NAME

WebService::Basecamp - Perl interface to the Basecamp API webservice

SYNOPSIS

 use WebService::Basecamp;
 
 my $bc = WebService::Basecamp->new( url  => 'http://mysite.clientsection.com',
                                     user => 'username',
                                     pass => 'password'    );

 my $test = $bc->ping || die $bc->error();

 my $projects = $bc->projects;  # a list of all projects

DESCRIPTION

Basecamp is a web based project collaboration tool that makes it simple to communicate and collaborate on projects. Basecamp is built on the Ruby on Rails platform but provides a webservice API to many of the application functions. WebService::Basecamp is a Perl interface to the Basecamp web service API.

For more information on Basecamp, visit the Basecamp website. http://www.basecamphq.com.

This module does much of the heavy lifting for you when accessing the Basecamp API. Once initialising a WebService::Basecamp object you can access the API function via method calls. The module takes care of the creation and parsing of the XML (using XML::Simple) that relays the data across the web service, however there is an option to access the XML directly (see new()).

The documentation for this module is based on the Basecamp API docs available at http://www.basecamphq.com/api. It is recommended you read the official docs to become familiar with the data reference.

METHODS

new(url => $url, user => $username, pass => $password, [ xml => $xml ])

Call new() to create a new Basecamp object. You must pass the url of your Basecamp account, a username and password.

 my $bc = WebService::Basecamp->new( url  => 'http://mysite.clientsection.com', 
                                     user => $username, 
                                     pass => $password );

By default, all methods return a data reference. If you would prefer to receive the raw XML from the webservice you can pass the 'xml' parameter. E.g.

 my $bc = WebService::Basecamp->new( url  => 'http://mysite.clientsection.com', 
                                     user => $username, 
                                     pass => $password,
                                     xml  => 1 );

error()

Returns any error messages as a string.

ping()

Tests the connection with the Basecamp web service. Returns 1 for success.

General Queries

projects([$key])

This will return a list of all active, on-hold, and archived projects that you have access to. The list is not ordered.

This method returns a reference to a hash containing an array of file category names and id.

 use Data::Dumper;
 my $projects = $bc->projects;
 print Dumper($projects);

 returns: 

 $VAR1 = [
          {
            'start-page' => 'all',
            'show-writeboards' => 'false',
            'status' => 'active',
            'name' => 'Create World Peace',
            'created-on' => '2004-05-31',
            'last-changed-on' => '2004-09-07T02:49:12Z',
            'id' => '123456',
            'announcement' => {},
            'show-announcement' => 'false',
            'company' => {
                           'name' => 'Earth',
                           'id' => '888'
                         }
          },
          {
            'start-page' => 'log',
            'show-writeboards' => 'false',
            'status' => 'active',
            'name' => 'Basecamp CPAN Module',
            'created-on' => '2006-07-26',
            'last-changed-on' => '2006-07-29T04:08:34Z',
            'id' => '654321',
            'announcement' => {},
            'show-announcement' => 'false',
            'company' => {
                           'name' => 'Internal',
                           'id' => '555'
                         }
          }
        ];

If you pass the optional $key parameter to the method you will recieve a keyed hash of the project data. The key must be either 'name' or 'id', e.g.:

 use Data::Dumper
 my $projects = $bc->projects('name');
 print Dumper($projects);
 
 returns: 

 $VAR1 = [
          'Create World Peace' => {
                    'start-page' => 'all',
                    'status' => 'active',
                    'show-writeboards' => 'false',
                    'created-on' => '2004-05-31',
                    'last-changed-on' => '2004-09-07T02:49:12Z',
                    'show-announcement' => 'false',
                    'id' => '123456',
                    'announcement' => {},
                    'company' => {
                                   'name' => 'Earth',
                                   'id' => '888'
                                 }
                  },
          'Basecamp CPAN Module' => {
                      'start-page' => 'log',
                      'status' => 'active',
                      'show-writeboards' => 'false',
                      'created-on' => '2006-07-26',
                      'last-changed-on' => '2006-07-29T04:08:34Z',
                      'show-announcement' => 'false',
                      'id' => '654321',
                      'announcement' => {},
                      'company' => {
                                     'name' => 'Internal',
                                     'id' => '555'
                                   }
                    }
        ];

file_categories($project_id [,$key])

This will return an alphabetical list of all file categories in the referenced project. Requires the $project_id to be passed as an argument.

