "timedOut": true,
        "exitCode": -1,
        "user": "",
        "userClass": "",
        "actionIcon": "&#128260;",
        "tags": [

        ],
        "executionTrackingId": "b04b1e90-d457-4158-b7dc-da9e81f21568",
        "datetimeFinished": "2024-02-27 14:14:52",
        "actionId": "restart_httpd",
        "executionStarted": true,
        "executionFinished": true,
        "blocked": false
    }
}