WebService::NFSN - Client for the NearlyFreeSpeech.NET API

This document describes version 0.10 of WebService::NFSN, released May 5, 2011 as part of WebService-NFSN version 0.10.

    use WebService::NFSN;

    my $nfsn = WebService::NFSN->new($USER, $API_KEY);
    my $balance = $nfsn->account($ACCOUNT_ID)->balance;

    $nfsn = WebService::NFSN->new; # Get credentials from ~/.nfsn-api

WebService::NFSN is a client library for NearlyFreeSpeech.NET's member API. It is only useful to people who have websites hosted at NearlyFreeSpeech.NET.

Much of this documentation was adapted from the original API documentation at https://members.nearlyfreespeech.net/wiki/API.

$nfsn = WebService::NFSN->new( [$USER, $API_KEY] )

This constructs a new API manager object. $USER is your NFSN member login. You can get your $API_KEY by making a Secure Support Request at https://members.nearlyfreespeech.net/support/request.

If you call new without parameters, it will look for a file named .nfsn-api in the current directory and (if not found there) in your home directory. The file must contain a JSON object that defines the keys login and api-key. Any additional keys are ignored.

Example .nfsn-api file:

 { "login": "USER",  "api-key": "API_KEY" }

$nfsn->account($ACCOUNT_ID)

Returns a WebService::NFSN::Account object for the specified account number (a string like 'A1B2-C3D4E5F6').

$nfsn->dns($DOMAIN)

Returns a WebService::NFSN::DNS object for the specified domain (like 'example.com').

$nfsn->email($DOMAIN)

Returns a WebService::NFSN::Email object for the specified domain.

$nfsn->member( [$USER] )

Returns a WebService::NFSN::Member object for the specified member login. If $USER is omitted, it defaults to the member login that was passed to new.

$nfsn->site($SHORT_NAME)

Returns a WebService::NFSN::Site object for the specified site (identified by its short name).

$nfsn->last_response

Returns the HTTP::Response object containing the raw response from the last query sent to API.NearlyFreeSpeech.NET. You shouldn't normally need this, but it may be handy for debugging.

Most errors you might get from WebService::NFSN are Exception::Class based objects. WebService::NFSN::HTTPError is the abstract base class for these errors. The request field contains the HTTP::Request object that failed, and the response field contains the original HTTP::Response object.

WebService::NFSN throws errors from two classes derived from WebService::NFSN::HTTPError:

If WebService::NFSN cannot get a response from the NFSN server, it throws an error of class WebService::NFSN::LWPError. Examine the response field for details.

If the NFSN server returns an error response, it becomes an error of class WebService::NFSN::NFSNError. The error and debug fields contain the values received from NFSN. Any additional fields returned by NFSN are available in the nfsn field (which is a hash reference). You can also examine the original response.

Possible errors include:

The API request could not be authenticated

You're probably using the wrong member login or API key.

The authentication timestamp is out of range

The clocks of the NFSN API server and your computer need to be synchronised to within 5 seconds, and they aren't. You may need to set up NTP on your computer.

The following errors do not use Exception::Class, because you should never see them unless you have an error in your program. They are classified like Perl's built-in diagnostics (perldiag):

     (S) A severe warning
     (F) A fatal error (trappable)

Missing required "%s" parameter for %s

(F) You failed to supply a parameter required by the method you called.

"%s" is not a parameter of %s

(S) You supplied a parameter not recognized by the method you called. This is only a warning; the parameter is still passed along to NFSN (in case it was added in a newer version of the API).

%s is read-only

(F) You tried to modify a read-only property.

%s is write-only

(F) You tried to read a write-only property.

Can't open %s

(F) There was an error when opening the .nfsn-api file.

Error closing %s

(F) There was an error when closing the .nfsn-api file.

Error parsing .nfsn-api: %s

(F) .nfsn-api did not contain valid JSON.

.nfsn-api did not contain a JSON object

(F) .nfsn-api did not contain a JSON object (it must begin with {).

.nfsn-api did not define %s

(F) .nfsn-api must include the keys login and api-key.

You must supply a login

(F) You didn't pass a member login to the constructor, and no .nfsn-api file was found.

You must supply an API key

(F) You passed a login name to the constructor, but no API key.

Unable to locate .nfsn-api

(S) You didn't pass login credentials to the constructor, and it couldn't find a .nfsn-api file to load.

WebService::NFSN has an optional configuration file named .nfsn-api. See the constructor|"INTERFACE" for the details. The home directory is specified by $ENV{HOME}.

Digest::SHA, Exception::Class, JSON::XS, LWP (requires https support), and URI. These are all available from CPAN.

You need at least LWP version 6.00 in order to verify the server's certificate. Earlier versions of LWP are vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. See "BUGS AND LIMITATIONS".

None reported.

The server's SSL certificate is not verified if your LWP is less than version 6.00, leaving WebService::NFSN vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. However, due to the design of NFSN's API, the attacker should only be able to monitor/suppress your queries and monitor/alter the responses. The attacker should not be able to send (properly authenticated) altered requests to the real NFSN server.

Christopher J. Madsen <perl AT cjmweb.net>

Please report any bugs or feature requests to <bug-WebService-NFSN AT rt.cpan.org>, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Report.html?Queue=WebService-NFSN

You can follow or contribute to WebService-NFSN's development at http://github.com/madsen/webservice-nfsn.

This software is copyright (c) 2011 by Christopher J. Madsen.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

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