The first thing to do just after installation is to enable jBackend basic plugins. To do this go to menu "Extensions" -> "Plug-in Manager", and filter plugin list for type "jbackend".
Each one of these plugins has some configurable options, so it is enough to click on "Status" buttons to enable the plugins, but it is necessary to edit a plugin to change its settings.
Note that when a plugin is disabled the API functions it provides will NOT be available.
To start using jBackend it is a good practice to publish an "end-point". This is a Joomla menu item which provides a defined URL to access to jBackend APIs (the one associated with the menu link), and can be configured as needed using menu item's options. To create an end-point go to "Menus" -> "Menu Manager", click on the menu that will contain the end-point (or create a new menu, like an hidden menu) and add a new menu item.
Select a menu type "jBackend" -> "Request" and set the "Access type" in the "Options" tab, and other options available for the current endpoint.
The following options are available for each endpoint:
| Option | Description |
| Access type | Specify the kind of access allowed by the endpoint. |
| Enable trace | Enable or disable the logging of each request made at this endpoint. |
| Enable CORS | Add Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * to the response header. |
| Force SSL | Redirect any request on http to the same request on https. |
| Enabled modules | Specify which modules to expose and make accessible on the endpoint (all modules or only selected modules). |
| Selected modules | The list of modules enabled on the endpoint. This option is applied only when "Enabled modules" is "Only selected". |
Currently jBackend supports the following access type:
| Access type | Description |
| Free | End-point can be consumed without any authentication or limitation, just like a guest user can browse the site's pages and with the same restrictions. This means that if an article is restricted to "Register users" only, it will be not accessible for guests even on the end-point, but the client needs to authenticate himself, using the login service. Native ACL are always satisfied with any access type and this should be respected also in case of custom module development. |
| User | End-point usage is restricted to authenticated users only. To consume services the first call must be to login service. If the user can login to the site, then the same credentials are authorized to use the end-point. |
| API Key | End-point needs a valid API Key for each request. The request must include the api_key=<KEY> parameter or it will be rejected. More details on API Key features can be found in the dedicated section. |
Note that APIs could be accessed without to publish any end-point, just calling the jBackend component with http://<siteurl>/index.php?option=com_jbackend&<params> (default requests). For this reasons there are global options defined as default and used for such situations. These general options can be accessed by the "Options" button in the jBackend panel. For security reasons the default access is set to "API Key".
The following global options are available:
| Option | Description |
| Default Access type | Specify the kind of access allowed by the default endpoint. |
| Default Enable trace | Enable or disable the logging of each request made on the default endpoint. |
| Default Force SSL | Redirect any request on http to the same request on https on the default endpoint. |
REST format
If Joomla SEF is enabled, the endpoint can serve requests with the REST format (e.g. /get/content/articles/<N>).