By default this method returns a reference to an array of hashes. If you would prefer a keyed hash, you can specify the optional key. The available key options are 'name' or 'id'.

message_categories($project_id [,$key])

This will return an alphabetical list of all message categories in the referenced project. Requires the $project_id to be passed as an argument.

By default this method returns a reference to an array of hashes. If you would prefer a keyed hash, you can specify the optional key. The available key options are 'name' or 'id'.

Messages and Comments

comment($comment_id)

Retrieve a specific comment by its id.

comments($message_id)

Return the list of comments associated with the specified message.

create_comment($message_id, $comment)

Create a new comment, associating it with a specific message. Returns a hash containing all of the comment details.

 my $message_id    = 1234;
 my $comment       = "This looks too easy!";
 my $new_comment   = $bc->create_comment($message_id, $comment);

create_message($project_id, $message)

Creates a new message, optionally sending notifications to a selected list of people. The available fields are;

 category_id      - the id of the message category
 title            - message title
 body             - summary text of main message
 extended_body    - the main body of the message
 textile          - optional boolean value. Set to '1' to use Basecamp's 
                    textile formatting for your message. Defaults to '0'.
 private          - optional boolean value. Set to '1' to make this message 
                    visible only to the logged in user. Defaults to '0'.
 notify           - optional list of person ids. Each person in this list will 
                    receive an email notification of the message.

Returns a hash containing all of the message details.

 my $project_id = 1234;
 my $message    = { category_id   => 654321, 
                    title         => 'New Message Title', 
                    body          => 'This text is a summary of the message', 
                    extended_body => 'This is the main body of the message', 
                    textile       => 1,    # optional field
                    private       => 0,    # optional field
                    notify        => qw(1234 5678) # optional field
                    };
 my $data       = $bc->create_message($project_id,$message);

delete_comment($comment_id)

Delete the comment with the given id.

delete_message($message_id)

Delete the specified message from the project.

message('$message_id, [$message_id2, $message_id3, ...]')

This will return information about the referenced message. If the id is given as a comma-delimited list, one record will be returned for each id. In this way you can query a set of messages in a single request. Note that you can only give up to 25 ids per request--more than that will return an error.

message_archive($project_id)

This will return a summary record for each message in a project. If you specify a category_id, only messages in that category will be returned. (Note that a summary record includes only a few bits of information about a post, not the complete record.)

message_archive_per_category($project_id, $category_id)

This will return a summary record for each message in a particular category. (Note that a summary record includes only a few bits of information about a post, not the complete record.)

update_comment($comment_id, $comment)

Update a specific comment. This can be used to edit the content of an existing comment. Returns a hash containing all of the comment details.

 my $comment_id  = 99999;
 my $comment     = "This looks too easy!!";
 my $new_comment = $bc->update_comment($comment_id, $comment);

update_message($message_id, $message)

Updates an existing message, optionally sending notifications to a selected list of people. Available fields are as per the create_message method.

Returns a hash containing all of the message details.

