Create a Component

Introduction

This tutorial will take you through the process of creating a component in an organization.

By the end of this walk-through, you will be able to utilize the API endpoints in order to create a component and its variations, documents and webLinks.

Info

Skill level:

Basic

Duration:

20 minutes

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes that you already have:

A tool such as Postman that can be used to execute http calls. These calls can also be made using the TryIt button in the API documentation.
User must be affiliated with an Organization and should either be an Organization Administrator or have 'Upload' and 'Read' permission at Organization level to upload components to catalog.
For more information about User Management please visit our Bentley Communities Licensing, Cloud, and Web Services wiki page.
Most of the time, a component should have a design file associated to the component as part of design document. Design file is a CAD file, used in CAD applications i.e. MicroStation, Revit etc. Library API supports all types of design files to create components. You should have a design file to associate to component as a design document. Theoretically a component can exist without any files, but that may not be beneficial. In this example we will use rfa design file.

Postman

Get

You will need to register an application to use the iTwin Platform APIs. You can use the Register button to automatically create your first single page application (SPA). This will allow you to configure Authorization Code Flow for your SPA application and get the correct access token.

Once generated, you will be shown a few lines of code under the button.

IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_CLIENT_ID - this is the unique identifier for your application. Displayed on application details page as Client ID.
IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_REDIRECT_URI - specifies where users are redirected after they have chosen whether or not to authenticate your app. Displayed on application details page as one of Redirect URIs.
IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_LOGOUT_URI - specifies where users can be returned to after logging out. Displayed on application details page as one of Post logout redirect URIs.
IMJS_AUTH_CLIENT_SCOPES - list of accesses granted to the application. Displayed on application details page as Scopes.

Or optionally: Register and configure your application manually following instructions in Register and modify an Application tutorial.

Register a basic SPA App for this tutorial

Requires you to sign in. Will automatically generate a Single page application (SPA) that is required to complete this tutorial. You will be able to manage your SPA from your My apps page.

2. Get a token

Before you can make a request to the APIs, a user token is needed. There are several ways to get it.

Implement Authorization Code Flow in the application

Follow this article to implement Authorization code workflow in your application.

Here you can use Client ID generated from previous registration step.

Grab a user token from Api reference "Try it" Section

Go here
Click Try it button.
Under the Authorization section, select authorizationCode from the dropdown.
After the sign in popup closes, the Authorization header with token value should be visible beneath the HTTP request dropdown.
Copy & paste the Authorization value for this tutorial.

Use user token to replace JWT_TOKEN dynamic parameter in the next steps.

3. Difference Between Upload Component and Create Component

The Library API provides two options to add components in an organization repository i.e. Upload Component and Create Component.

Upload Component expects a design file should be uploaded in the system and upload background job extracts information from the design file i.e. thumbnail image, variations, manufacturer, category and application etc. upload activity uses all this information to create a component and associate all this metadata to the component. This saves from the effort of making multiple requests to add the information to the component. Currently Upload Component support only three types of design files i.e. rfa, dgn and cel files.

Instructions to upload components to a catalog can be found here

We can add component without using upload workflow explained above but this needs more effort in terms of calling API endpoints since we have to make additional requests for adding thumbnail document, creating manufacturer, application, category, if required and also adding variations in the components. So it is recommended to use upload workflow if the design file is rfa, dgn or cel. In this tutorial we will create component without upload workflow.

Request Syntax

http

POST https://api.bentley.com/library/catalogs HTTP/1.1

Request Headers

http

Accept: application/vnd.bentley.itwin-platform.v1+json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer JWT_TOKEN

Request Body

json

{
  "displayName": "Tutorial Sample Catalog",
  "description": "Tutorial Sample Description",
  "region": "US",
  "hashtags": ["SampleHashtag1", "SampleHashtag2"]
}

Response Headers

http

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-length: 937
content-type: application/json
date: Thu, 24 Jun 2021 14:44:18 GMT
request-context: appId=cid-v1:7a353d36-9a8b-423e-965e-9d7f51324584
x-correlation-id: 5262b13f-394e-49b8-95ea-a5361d2513a3
x-itwinplatform-media-type: bentley.itwin-platform.v1
x-itwinplatform-region: East US

