I am using contactAPI to add a new contact. And I did this:
1. Get the keys by registering my application.
2. Get request token - successfully
3. Redirect to authorization page - completed successfully
4. Extract verifier and exchange request token to access token - completed successfully
5. Now when I try to add a new contact by doing the following, it returned: Method not implemented (501)!!!
To add contact I did this:
a. Build a json contact object
b. Sign my request (HMAC-SHA1)
c. Add oauth info in the Authorization header
(this include realm which is set to "yahooapis.com")
d. Add json contact object to the POST body
e. Then do a POST to "http://social.yahooapis.com/v1/user/{GUID}/contacts"
NOTE: {GUID} = the guid of the user who authorized this access.
I have these questions:
- Add contact call always return 501 saying method not implemented. Does it mean that it currently does not support Add contact operation???
- There is some confusion on the "AccessToken" parameter that I got when I make a call to exchange request token for an access token.
Do I have to encode this parameter just like all other paramters when POSTing to this "http://social.yahooapis.com/v1/user/{GUID}/contacts"???

I would really appreciate a prompt response as it feels like I hit a wall and not making any progress ..

hi,

i have a few questions for you, the answers may help get to the bottom of this issue. 501 on POST /contacts doesn't sound right...

is your oauth consumer key authorized for read/write contacts api access?

does GET on the contacts endpoint work for you?

thanks.

What is the exact Normalized Base Signature String you used to create your HMAC signature?

What is the exact error response you received from the Contact API call?

Please cut-and-paste both items here.

This is how normalized base signature string is construction for computing signature:
- Request URI: http://social.yahooapis.com/v1/user/uGUID/contacts
- signature base =
RFC3986.Encode("POST") + "&" + RFC3986.Encode("http") + RFC3986.Encode("://")
+ RFC3986.Encode("social.yahooapis.com")
+ RFC3986.Encode("/v1/user/uGUID/contacts")
+ "&"
+ RFC3986.Encode(normalizedQueryParam)
WHERE
normalizedQueryParam is:
queryparams: oauth_consumer_key, oauth_signature_method, oauth_timestamp, oauth_nonce, oauth_version, oauth_token, format
these parameters are RFC3986 (both key and value are encoded) encoded and sorted into lexicographic order (by key and value)
NOTE: format is yahoo specific additional query param .. and is format=json

When I do a get the exact error I got is 401. When oauth is sent in authorization header.
When I do a post (where new contact is sent in post body as json), I recieve 501 method not implemented error.

You have provided the method by which the signature base string is generated, but not the actual result of that. Can you cut-and-paste that here? Without the actual query string or http header that is sent to the server there is no way to debug what's wrong.

For example, this is the result of a properly normalized base string (with consumer_key and oauth_token scrambled):

CODE

GET&http%3A%2F%2Fsocial.yahooapis.com%2Fv1%2Fuser%2FGFERT4345GRDQ7K7H656BOGFFG
%2Fcontacts%3Bcount%3D5&format%3Djson%26oauth_consumer_key%3Ddfe9fdjg19adfdwBN
VRuVkwzJmQ9WVdrOWFrOW5hMADFDSF324NHbzlNQjadfQGSFGSuc3VtZXJADFFdsadFEFiIHb--
%26oauth_nonce%3D265297829%26oauth_signature_method%3DHMAC-SHA1
%26oauth_timestamp%3D1267043189%26oauth_token%3DA%253DvMFCBA.a5QadflkajdfklljA
SDFADSFADdf45mFdXaFgKwgCQCTSTcYITr5u63a3p7hYvGmyO8.MnAgYwa28ZHMt20P5KQHkAkSoJn
Nw9x_kSvZ2rMiu9tZMcj6.wfj0J0vhB6cQmwFnxkJJCmyW1tH68unn5FNOPK9HFeF_hUCYiOehtPDQ
qAGWx8q59ZE5ZTfbOfRCaElCJL5modilFb3SZTdQZpY6HnbJERpXNO8FActQu9hHtxaiXINnJM_RU4
3z1H6A3vgDgWLPpwYX_suy9TAxr2sXStcdBQtHV9ILL5PAk7HapBM2FdNJhvN1exlFi7gFr8ZCh1cf
ibPxrHwiBn6Azy6viQJEzLLAnHsYh3eEvOmLU1Lm_IUIqr5sa.oqIBly092NTPVtR8fJz7any54D0I
.AG0uKjv1JedReiaoiN4hdN9y5nqY7z._Xw5MZ_2mTbGaHXAUmUn_ogyzY.q0GQYbI4A7hZp7j56Ix
L.I7Z4EehN.5fLtL9XBFXCt1slgm4GtGy.N9xHyzCMB9feuTwpg3rTQ6hLfAMbskw43svjBFUSGyeu
IqjIlt.8W5amKIm1Jljz3tyKfkNAzTNgrT6NSjkRQ8NXMq9y6oqe3IHgNvbqndNB82gXT2nNtEuhQB
w3t95UrijWpgU69NPE4lFkiiVOol6AYuec_MyTJPCu093AnVt0.oYJyehxG4rgWmadUH6gQ6U9V9oy
VghFg52pyH9hyp_vjFg6UxDQ0esBkmAfHck8lbEtjkujYgyWvnDFEww34FADh-
%26oauth_version%3D1.0

