This is a rudamentry HTTP wrapper (API) around the PHP une-style API (.../includes/layout.php).

For une-style PHP functions which accept an array of arguments, the HTTP wrapper for that function accepts a serialized (using PHP serialize() function) array passed as a HTTP GET request parameter, deserializes it and passes it to the corrosponding function, responding with the return value of that function.

eg:

a HTTP request to:

http://www-dev.une.edu.au/imports/une-style/banner.php?globalLinks=a%3A4%3A%7Bs%3A8%3A%22longName%22%3Bs%3A14%3A%22Email%20Services%22%3Bs%3A9%3A%22shortName%22%3Bs%3A4%3A%22Mail%2
2%3Bs%3A7%3A%22docRoot%22%3Bs%3A33%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fmail-dev.une.edu.au%2Fmail%2F%22%3Bs%3A6%3A%22import%22%3Bs%3A4%3A%22true%22%3B%7D

is functionaly equivelent to a PHP call to:

draw_global_links(array(
        "longName"                      => 'Email Services',
        "shortName"                     => 'Mail',
        "docRoot"                       => 'https://mail-dev.une.edu.au/mail/',
        "import"                        => true'
));



Notes:

* If you are using a Java app to perform requests, you will need to find a suitable Java package/library which is capable of serializing Array Lists or Maps into the same format as the PHP serialize() function does.

* For future versions of this API, we will replace the use of the PHP serialize/deserialize functions with the PHP json_encode/json_decode functions as they are more efficient and JSON is a more supported serialization format. But we need PHP v5.2.0 or greater before we can do that! So long as UNE continues to run < PHP v5.2.0 the PHP serialization format will continue to work, even if given the status of deprecated.