Response Body

json

{
  "catalog": {
    "id": "7f427c30-8dce-4803-81dc-e8681a3bd757",
    "displayName": "Tutorial Sample Catalog",
    "description": "Tutorial Sample Description",
    "region": "US",
    "createdDateTime": "2021-09-06T06:03:56.1923267Z",
    "lastModifiedDateTime": "2021-09-06T06:03:56.1923267Z",
    "hashtags": ["SampleHashtag1", "SampleHashtag2"]
  }
}

4. Referenced Entities

A component can have referenced entities i.e. Catalog, Category, Application and Manufacturer. These are optional properties of a component to be created, but provide useful information. Manufacturer as the name specifies, is manufacturer of the component. Application specifies the CAD application, a component can be consumed for different purposes. Similarly category and catalogs are used to group the components. You need to have the id property value of each of these entities to be used for component creation. If you don't already have, the Library API provides endpoints to create and manage these referenced entities. You can create these entities if applicable to the component and may save the id property of each to be used in next steps.

You can use following TryIt options in the Library API documentation to create these entities.

Library API documentation to create Catalog

Library API documentation to create Category

Library API documentation to create Application

Library API documentation to create Manufacturer

5. Create Component

To create a component, prepare request body and make a POST call to https://api.bentley.com/library/create-component endpoint. displayName and state are required properties. Provide appropriate displayName value, We have rfa file of a digital door, so let's set displayName as 'Tutorial Sample Door'. state property can have enum values Draft, Published, Checked, Approved and Archived, which are used during different stages of component life cycle. For now we assign the value 'Draft'. We already have id property of referenced entities, so we will provide these values to manufacturer, catalog, category and application respectively.

See the Library API documentation for descriptions of the different properties.

Request Syntax

http

POST https://api.bentley.com/library/upload-component HTTP/1.1

Request Headers

http

Accept: application/vnd.bentley.itwin-platform.v1+json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer JWT_TOKEN

Request Body

json

{
  "displayName": "Tutorial Sample Door",
  "description": "Tutorial Sample Door",
  "state": "Draft",
  "catalogs": ["7f427c30-8dce-4803-81dc-e8681a3bd757"],
  "category": "63b7d70a-a426-4530-8c0f-3efd6a6c0da7",
  "application": "1418693a-8f60-4719-af0b-ceee1ad41e33",
  "manufacturer": "d4485150-ad6d-4d76-a3e2-50a0f690afc9",
  "hashtags": [
      "samplehashtag1",
      "samplehashtag2"
  ]
}

Response Headers

http

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 776
content-type: application/json
date: Thu, 09 Sep 2021 13:34:53 GMT
location: https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f
odata-version: 4.0
request-context: appId=cid-v1:6ee7c246-23f0-43be-ac34-bbbb36da72e9
x-correlation-id: 8c0daea7-c45b-4d01-b4c5-29e99278316a
x-itwinplatform-media-type: bentley.itwin-platform.v1
x-itwinplatform-region: East US

Response Body

json

{
  "component": {
      "id": "afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f",
      "displayName": "Tutorial Sample Door",
      "description": "Tutorial Sample Door",
      "state": "Draft",
      "createdDateTime": "2021-09-09T13:34:54.6310298Z",
      "lastModifiedDateTime": "2021-09-09T13:34:54.6310298Z",
      "supportedFileTypes": [],
      "hashtags": ["samplehashtag1", "samplehashtag2"],
      "_links": {
          "catalogs": [{
              "href": "https://api.bentley.com/library/catalogs/7f427c30-8dce-4803-81dc-e8681a3bd757"
          }],
          "application": {
              "href": "https://api.bentley.com/library/applications/1418693a-8f60-4719-af0b-ceee1ad41e33"
          },
          "manufacturer": {
              "href": "https://api.bentley.com/library/manufacturers/d4485150-ad6d-4d76-a3e2-50a0f690afc9"
          },
          "category": {
              "href": "https://api.bentley.com/library/categories/63b7d70a-a426-4530-8c0f-3efd6a6c0da7"
          }
      }
  }
}

6. Add Documents

At this stage a component is created but it doesn't have any documents. You can associate Design, Reference, Thumbnail and GalleryImage documents to the component. In this example we will associate a design document to the component, other documents can also be associated with same steps, the only difference is setting the value of 'purpose' property in document request body. You should have corresponding images, reference files to upload during the document creation process, depending upon which document you are creating.

