[tor-bugs] #17741 [GetTor]: GetTor RESTful API

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#17741: GetTor RESTful API
------------------------+-----------------
     Reporter:  ilv     |      Owner:  ilv
         Type:  task    |     Status:  new
     Priority:  Medium  |  Milestone:
    Component:  GetTor  |    Version:
     Severity:  Normal  |   Keywords:
Actual Points:          |  Parent ID:
       Points:          |    Sponsor:
------------------------+-----------------
 One of the deliverables for the current roadmap is to create a RESTful API
 that could provide useful information for third party apps that want to
 distribute the links. The API itself should be very simple but with the
 capability for further improvements. Taking the
 [https://developer.github.com/v3/ Github API] as the main reference, I
 think a basic version of the GetTor API should display, at least, the
 following data (in JSON format):

 On "/":

 {{{
 {
     "links": "https://gettor.torproject.org/links/{provider}",
     "mirrors": "https://gettor.torproject.org/mirrors",
     "latest_version": "https://gettor.torproject.org/latest",
 }
 }}}

 On "/links":

 {{{
 {
     "provider1": "https://gettor.torproject.org/links/provider1",
     "provider2": "https://gettor.torproject.org/links/provider2",
     "providerN": "https://gettor.torproject.org/links/providerN",
 }
 }}}

 On "/links/{provider}":

 {{{
 {
     "linux": {
         "en-US": {
             "32_link": "https://provider/link32-fa",
             "32_link_asc": "https://provider/link32_asc-fa",
             "32_sha": "sha32",
             "64_link": "https://provider/link64-fa",
             "64_link_asc": "https://provider/link64_asc-fa",
             "64_sha": "sha64",
         },
         "fa": {
             "32_link": "https://provider/link32-fa",
             "32_link_asc": "https://provider/link32_asc-fa",
             "32_sha": "sha32",
             "64_link": "https://provider/link64-fa",
             "64_link_asc": "https://provider/link64_asc-fa",
             "64_sha": "sha64",
         }
     },
     (...and so on for the other OS)
 }
 }}}

 On "/latest":

 {{{
 {
     "stable": "5.0.4",
     "alpha": "5.5a4",
 }
 }}}

 I think "/mirrors" needs a little bit of discussion, specially for
 defining the filtering. I see two possible filters, the protocol: http,
 https, rsync, ftp, etc., or the region: US, UA, FR, etc. Thoughts?

 With respect to technical details, I have experience doing similar stuff
 with Tornado, so I suggest we use Nginx + [Cyclone http://cyclone.io/], "a
 web server framework for Python that implements the Tornado API as a
 Twisted protocol". This was recommended and used in [Erebus
 http://github.com/erebus/erebus], one of the Summer of Privacy projects.

 So, let's discuss this! Is the proposed format consistent? What other data
 should we display? Are you OK with using Cyclone? How could we get an SSL
 certificate for gettor.tpo?

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/17741>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online