EveLib.NET

EveLib.NET is a open source library for accessing the Eve Online API, CREST, and many other popular APIs.

Links

• NuGet Package: https://www.nuget.org/packages/eZet.EveLib
• Symbols: http://www.symbolsource.org/Public/Metadata/NuGet/Project/eZet.EveLib
• Support Thread: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=4415506

Features

• Fully asynchronous using TAP.
• XML configuration through app.config.
• Threadsafe.
• Access to all popular APIs through one library.
• Provides caching for CCP API requests.
• Modular and open source; you can easily change the caching, serialization or any other part of the library.
• A fairly comprehensive set of unit tests, including static xml tests for calls requiring authentication.

Current Modules

• Eve Online XML API EveXml [cached]
• Eve CREST EveCrest [cached]
• Eve Central API EveCentral
• Eve Marketdata API EveMarketData
• Element43 API Element43
• ZKillboard API ZKillBoard [cached]
• EveWho EveWho
• EveAuth EveAuth (Eve SSO)
• Eve Static Data (Element43) EveStaticData [partial]

General information

The project is split into one dll for each api, aswell as one core library. All libraries require the core library, but can otherwise be mixed and matched as you like.

Code Contracts

The library implements Code Contracts, but this feature is completely optional and is disabled by default. Code Contracts enables static and runtime checks to ensure you are using the EveLib API correctly. If you want to utilize this, you should install http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/1ec7db13-3363-46c9-851f-1ce455f66970 and read the documentation. The Code Contract reference assemblies are available in the NuGet package. See http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/contracts/ for more information.

Debugging and Tracing

The library uses TraceSource from the System.Diagnostics namespace. The TraceSource is named "EveLib". To add the Default listener to EveLibs TraceSource, add this to your application configuration (usually app.config):

<configuration>
  <system.diagnostics>
    <sources>
      <source name="EveLib" switchValue="All"/>
    </sources>
  </system.diagnostics>
</configuration>

This adds the Default listener, which usually outputs to the VS output window. For more information on using TraceSource, visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228993(v=vs.110).aspx

Caching

Some modules support local cache, as indicated in the list of supported modules. You can change the CacheLevel property on the RequestHandlers to set the cache behaviour. You can replace the Cache instances with your own implementation or new EveLibCache instances with different settings if you need to eg. change the cache path.

Async/Await

All methods that access an API provide both a synchronous and an asynchronous. Asynchronous methods are postfixed with Async. Some classes provide lazily loaded properties, which will always be loaded synchronously if a new request has to be made. To load such properties asynchronously, call InitAsync() on the respective objects, before accessing it's properties. All such properties are documented as such in it's comments.

Exception Handling

The exception handling is slightly different between the synchronous and asynchronous methods. For examples of handling AggregateException, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd537614(v=vs.110).aspx

General information

The actual exceptions thrown (directly or inside AggregateException) should always inherit from EveLibException. If any other exception is throw, that is a bug and should be reported. Most exceptions will inherit from EveLibWebException, which indicates there was an error when performing the web request. All EveLibWebExceptions have a property WebException, which contains the responsible WebException. Most modules throw EveLibWebException directly, unless otherwise is stated. (Currently EveOnline and EveCrest throw more specific exceptions).

Synchronous

Because the synchronous methods use sync over async, they can throw multiple exceptions. This is handled by wrapping all exceptions in an AggregateException, which has a list, InnerExceptions, of all Exceptions that has been thrown. When using the synchronous methods, you catch AggregateException.

Asynchronous

When using async/await, the AggregateException is unwrapped and only the FIRST inner exception is thrown. The AggregateException is available through the Exception property on the Task that is awaited. Catch InvalidRequestException or any other specific exception, like normal, and check the Exception on the Task if you need to handle more than the first.

EveXml

This library exposes all of CCPs Eve API calls through an easy to use API, using common .NET an C# conventions. It uses a structure similar to how the API URIs are structured. See [APIv2] (http://wiki.eve-id.net/APIv2_Page_Index) for a reference. The basic structure is as follows:

• CharacterKey, CorporationKey and ApiKey exposes requests prefixed with /account/.
• Character exposes all requests prefixed with /char/.
• Corporation exposes all requests prefixed with /corp/.
• Map exposes all requests prefixed with /map/.
• Image exposes all requests to image.eveonline.com.
• Eve exposes all other API requests.

Requests

All basic functionality can be reached through a static facade class, EveOnlineApi. However, all methods and properties available in this class, can also be accessed by instantiating the respective classes using the new operator.