See the Library API documentation for descriptions of the different properties.

Adding document is a multi-step process, we will go through these steps next.

6.1 Create Document Instance

A POST call to https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/documents endpoint will create a new document instance for the component. displayName, purpose and extension are required properties. purpose can have enum values Design, Thumbnail, Reference, GalleryImage and TypeCatalog, depending upon which type of document you want to associate to a component. As we are associating a design document, purpose should be set to 'Design'.

The POST call will return a new document instance. The id will be used in next steps, you may want to save this Id. At this moment a document instance has been associated to the component but there is no actual file attached to this document. We will do that in the next step.

Request Syntax

http

POST https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/documents HTTP/1.1

Request Headers

http

Accept: application/vnd.bentley.itwin-platform.v1+json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer JWT_TOKEN

Request Body

json

{
  "displayName": "Tutorial Sample Design Document",
  "extension": "rfa",
  "purpose": "Design",
  "available": false,
  "isActive": true,
  "version": null,
  "previousVersionId": null,
  "associatedDesignDocument": null
}

Response Headers

http

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-length: 719
content-type: application/json
date: Thu, 09 Sep 2021 15:29:08 GMT
location: https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/documents/648486bf-6f04-4750-aa67-7fe521d01896
odata-version: 4.0
request-context: appId=cid-v1:6ee7c246-23f0-43be-ac34-bbbb36da72e9
x-correlation-id: e4912dc9-983e-4f31-bd50-87423fd21ad2
x-itwinplatform-media-type: bentley.itwin-platform.v1
x-itwinplatform-region: East US

Response Body

json

{
  "document": {
      "id": "648486bf-6f04-4750-aa67-7fe521d01896",
      "displayName": "Tutorial Sample Design Document",
      "extension": "rfa",
      "version": "1",
      "previousVersionId": null,
      "purpose": "Design",
      "size": -1,
      "available": false,
      "isActive": true,
      "createdDateTime": "2021-09-09T15:29:08.3172685Z",
      "lastModifiedDateTime": "2021-09-09T15:29:08.3172685Z",
      "_links": {
          "fileUrl": {
              "href": "https://componentscenprodeussa01.blob.core.windows.net/private-5a7b3c7c-03af-49f0-b1df-115ddc0e0048/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/648486bf-6f04-4750-aa67-7fe521d01896.rfa?sv=2018-03-28&sr=b&sig=03LfBtIfpFgpOnQPp4YaEj%2BbSsNBXQE1XOd83J6tXrA%3D&se=2021-09-09T16%3A29%3A08Z&sp=rcw&rscd=attachment%3B%20filename%3DTutorial%2BSample%2BDesign%2BDocument.rfa"
          }
      }
  }
}

6.2 Upload Document File

Create Document response from the previous step contains a url in _links->fileUrl->href property. File upload can be done by making a Http PUT request on the provided url via tool such as Postman or programmatically use Azure libraries to upload file (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/storageservices/put-blob).

Request Syntax

http

PUT https://componentscenprodeussa01.blob.core.windows.net/private-5a7b3c7c-03af-49f0-b1df-115ddc0e0048/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/648486bf-6f04-4750-aa67-7fe521d01896.rfa?sv=2018-03-28&sr=b&sig=03LfBtIfpFgpOnQPp4YaEj%2BbSsNBXQE1XOd83J6tXrA%3D&se=2021-09-09T16%3A29%3A08Z&sp=rcw&rscd=attachment%3B%20filename%3DTutorial%2BSample%2BDesign%2BDocument.rfa HTTP/1.1

Request Headers

http

x-ms-blob-type: BlockBlob

Request Body

http

File Binary Content

6.3 Update Document Instance

The last step in associating a document to component is to notify the system that file has been uploaded. This is achieved by setting 'available' property of the document instance to true. Make a PUT call to https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/documents/648486bf-6f04-4750-aa67-7fe521d01896 endpoint to update the document. Update request expects request body must contain all the desired properties since this will replace existing document with current document definition.