Please provided the full body of the 401 and 501 responses. The body will tell you further what may be wrong. For example, this is the body of a response that tells you that a token has expired (in pretty-printed JSON format)

CODE

{
  "error": {
    "lang": "en-US",
    "description": "Please provide valid credentials. OAuth oauth_problem=\"token_expired\", realm=\"yahooapis.com\""
  }
}

Ok. you have two problems.
1. Your query parameter is double encoded. It should read oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1 and not oauth_signature_method%3DHMAC-SHA1. That's why you're getting a "signature method invalid" error.
2. You're passing OAuth tokens both in your get parameter list and in your HTTP header. Don't do that. It's either or.

I have a Yahoo OAuth Tutorial that prints out the actual request and response for each step of the OAuth flow, starting with get_request_token and ending in an actual contact or yql call. All you have to do is edit in your keys and run it on the command line. You can change the $passOAuthInHeader variable to true or false to see how things change when you pass the oauth stuff in the header vs as query parameter.

I'm wonderding if yahoo contact api 's working. Your article's very helpful but I found that link use in step 2 is https://api.login.yahoo.com/oauth/v2/get_request_token is always dead. Any body has exact answer for this problem? Thank you very much

Thanks for the response.
I realized that oauth_signature_method value was incorrect.
I was passing "HMAC_SHA1", instead of "HMAC-SHA1" .. once I fixed that I am now able to get contacts list without any issues.
But still the problem remains with POST (while I try to add a new contact).
According to "Social API Explorer":
"HTTP POST and PUT operations require permission from Yahoo!. You can make a request through the YDN Contact Form. "
I am wondering if that is why I am getting this error:
"he remote server returned an error: (501) Not Implemented"
when I try to do a POST.
If that is the case, I used that form to request that permission but I am still waiting and have not heard anything back.

I will provide you raw request headers and content ..
But what about this:

I created my application and setup this application to have both read/write access to Contacts. Where does the following requirement fit in:
According to "Social API Explorer":
"HTTP POST and PUT operations require permission from Yahoo!. You can make a request through the YDN Contact Form. "

From this it seems like I need to request additional permissions from Yahoo in order to POST/PUT, is this correct??
This seems to be the case, looks like I can GET but I do not have Write permission .. that is why POST failed with 501.
Can you please explain the meaning of this additional requirement as stated on Social API explorer page.

Ok. you have two problems.
1. Your query parameter is double encoded. It should read oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1 and not oauth_signature_method%3DHMAC-SHA1. That's why you're getting a "signature method invalid" error.
2. You're passing OAuth tokens both in your get parameter list and in your HTTP header. Don't do that. It's either or.

I have a Yahoo OAuth Tutorial that prints out the actual request and response for each step of the OAuth flow, starting with get_request_token and ending in an actual contact or yql call. All you have to do is edit in your keys and run it on the command line. You can change the $passOAuthInHeader variable to true or false to see how things change when you pass the oauth stuff in the header vs as query parameter.