From: John Dong <jdong@mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:21:59 +0000 (-0400)
Subject: Document the SelectricityAPI
X-Git-Url: https://projects.mako.cc/source/selectricity/commitdiff_plain/3a0cee8424956a5c2d0466175222cacd271da098

Document the SelectricityAPI
---

diff --git a/app/apis/selectricity_api.rb b/app/apis/selectricity_api.rb
index 005985b..4c60475 100644
--- a/app/apis/selectricity_api.rb
+++ b/app/apis/selectricity_api.rb
@@ -24,13 +24,40 @@ class QuickVoteCandidateMap < ActionWebService::Struct
   member :candidate_ids, [:int]
   member :candidate_names, [:string]
 end
+
+
+## An API for interfacing with Selectricity
+## This allows for things like XML-RPC to have a unified interface
+## The implementation is elsewhere.
 class SelectricityAPI < ActionWebService::API::Base
+  ## Casts a quickvote.
+  ## Expects a quickvote name, a voter ID, and a list of candidate ID's respectively.
+  ## Returns a string containing any potential errors that occurred in the process.
   api_method :cast_quickvote, :expects => [:string, :int, [[:int]]], :returns => [:string]
+  ## Return the results of a QuickVote.
+  ## Takes in the name of a quickvote, and returns a structure as described by
+  ## QuickVoteResultStruct
   api_method :get_quickvote_results, :expects => [:string], :returns => [QuickVoteResultStruct]
+  ## Returns information regarding all the candidates in a QuickVote
+  ## Takes in a QuickVote name, and returns the list of names and ID's of candidates
+  ## This can be useful for presenting the user with a list of readable names, while
+  ## the software sends results to us in the numeric ID's we require. The two lists are in
+  ## respective order.
   api_method :get_quickvote_candidate_map, :expects => [:string], :returns => [QuickVoteCandidateMap]
+  ## Converts QuickVote candidate ID's to names
+  ## Takes in a QuickVote name and a list of candidate ID's, and returns the names of
+  ## each candidate. Useful for doing just a few lookups; it's more efficient to use
+  ## get_quickvote_candidate_map for presenting info about an entire election.
   api_method :quickvote_candidate_ids_to_names, :expects => [:string,[:int]], :returns => [[:string]]
+  ## Get information on all the votes cast in a QuickVote
+  ## Takes in the name of a QuickVote, returns an array of QuickVoterInfo structures.
   api_method :get_quickvote_votes, :expects => [:string], :returns => [ [QuickVoterInfo] ]
+  ## Gets a list of all QuickVotes in the system.
   api_method :list_quickvotes, :expects => [], :returns => [[QuickVoteStruct]]
+  ## Gets information on a particular QuickVote
+  ## Takes in a QuickVote name
   api_method :get_quickvote, :expects => [:string], :returns => [QuickVoteStruct]
+  ## Create a QuickVote
+  ## Pass in a QuickVoteStruct populated with all the fields but the candidate ID's
   api_method :create_quickvote, :expects => [QuickVoteStruct], :returns => [:string]
 end