Basic

Eve, Map and Image do not require authentication, and can be accessed directly.

var result = EveXml.Map.GetFactionWarSystems();

Keys

The library has 3 different key classes, CharacterKey, CorporationKey and ApiKey. These represent actual Eve Online API keys, and are required to access any part of the API that requires authentication. The ApiKey can be used as a general key to access endpoints in the /account/ path, if you do not know which type of KeyID you have in advance.

ApiKey key = EveXml.CreateApiKey(id, vcode);
CharacterKey charKey = EveXml.CreateCharacterKey(id, vcode);
CorporationKey corpKey = EveXml.CreateCorporationKey(id, vcode);

All keys have a few properties in common, such as KeyType, ExpiryDate and AccessMask. These properties will be lazily loaded, synchronously, the first time they are accessed. After one of them have been accessed once, they will be stored in the object. You can also load them explicitly by calling Init(), or asynchronously by calling InitAsync(). CharacterKey and CorporationKey also have additinal properties, Characters and Corporation, that are also lazily loaded in the same fashion. You can safely call Init() or InitAsync() repeatedly, if the object is already initialized it will return immediately.

key.Init(); // loads all properties, sync
await otherKey.InitAsync(); // loads all properties, async
int mask = corpKey.AccessMask(); // internally uses Init() to load all properties
var newkey = EveOnlineApi.CreateApiKey(id, vcode).Init(); // Init() and InitAsync() returns this, so it can be chained.

You can delete the stored data from keys by calling Reset(), which will remove any stored data, and any calls to Init(), InitAsync() or a lazily loaded property will cause a new request for the data, from the API or cache.

key.Reset(); // resets all properties, and IsInitialized is set to false

EveLib also provides a method to detect and return the actual type of key, which you can then cast to the real type. This method preserves any initialization data within the key.

var key = new ApiKey(keyId, vCode); // A user gave me some key info, and I have no idea if its for a char or corp
if (key.KeyType == ApiKeyType.Character) { // This lazily loads the KeyType and all other properties, from the API
    CharacterKey cKey = (CharacterKey)key.GetActualKey();
    // do work with your character key.
}

Using any key, you can access all /account/* paths (note: Only CharacterKey provides GetAccountInfo()):

EveXmlResponse<ApiKeyInfo> result = key.GetApiKeyInfo();

Character and Corporation

Character and Corporation classes provide access to endpoints in the /char/ and /corp/ paths respectively. There are mainly two ways to instantiate the Character and Corporation classes.

You can create a new object directly

Character character = EveXml.CreateNewCharacter(keyId, vCode, characterId); // using the static class
Corporation corporation = new Corporation(keyId, vCode, corporationId); // or using new

Or you can get them from an existing key

Character character = characterKey.Characters.Single(c => c.CharacterId == characterId); // key.Characters is a list of all characters this key can access
Character character = characterKey.Characters.Single(c => c.CharacterName == "MyName"); // find by name, or any other property
Corporation corporation = corporationKey.Corporation; // corp keys can only access a single corporation

The difference is, when creating an object directly, you will not know for sure whether the KeyID, vCode, and entityID is valid until you try to request data from API. Secondly, when creating it directly, it's properties will not be initialized. If you access objects through a key, all properties in both Character and Corporation objects will be pre-initialized with data from the key, at the cost of one call to the ApiKeyInfo endpoint.

Character and Corporation objects are initialized the same ways keys are, using Init(), InitAsync() or by accessing a property. You can also call Reset() to reset all data.

Responses

All API calls return results in the form of EveXmlResponse<T> objects, where T is the specific type of response. These objects reflect the structure of the actual XML responses, with a few exceptions. All properties have been renamed in compliance with C# naming conventions, eg. 'characterID' is converted to CharacterId. Also, some properties have been renamed for clarity and consistency, where most changes are extensions of the original names.

Every XML response has a Version, CachedUntil and Result. Result is of type T, and contains all request specific data.

    EveXmlResponse<ServerStatus> data = EveXml.Eve.GetServerStatus();
    int players = data.Result.PlayersOnline;

Exceptions

All calls to the Eve Online API can throw EveXmlException, which inherits from EveLibWebException. This additionaly exposes Message and ErrorCode, as returned by the API.

Eve CREST

EveCrest supports both public and authenticated CREST. Authenticated mode provides much better performance due to a greater number of concurrent requests.

