Overview

We recently added several Applicable Type endpoints to the Web API: https://announcements.alloyapp.io/applicable-types-now-enforced-by-web-api-3jpgbe

Applicable Types define how items of various activity-related designs can link to each other, e.g.

• Which Asset types can each Job/Inspection/Defect type be linked to?
• Which Job types can each Job Work Unit type be linked to?

When using the api/applicable-type/applicable-from endpoint, you may receive some unexpected results. Put simply, this is because the current logic is finding links that can be applicable but haven’t explicitly been made applicable.

To improve this, we’re changing how the endpoint behaves. Rather than accepting a list of designs, it will instead accept a list of items. The new logic will be able to use the parent or child items to determine which DoDIs or items are applicable from that item.

This should produce results that are more in line with expectations! However, it will require some breaking changes. 😐

Who will be affected?

These breaking changes will affect anyone who uses the ApplicableTypes endpoints on the Web API.

Details

New Endpoint Addresses

The addresses of the following endpoints will be changing.

List Applicable From Types endpoint

The request for this endpoint (ApplicableTypeFromWebRequestModel) will be changing:

• The toAll property will be removed.
• The from property will no longer accept a ApplicableFromItemWebModel (item IDs) and therefore will no longer require a discriminator. It will only accept ApplicableFromDodiWebModel (DoDi codes).
• The toAllItems required property will be added (to replace toAll). This is an array of item IDs that you wish to check.
• The filterAttributeCode required property will be added. This specifies the link attribute to find applicable types on. The attribute must be present on all the items provided in toAllItems.

For example, to query which job types can be raised against specific assets, you would provide these values for the aforementioned parameters:

• ToAllItems = an array of asset item IDs
• FilterAttributeCode = attributes_tasksAssignableTasks
• From = designInterfaces_jobs
  (to exclude inspections and other task types)

Additionally, the response model for this endpoint (ApplicableTypeFromWebResponseModel) will also be changing:

• The NoRestrictions property will be added.  If no results are returned, this boolean explains why. If true, there are no restrictions, which means everything applies. If false, it means that nothing applies.
• The results can be of type ApplicableFromDodiWebResponseModel or ApplicableFromItemResultWebModel, so these are the new discriminators to use (no more ApplicableItemWebModel).

Importantly, this revised endpoint won’t support finding applicable job types for supplied work unit items. This will be handled by a new endpoint coming in future.

List Applicable To Types endpoint

The response for this endpoint will be changing:

• The results can only be of type ApplicableToDodiWebResponseModel. Therefore, it will no longer be necessary to supply a discriminator.

Expected Release

8th December 2022 as part of the Alloy v2.42 release.

The documentation available on Swagger and ReDoc will be updated accordingly.