API basics and how to call API1 functions

I have been noticing several people challenged with calling cPanel functions via our various ways of hooking into our APIs. Unfortunately, this isn’t as cut and dry as just calling a function within a programming language.  Various factors, such as whether the call is being made from within cPanel or from a remote system, affect how this needs to be done. To help you understand this, I will begin covering these topics in a series …

cPanel 11.25 changes that will affect integrated software

Inside of cPanel 11.25, there are numerous new security features being implemented. These changes can break both cPanel plugins and remote management applications (like billing systems) that integrate with cPanel. Luckily, the changes are all optional; however, I would hate to see addons preventing people from enabling new features — like session tokens, which help prevent XSRF attacks. So, stripped from an email I sent out to third-party developers earlier this week, here are some …

Writing an FTP password trap in Perl

Password traps are probably the type of plugin that generates the most support requests at the moment. When creating a password trap, it is important that you use a Function Hook rather than a Custom Event Handler. The reason for this is that function hooks are executed as root, while custom event handlers are executed as the user. If you are not familiar with function hooks, please read the Documentation. Function hooks reside …

Writing a Multi-Server Load Average Monitoring Script in Under 10 Lines of PHP

Mostly the XML API is used for account management; however, there are other features in it that simplify system administration. The most obvious of these functions is the loadavg call. Last year, I wrote a class for working with the XML API from PHP. This class returns SimpleXML objects for each XML API call made. This makes development of remote cPanel interactions extremely simple. I’m going to go over how to …

Using WHM remote authentication

One thing that I have noticed while working with other people developing software that interacts with WHM’s XML API is that they always use basic HTTP authentication. It is okay to use basic authentication, but it is held to the same security restrictions in place for people using browsers. When working with cPanel in a remote fashion, having to work around these restrictions is unnecessary. Inside of our DNS clustering system, we developed a solution …