To use public mode, simply create a new EveCrest object:

EveCrest crest = new EveCrest();

To use authenticated mode, use one of the two parameterized constructors:

EveCrest crest = new EveCrest(accessToken);
EveCrest crest = new EveCrest(refreshToken, encodedKey);

You can not change mode after creating the object. For authenticated mode, you can change the tokens and keys after creation if needed. Instances created with a refresh token have EnableAutomaticTokenRefresh enabled by default.

To request data, you will usually start by requesting the CREST root, and navigating using Query() from there:

var alliances = crest.GetRoot().Query(r => r.Alliances).

Query() and Load()

Query and Load lets you obtain data the way CREST is meant to be used, with no statically typed URIs. Every object returned by EveCrest has a Query() method, which can be used to query additinonal resources, which can be queried further. EveCrest also has a Load() method, which is used by Query() internally, and can be used the same way. Both methods access a link to a resource, or a collection of links, and will immediately request the data from CREST. By utilizing these methods you can navigate CREST from the root, by following the links to other resources. This is the preferred way to use CREST, since it will always remain in sync with the API.

// setup
var crest = new EveCrest(refreshToken, encodedKey);
// get root object
var root = crest.GetRoot();
var regions = root.Query(r => r.Regions);
var regionData = regions.Query(regions => regions.Where(region => region.Id == 1));

You can also chain it:

var regionData = crest.GetRoot().Query(r => r.Regions).Query(regions => regions.Items); // gets all data for all regions

Or preferrably use async:

var regionData = await (await (await crest.GetRootAsync()).QueryAsync(r => r.Regions)).QueryAsync(regions => regions.Take(5));

Collection paging

EveLib now supports automatic paging, see the secion below. All ResourceCollections can be paginated, and have the properties PageCount and TotalCount. Here's an example adding all MarketTypes to a list:

var types = root.Query(r => r.MarketTypes);
var list = types.Items.ToList();
while (types.Next != null)  {
    types = types.Query(t => t.Next);
    list.AddRange(types.Items);
}
// do work with list

Automatic Paging

Automatic Paging is enabled by default, and can be set through the EnableAutomaticPaging property. This will automatically perform additional requests for data when using any Query method to query resources. It is recommended to use Authenticated CREST for improved performance. Examples:

EveCrest crest = new EveCrest(accessToken);
var alliance = crest.GetRoot().Query(r => r.Alliances).Query(r => r.Single(a => a.Id == 123));
var alliances = crest.GetRoot().Query(r => r.Alliances).Query(r => r.Where(a => a.Id > 123));

Authenticated Crest

To use authenticated CREST, you need to obtain either an Access Token or a Refresh Token and Encrypted Key. EveCrest can not acquire these tokens, and you will have to use EveAuth or some other external method. To learn more about acquiring these tokens, visit https://developers.eveonline.com/resource/single-sign-on. If you want to utilize a refresh token you also need to provide the associated Base64 encrypted key. You can provide these through their respective properties on the EveCrest object. To enable authenticated mode, set Mode to Authenticated. If you have set a RefreshToken and EncryptedKey, you can enable automatic token refreshes by setting EnableAutomaticTokenRefresh to true.

Advanced settings

There are some more advanced settings available through the RequestHandler instance on your EveCrest object. You can change things such as the serializer, number of concurrent requests, and whether to throw an exception for deprecated or unknown resoruces.

Exceptions

All calls to the CREST API can throw EveCrestException, which inherits from EveLibWebException. This additionaly exposes Message, Key, ExceptionType and RefId as returned by the API. If using automatic token refresh, or refreshing it manually, EveCrest can throw a EveAuthException. When requesting a resource that is live but not implemented yet, it will throw a ResourceNotSupportedException. If this happens, please notify a developer. If requesting a resource that isn't public yet, you will get a regular EveCrestException. If you set RequestHandler.ThrowOnDeprecated to true, you will get a DeprecatedResourceException when requesting a resource that has been marked by CCP as deprecated. This is mostly used for development.

EveCentral API

This module provides access to all calls on the EveCentral api. All api calls can be made through any EveCentral object. Most parameters for requests can be set and passed in a EveCentralOptions object.

var options = new EveCentralOptions() { HourLimit = 4, MinQuantity = 5 };
options.Items.Add(34);
options.Regions.Add(10000002);
var eveCentral = new EveCentral();
MarketStatResponse response = eveCentral.GetMarketStat(options);

Element43 API

Similar to EveCentral API. Uses Element43Options.

EveMarketData API

Similar to EveCentral API. Uses EveMarketDataOptions.

Zkillbord

Please read ZKillboard API documentation.

EveWho

Please read EveWho API documentation.