Rest vs Rpc

[aubergine]

From my quick tests it looks like the API here:

https://beta-api.betfair.com/rest/v1.0/

accepts a JSON request but returns XML - is that correct?


The API here:

https://beta-api.betfair.com/json-rpc/

accepts JSON and returns JSON.

Other than the verbosity of XML, are there any other reasons to prefer one over the other?

I'm using C# and .NET.

[AlgoTrader]

That's not clear, whether REST API will come along with JSON-RPC. I see lots of activity in JSON-RPC and nothing in REST. I have no clear vision whether they go with two APIs or JSON-RPC will push REST out.

I would bet on JSON-RPC as it allows to forget XML

[AlgoTrader]

The things are much more funny. Sometimes REST returns XML, sometimes JSON. Supposedly, Betfair wants to calm down XML fans. Have a look:

JSON answer:

$ curl -v https://beta-api.betfair.com/rest/v1.0
* About to connect() to beta-api.betfair.com port 443 (#0)
* Trying 84.20.200.218...
* connected
* Connected to beta-api.betfair.com (84.20.200.218) port 443 (#0)
* Initializing NSS with certpath: sql:/etc/pki/nssdb
* CAfile: /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
CApath: none
* SSL connection using SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5
* Server certificate:
* subject: CN=*.betfair.com,OU=IS,O=The Sporting Exchange Ltd,L=London,ST=United Kingdom,C=GB
* start date: Dec 28 00:00:00 2012 GMT
* expire date: Dec 29 23:59:59 2013 GMT
* common name: *.betfair.com
* issuer: CN=VeriSign Class 3 Secure Server CA - G3,OU=Terms of use at https://www.verisign.com/rpa (c)10,OU=VeriSign Trust Network,O="VeriSign, Inc.",C=US
> GET /rest/v1.0 HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.24.0 (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.24.0 NSS/3.13.5.0 zlib/1.2.5 libidn/1.24 libssh2/1.4.1
> Host: beta-api.betfair.com
> Accept: */*
>
< HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
< Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:27:48 GMT
< Cache-Control: no-cache
< Content-Type: application/json
< Content-Length: 59
<
* Connection #0 to host beta-api.betfair.com left intact
{"detail":{},"faultcode":"Client","faultstring":"D SC-0021"}* Closing connection #0

XML answer:

$ curl -v -H "Accept: xml" https://beta-api.betfair.com/rest/v1.0
* About to connect() to beta-api.betfair.com port 443 (#0)
* Trying 84.20.200.218...
* connected
* Connected to beta-api.betfair.com (84.20.200.218) port 443 (#0)
* Initializing NSS with certpath: sql:/etc/pki/nssdb
* CAfile: /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
CApath: none
* SSL connection using SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5
* Server certificate:
* subject: CN=*.betfair.com,OU=IS,O=The Sporting Exchange Ltd,L=London,ST=United Kingdom,C=GB
* start date: Dec 28 00:00:00 2012 GMT
* expire date: Dec 29 23:59:59 2013 GMT
* common name: *.betfair.com
* issuer: CN=VeriSign Class 3 Secure Server CA - G3,OU=Terms of use at https://www.verisign.com/rpa (c)10,OU=VeriSign Trust Network,O="VeriSign, Inc.",C=US
> GET /rest/v1.0 HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.24.0 (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.24.0 NSS/3.13.5.0 zlib/1.2.5 libidn/1.24 libssh2/1.4.1
> Host: beta-api.betfair.com
> Accept: xml
>
< HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
< Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:27:54 GMT
< Cache-Control: no-cache
< Content-Type: application/xml
< Content-Length: 126
<
* Connection #0 to host beta-api.betfair.com left intact
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?><fault><faultcode>Client</faultcode><faultstring>DSC-0021</faultstring><detail/></fault>* Closing connection #0

[Mr Magoo]

Is that not just because of the 404 Not Found error?

If the server can't find the API code, you can't rely on the 404 response being generated by the API code.

[aubergine]

No I don't think so. This call to Rpc

POST https://beta-api.betfair.com/json-rpc HTTP/1.1
X-Application: ---
X-Authentication: ---
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Host: beta-api.betfair.com
Content-Length: 122
Expect: 100-continue

{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "SportsAPING/v1.0/listCompetitions", "params": {"filter":{ "eventTypeIds" : [1] }}, "id": 1}

returns:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:23:04 GMT
Cache-Control: no-cache
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 9148

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":[{"competition":{"id":"67721","name":"Finnish League Cup"},"marketCount":125},{"competition":{"id":"833 222","name":"Turkish Division 2"},"marketCount":16}........