To-Do Lists and Items

complete_item($item_id)

Marks the specified item as "complete". If the item is already completed, this does nothing.

create_item($list_id, $item_data)

This call lets you add an item to an existing list. The item is added to the bottom of the list. If a person is responsible for the item, give their id as the party_id value. If a company is responsible, prefix their company id with a 'c' and use that as the party_id value. If the item has a person as the responsible party, you can use the notify key to indicate whether an email should be sent to that person to tell them about the assignment.

 my $list_id   = 4321;
 my $item_data = { content     => "Turn the lights out",
                   party_id    => 555,
                   notify      => 1 };
 my $new_item  = $bc->create_item($list_id, $item_data);

Returns a hash containing all of the item details.

create_list($project_id, $list_data)

This will create a new, empty list. You can create the list explicitly, or by giving it a list template id to base the new list off of. The available fields are:

 milestone_id   - optional id of an associated milestone
 private        - optional boolean value. Set to '1' to make this list visible
                  only to the logged in user. Defaults to '0'.
 track          - optional boolean value. Set to '1' to enable time tracking on 
                  items in this list. Defaults to '0';

Basecamp allows you to create list templates for easy creation of common task lists. When creating a new list using this method you can provide the id of a predefined list template:

 template_id    - id of predefined template

or pass the name and description for the list:

 name           - list title
 description    - optional description of list


 my $project_id = 654321;
 my $list_data  = { milestone_id    => 5436, 
                    private         => 0, 
                    track           => 1,
                    name            => 'Closing up procedures', 
                    };
 my $data       = $bc->create_list($project_id,$list_data);

delete_item($item_id)

Deletes the specified item, removing it from its parent list.

delete_list($list_id)

This call will delete the entire referenced list and all items associated with it. Use it with caution, because a deleted list cannot be restored!

list($list_id)

This will return the metadata and items for a specific list.

lists($project_id, [$filter], [$key])

This will return the metadata for all of the lists in a given project. You can further constrain the query to only return those lists that are "complete" (have no uncompleted items) or "uncomplete" (have uncompleted items remaining).

To receive only complete lists pass $filter = 'true' To receive only incomplete lists, pass $filter = 'false' To receive all lists do not pass $filter

Available keys for this method are 'name' and 'id'. (optional)

move_item($item_id, $position)

Changes the position of an item within its parent list. It does not currently support reparenting an item. Position 1 is at the top of the list. Moving an item beyond the end of the list puts it at the bottom of the list.

move_list($list_id, $position)

This allows you to reposition a list relative to the other lists in the project. A list with position 1 will show up at the top of the page. Moving lists around lets you prioritize. Moving a list to a position less than 1, or more than the number of lists in a project, will force the position to be between 1 and the number of lists (inclusive).

move_list($item_id)

Marks the specified item as "uncomplete". If the item is already uncompleted, this does nothing.

update_item($item_id, $item_data)

Modifies an existing item. Available fields are as per the create_item method.

update_list($list_id, $list_data)

Modifies an the metadata for an existing list. Available fields are as per the create_list method, with the exclusion of the template_id.

Milestones

complete_milestone($milestone_id)

Marks the specified milestone as complete.

create_milestone($project_id, $milestone_data)

Creates a single milestone. If a company is responsible, prefix their company id with a 'c' and use that as the party_id value. If the milestone has a person as the responsible party, you can use the notify key to indicate whether an email should be sent to that person to tell them about the milestone. The available fields are:

 title       - Title for the milestone
 deadline    - date the milestone is due to be completed. Must be in the format 
               of YYYYMMDD
 party_id    - id of a person or company responsible for the milestone. If it is 
               a company, prefix the id with a 'c', e.g. 'c123' 
 notify      - optional boolean value. Set to '1' to send an email about the     
               milestone to the responsible party.

 my $project_id     = 654321;
 my $milestone_data = { title       => 'Launch Party',
                        deadline    => '20060828',
                        party_id    => 555,
                        notify      => 1 };
 my $new_milestone  = $bc->create_milestone($project_id, $milestone_data);

Returns a hash containing all of the milestone details.

delete_milestone($milestone_id)

Deletes the given milestone from the project.

list_milestones($project_id, [$filter])

This lets you query the list of milestones for a project. You can either return all milestones, or only those that are late, completed, or upcoming.