Request Syntax

http

PUT https://api.bentley.com/library/components/57fefe11-df1d-40c7-ae1a-02e233b9a7c7/documents/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f HTTP/1.1

Request Headers

http

Accept: application/vnd.bentley.itwin-platform.v1+json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer JWT_TOKEN

Request Body

json

{
  "displayName": "Tutorial Sample Design Document",
  "extension": "rfa",
  "version": "1",
  "previousVersionId": null,
  "purpose": "Design",
  "available": true,
  "isActive": true
}

Response Headers

http

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-encoding: gzip
content-type: application/json
date: Fri, 10 Sep 2021 05:28:03 GMT
odata-version: 4.0
request-context: appId=cid-v1:6ee7c246-23f0-43be-ac34-bbbb36da72e9
vary: Accept-Encoding
x-correlation-id: 3b4b2e41-3ea6-4597-bda0-6db60a038320
x-itwinplatform-media-type: bentley.itwin-platform.v1
x-itwinplatform-region: East US

Response Body

json

{
  "document": {
      "id": "648486bf-6f04-4750-aa67-7fe521d01896",
      "displayName": "Tutorial Sample Design Document",
      "extension": "rfa",
      "version": "1",
      "previousVersionId": null,
      "purpose": "Design",
      "size": 0,
      "available": true,
      "isActive": true,
      "createdDateTime": "2021-09-09T15:29:08.3172685Z",
      "lastModifiedDateTime": "2021-09-10T05:28:03.4442503Z",
      "_links": {
          "fileUrl": {
              "href": "https://componentscenprodeussa01.blob.core.windows.net/private-5a7b3c7c-03af-49f0-b1df-115ddc0e0048/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/648486bf-6f04-4750-aa67-7fe521d01896.rfa?sv=2018-03-28&sr=b&sig=lTnFsfrQmEqIdEMqLD%2FQ%2FjEQTAjL5T5Y8mFsR8idPQ4%3D&se=2021-09-10T06%3A28%3A03Z&sp=r&rscd=attachment%3B%20filename%3DTutorial%2BSample%2BDesign%2BDocument.rfa"
          }
      }
  }
}

7. Add Variations

A component can have different variations, a variation essentially is different models, sizes, types of the same component. Since component itself has fixed schema, variation can also be used to add other metadata related to the component. Even if there are not multiple variations available, a default variation can be created to add any additional properties which can't be added in a component directly. The core of the component is design file, since component can have multiple design files, each design file can have its own variations. associatedDesignDocument property is used to set the corresponding design file id to make a connection of the variation to design file in the component.

A POST call to https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/variations endpoint will create a new variation. Let's add a variation for the component we have created in this example, we will assign id of the design document created in the previous steps to associatedDesignDocument in the request Body. Add an appropriate displayName for the variation. A variation has list of adhoc properties containing displayName, value, type and unitOfMeasure. type is enum and can have StringType, IntegerType, DoubleType, FloatType and BooleanType. Adhoc properties give you more control to add any type of metadata/properties to a component. In case of our example, a door, we can add adhoc properties by adding door dimensions and its material. In case of material, unitOfMeasure is not applicable, so we can leave that field empty for this case.

See the Library API documentation to create variation for descriptions of the different properties.