But this call to rest:

POST https://beta-api.betfair.com/rest/v1...tCompetitions/ HTTP/1.1
X-Application: ---
X-Authentication: ---
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Host: beta-api.betfair.com
Content-Length: 46
Expect: 100-continue

{"filter":{ "eventTypeIds" : [1] }}, "id": 1}

returns this:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:22:51 GMT
Cache-Control: no-cache
Content-Type: application/xml
Content-Length: 17136

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><ListCompetitionsResponse xmlns="http://www.betfair.com/servicetypes/v1/SportsAPING/"><CompetitionResult><competition><id>67721</id><name>Finnish League Cup</name></competition><marketCount>125</marketCount></CompetitionResult><CompetitionResult><competition> <id>833222</id><name>Turkish Division 2</name></competition><marketCount>16</marketCount></CompetitionResult><CompetitionResult><competition> <id>744098</id><name>Chilean Primera</name></competition><marketCount>414</marketCount>.............

[AlgoTrader]

Yes, it seems it was accident. I really messed with XML and JSON in REST, I think it should be clarified. The JSON request with XML answer is something that I never saw before.

PS. I really wonder of how JSON is concise comparing to XML. No closing tags, no namespaces. Closing tags add 20-30% of text without any information inside

[aubergine]

Well from my tests above, both calling 'listCompetitions', you can see the difference in the result size:

Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 9148

versus

Content-Type: application/xml
Content-Length: 17136

[gus]

Well, I'm using rest (in a Java application), and I don't see any XML

Query:

URL: https://beta-api.betfair.com/rest/v1.0/listEventTypes/ {"filter":{"eventTypeIds":[]}}

Response:

[{"eventType":{"id":"468328","name":"Handball"},"marketCount":77},{"eventType":{"id":"1","name":"Soccer"},"marketCount":
24806},{"eventType":{"id":"2","name":"Tennis"},"marketCount":585},{"eventType":{"id":"3","name":"Golf"},"marketCount":12
0},{"eventType":{"id":"4","name":"Cricket"},"marketCount":264},{"eventType":{"id":"5","name":"Rugby Union"},"marketCount
":134},{"eventType":{"id":"6","name":"Boxing"},"marketCount":50},{"eventType":{"id":"7","name":"Horse Racing"},"marketCo
unt":397},{"eventType":{"id":"8","name":"Motor Sport"},"marketCount":8},{"eventType":{"id":"7524","name":"Ice Hockey"},"
marketCount":574},{"eventType":{"id":"10","name":"Special Bets"},"marketCount":65},{"eventType":{"id":"451485","name":"W
inter Sports"},"marketCount":46},{"eventType":{"id":"7522","name":"Basketball"},"marketCount":424},{"eventType":{"id":"1
477","name":"Rugby League"},"marketCount":80},{"eventType":{"id":"4339","name":"Greyhound Racing"},"marketCount":319},{"
eventType":{"id":"6231","name":"Financial Bets"},"marketCount":51},{"eventType":{"id":"2378961","name":"Politics"},"mark
etCount":21},{"eventType":{"id":"998917","name":"Volleyball"},"marketCount":80},{"eventType":{"id":"998918","name":"Bowl
s"},"marketCount":47},{"eventType":{"id":"998920","name":"Floorball"},"marketCount":1},{"eventType":{"id":"26420387","na
me":"Mixed Martial Arts"},"marketCount":23},{"eventType":{"id":"3503","name":"Darts"},"marketCount":127},{"eventType":{"
id":"2152880","name":"Gaelic Games"},"marketCount":71},{"eventType":{"id":"6422","name":"Snooker"},"marketCount":22},{"e
ventType":{"id":"6423","name":"American Football"},"marketCount":99},{"eventType":{"id":"7511","name":"Baseball"},"marke
tCount":7}]

[MarkL]

No I don't think so. This call to Rpc



returns:



But this call to rest:



returns this:

Hi,

This is a bug in the developer preview. It will be fixed at some point.

It's probably triggered by calling the JSON endpoint with a JSON-RPC parameter : "{ 'id' : 1 }"

Thanks,
Mark