Request and response formats

The OpenStack Compute API supports JSON request and response formats.

Request format

Use the Content-Type request header to specify the request format. This header is required for operations that have a request body.

The syntax for the Content-Type header is:

Content-Type: application/FORMAT

Where FORMAT is json.

Response format

Use one of the following methods to specify the response format:

Accept header The syntax for the Accept header is:

Accept: application/FORMAT

Where ``FORMAT`` is json and the default format is json.

Query extension Add a .json extension to the request URI. For example, the .json extension in the following list servers URI request specifies that the response body is to be returned in JSON format:

GET ``publicURL``/servers.json

If you do not specify a response format, JSON is the default.

Request and response examples

You can serialize a response in a different format from the request format.

The examples below show a request body in JSON format.

Note

Though you may find outdated documents with XML examples, XML support in requests and responses has been deprecated for the Compute API v2 (stable) and v2.1 (experimental).

Example: JSON request with headers

POST /v2/010101/servers HTTP/1.1

Host: servers.api.openstack.org

Content-Type: application/json

Accept: application/xml

X-Auth-Token: eaaafd18-0fed-4b3a-81b4-663c99ec1cbb

{
    "server": {
        "name": "server-test-1",
        "imageRef": "b5660a6e-4b46-4be3-9707-6b47221b454f",
        "flavorRef": "2",
        "max_count": 1,
        "min_count": 1,
        "networks": [
            {
                "uuid": "d32019d3-bc6e-4319-9c1d-6722fc136a22"
            }
        ],
        "security_groups": [
            {
                "name": "default"
            },
            {
                "name": "another-secgroup-name"
            }
        ]
    }
}