See the Library API documentation to get variations

Request Syntax

http

POST https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/variations HTTP/1.1

Request Headers

http

Accept: application/vnd.bentley.itwin-platform.v1+json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer JWT_TOKEN

Request Body

json

{
  "associatedDesignDocument": "648486bf-6f04-4750-aa67-7fe521d01896",
  "displayName": "Sample Variation for Door",
  "adHocProperties": [{
      "displayName": "Width",
      "value": "50",
      "type": "DoubleType",
      "unitOfMeasure": "Millimeters"
  }, {
      "displayName": "Height",
      "value": "2200",
      "type": "DoubleType",
      "unitOfMeasure": "Millimeters"
  }, {
      "displayName": "Length",
      "value": "900",
      "type": "DoubleType",
      "unitOfMeasure": "Millimeters"
  }, {
      "displayName": "Material",
      "value": "Wood",
      "type": "StringType",
      "unitOfMeasure": ""
  }]
}

Response Headers

http

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-length: 749
content-type: application/json
date: Fri, 10 Sep 2021 06:47:25 GMT
location: https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/variations/99e5cb56-0057-47af-86da-9c8f793a296f
odata-version: 4.0
request-context: appId=cid-v1:6ee7c246-23f0-43be-ac34-bbbb36da72e9
x-correlation-id: 7e5f1fe2-f813-4711-914f-0f5b9826ffd9
x-itwinplatform-media-type: bentley.itwin-platform.v1
x-itwinplatform-region: East US

Response Body

json

{
  "variation": {
      "id": "99e5cb56-0057-47af-86da-9c8f793a296f",
      "displayName": "Sample Variation for Door",
      "createdDateTime": "2021-09-10T06:47:25.728234Z",
      "lastModifiedDateTime": "2021-09-10T06:47:25.728234Z",
      "adHocProperties": [{
          "displayName": "Width",
          "value": "50",
          "type": "DoubleType",
          "unitOfMeasure": "Millimeters"
      }, {
          "displayName": "Height",
          "value": "2200",
          "type": "DoubleType",
          "unitOfMeasure": "Millimeters"
      }, {
          "displayName": "Length",
          "value": "900",
          "type": "DoubleType",
          "unitOfMeasure": "Millimeters"
      }, {
          "displayName": "Material",
          "value": "Wood",
          "type": "StringType",
          "unitOfMeasure": ""
      }],
      "_links": {
          "associatedDesignDocument": {
              "href": "https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/documents/648486bf-6f04-4750-aa67-7fe521d01896"
          }
      }
  }
}

8. Add WebLinks

Another optional related entity you can add in a component is webLink. Component can have some related material over the web, some specification document, description or any related information. You can add the web url to a component as a webLink. A POST call to https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/weblinks endpoint will create a new webLink.

See the Library API documentation to create webLink for descriptions of the different properties.

See the Library API documentation to get webLinks

Request Syntax

http

POST https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/weblinks HTTP/1.1

Request Headers

http

Accept: application/vnd.bentley.itwin-platform.v1+json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer JWT_TOKEN

Request Body

json

{
  "displayName": "Tutorial sample webLink",
  "uri": "https://www.sampleweblink.com/sampleweblink"
}

Response Headers

http

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
content-length: 252
content-type: application/json
date: Fri, 10 Sep 2021 09:55:29 GMT
location: https://api.bentley.com/library/components/afd712cf-db65-46fa-a05d-9c6bc8be0d1f/weblinks/2e3e34d1-b01c-42c8-9669-beef6a2e843b
odata-version: 4.0
request-context: appId=cid-v1:6ee7c246-23f0-43be-ac34-bbbb36da72e9
x-correlation-id: f6452b93-a875-4496-b73b-633c82f500c5
x-itwinplatform-media-type: bentley.itwin-platform.v1
x-itwinplatform-region: East US

Response Body

json

{
  "webLink": {
      "id": "2e3e34d1-b01c-42c8-9669-beef6a2e843b",
      "displayName": "Tutorial sample webLink",
      "uri": "https://www.sampleweblink.com/sampleweblink",
      "createdDateTime": "2021-09-10T09:55:28.5295325Z",
      "lastModifiedDateTime": "2021-09-10T09:55:28.5295325Z"
  }
}

Continue learning

Congratulation for completing Creating Component tutorial! You should be able to create components and associate related variations, documents and webLinks to the component.

Query and Download Component from a Catalog

Guide on querying and downloading component from a catalog.

Upload Component to a Catalog

Guide on uploading component to a catalog.

More resources that you may like

Library API

There are more capabilities, which could be used for managing components in library.

iTwin Library Sample App

Sample application that uses the Library API to create, upload and query components.