To receive only complete milestones pass $filter = 'complete' To receive only upcoming milesones, pass $filter = 'upcoming' To receive only late milesones, pass $filter = 'late' To receive all milestones do not pass $filter

uncomplete_milestone($milestone_id)

Marks the specified milestone as uncomplete.

update_milestone($milestone_id, $milestone_data)

Modifies a single milestone. You can use this to shift the deadline of a single milestone, and optionally shift the deadlines of subsequent milestones as well. The available fields are as per the create_milestone() method with the addition of two extra fields:

 move_upcoming    - optional boolean value. Set to '1' to move subsequent         
                    milestone deadlines whne updating the deadline for this 
                    milestone
 move_weekends    - optional boolean value. If using the 'move_upcoming' 
                    parameter, you can set this value to '1' to make sure that any 
                    subsequent milestone deadlines do not get moved to a Saturday 
                    or Sunday.

 my $milestone_id   = 98765;
 my $milestone_data = {     title            => 'Launch Party',
                            deadline         => '20061028',
                            party_id         => 555,
                            notify           => 1,
                            move_upcoming    => 1,
                            move_weekends    => 1 };
 my $new_milestone  = $bc->update_milestone($milestone_id, $milestone_data);

Returns a hash containing all of the milestone details.

Time Tracking

create_time($data)

With this method you can create a new time entry for a particular person and project. The available fields are:

 project_id  - id for the project associated with the task
 person_id   - id of the person who completed the work
 date        - date the work took place. Date format = YYYYMMDD, e.g. 20060801 
 hours       - time worked, in hours

If the task being time tracked is an existing item from a to do list, you can pass the item_id:

 item_id     - id of an existing to do list item

or you can provide a description of the task

 description - txt description of the task

 my $project_id = 654321;
 my $person_id  = 555;
 my $data       = { project_id  => $project_id,
                    person_id   => $person_id,
                    date        => '20060801',
                    hours       => '1.25',
                    description => 'Meeting with world leaders' };
 my $new_time   = $bc->create_time($data);

delete_time($project_id, $time_id)

Deletes the identified time entry.

report_time($person_id, $from, $to, [$filter])

This method lets you query the time entries in a variety of ways. If you do not want to query by $person_id, put a 0 in that position. Likewise for $from and $to (to use default from/to values). In no case can you query more than 90 days' worth of data. The $filter parameter can be blank, or an id number prefixed by a 'p' (to filter by a specific project) or 'c' (to filter by a specific company).

 my $report = $bc->report_time(5,'20060101','20060207','c7');
    
 - would return all time entries for the person with id 5, for all projects 
 associated with the company with id 7, between the dates 2006-01-01 and 
 2006-02-07 (inclusive).

Date values passed for $from and $to must be in the format of YYYYMMDD

update_time($time_id, $data)

With this method you can modify a specific time entry. The available fields are as per the create_time() method.

Contact Management

companies(): Returns a list of all companies visible to the given person. This is only accessible to employees of the "firm" (the company assoicated with the account). Client employees will get a 403 response if they attempt to access this method.
company($company_id): This will return the information for the referenced company.
people($company_id): This will return all of the people in the given company.
people_per_project($project_id, $company_id): This will return all of the people in the given company that can access the given project.
person($person_id): This will return information about the referenced person.

TODO

This module does not currently support all of the Basecamp API functions. In particular, the following methods need to be added:

File uploads
Attaching files to messages
batch creation of milestones

Add more tests

BUGS

This is alpha software and as such, the features and interface are subject to change. So please check the Changes file when upgrading.

AUTHOR

David Baxter <david@sitesuite.com.au>

CREDITS

Thanks to SiteSuite (http://www.sitesuite.com.au) for funding the development of this plugin and for releasing it to the world.

Thanks to Patrick Mulvaney for contributions to this module.

LICENCE AND COPYRIGHT

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

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

BECAUSE THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE SOFTWARE, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE SOFTWARE "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE AS PERMITTED BY THE ABOVE LICENCE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.