# Noob question: JuliaWebAPI - does not accept keyword arguments

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/noob-question-juliawebapi-does-not-accept-keyword-arguments/33228>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [January 11, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/noob-question-juliawebapi-does-not-accept-keyword-arguments/33228 "2020-01-11T02:03:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![digeratus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/digeratus/32/12364_2.png) [@digeratus](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/digeratus)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/noob-question-juliawebapi-does-not-accept-keyword-arguments/33228/1 "2020-01-11T02:03:42Z")

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Hello Julia Community!!!  
Can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying Julia’s core concepts and implementation. I’m hoping this becomes my main language.

Ok, so I created a little prototype using JuliaWebAPI and its GitHub documentation. My goals are simple: call listSoundFiles via the API and get json back what’s in SoundFile struct (succesful) and then be able to update it (failed).

This works and I get json:  
curl [http://localhost:8888/listSoundFiles](http://localhost:8888/listSoundFiles)

However, this doesn’t:  
curl -d “title1=Concerto&author=Beethoven?date1=01102020?tag1=classical?url1=[https://duckduckgo.com](https://duckduckgo.com)” [http://localhost:8888/updateSoundFiles](http://localhost:8888/updateSoundFiles)

I get this error:  
{“data”:“ErrorException("function updateSoundFiles does not accept keyword arguments")”,“code”:-2}

As I said, I’m new to Julia so I’m assuming my issue is with the syntax for updateSoundFiles or perhaps a scope issue? Maybe the JuliaWebAPI.create\_responder needs different options for POST calls? Regardless, I haven’t been able to figure it out.

Any help would really be appreciated.

Thanks,  
Jose

srvr.jl

```julia
using Dates
using JuliaWebAPI

mutable struct SoundFile
    title::String
    creator::String
    date::String
    tags::Array
    URL::String
end

const InfoncastSoundFiles = SoundFile[
  SoundFile("Fur Elise", "Ludwig Beethoven","12202019",["mp3","song", "music"],"”https://URL Here”"),
  SoundFile("Fidelio", "Ludwig Beethoven","11032011",["song", "dance"],"”https://URL Here”),
  SoundFile("Missa Solemnis", "Ludwig Beethoven","03102019",["mp3", "song"], ”https://URL Here”)
]

function listSoundFiles()
  return InfoncastSoundFiles
end

function updateSoundFiles(title1, author, date1, tag1, url1)
  SoundFile(title,creator,date,tags,url)
end

process(
    JuliaWebAPI.create_responder([
        (listSoundFiles, true),
        (updateSoundFiles, true)
    ], "tcp://127.0.0.1:9999", true, "")
)

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![oheil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oheil/32/220745_2.png) [@oheil](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oheil)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 12:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/noob-question-juliawebapi-does-not-accept-keyword-arguments/33228/2 "2020-01-11T12:41:56Z")

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Welcome to Julia.

I am not able to reproduce your examples. Not the working one and not the error state. You have several issues in your code (e.g., port 9999 or 8888 or the "”).

Please try to give a MWE (see this [https://discourse.julialang.org/t/psa-make-it-easier-to-help-you](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/psa-make-it-easier-to-help-you)) in such a way that we just can copy paste your code to reproduce your issues.  
If you think you are ready, you may check your own post with a newly opened REPL if it is really working.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![digeratus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/digeratus/32/12364_2.png) [@digeratus](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/digeratus)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 1:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/noob-question-juliawebapi-does-not-accept-keyword-arguments/33228/3 "2020-01-11T13:36:58Z")

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My apologies for not including the http server code:

httpsrvr.jl

```julia
using JuliaWebAPI #Load package

#Create the ZMQ client that talks to the ZMQ listener above
const apiclnt = APIInvoker("tcp://127.0.0.1:9999");

#Starts the HTTP server in current process
run_http(apiclnt, 8888)

```

Not sure how to create a REPL for this when the two files create a process. This code is nothing more than an adaptation of the example on [JulaWebAPI](https://github.com/JuliaWeb/JuliaWebAPI.jl) GitHub.

To run it one needs two Julia sessions: one for srvr.jl and the other for httpsrvr.jl. Once they’re both running - assuming locally - you can the curl it as a test and a get a son response:

`curl http://localhost:8888/listSoundFiles`

The second function (updateSoundFiles) I’m trying to expose is the one I get an error with.

`curl -d “title1=Concerto&author=Beethoven?date1=01102020?tag1=classical?url1=https://duckduckgo.com” http://localhost:8888/updateSoundFiles`

this is the error

`{“data”:“ErrorException(“function updateSoundFiles does not accept keyword arguments”)”,“code”:-2}`

The server functionality works. Srvr.jl and httpsrvr.jl work as expected. The area I’m flaky on is the signature for the updateSoundFiles function. All I want to do is be able to append to InfoncastSoundFiles a new SoundFile. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the help.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![oheil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oheil/32/220745_2.png) [@oheil](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oheil)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/noob-question-juliawebapi-does-not-accept-keyword-arguments/33228/4 "2020-01-11T15:58:46Z")

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Still, there are some issues in your OP (original post) like typos, e.g. author instead of author1 and than SoundFile(title, **creator** ,date,tags,url) and so on, so its difficult to solve your real issue.

So I just present the working code and let you find out the differences. If there are still questions about the code example below, don’t hesitate to ask:

```julia
using Dates
using JuliaWebAPI

mutable struct SoundFile
    title::String
    creator::String
    date::String
    tags::Array
    URL::String
end

const InfoncastSoundFiles = SoundFile[
  SoundFile("Fur Elise", "Ludwig Beethoven","12202019",["mp3","song", "music"],"https://URL Here"),
  SoundFile("Fidelio", "Ludwig Beethoven","11032011",["song", "dance"],"https://URL Here"),
  SoundFile("Missa Solemnis", "Ludwig Beethoven","03102019",["mp3", "song"], "https://URL Here")
]

function listSoundFiles()
	return InfoncastSoundFiles
end

function updateSoundFiles( ; title1=title1, author1=author1, date1=date1, tag1=tag1, url1=url1)
	push!(InfoncastSoundFiles,SoundFile(title1,author1,date1,[tag1],url1))
end

process(
    JuliaWebAPI.create_responder([
        (listSoundFiles, true),
        (updateSoundFiles, true)
    ], "tcp://127.0.0.1:9999", true, "")
)

```

I did not use the curl commands as they produce another issue on my side, which would only help for more confusion. I used two browser tabs with following URLs:

For the read:  
`http://localhost:8888/listSoundFiles`

For the change of the data:  
`http://localhost:8888/updateSoundFiles?title1=Concerto&author1=Beethoven&date1=01102020&tag1=classical&url1=https://duckduckgo.com`

Some notes:  
Keyword arguments for functions start after a “;”:  
[https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/functions/#Keyword-Arguments-1](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/functions/#Keyword-Arguments-1)  
(This is the answer to your primary issue and question)

Your function `updateSoundFiles` didn’t change your array `InfoncastSoundFiles`, but only created another instance of `struct SoundFile` and returned it.

`tag1` is a string, your struct expects an array, so it should be` [tag1]`.

From

> **[GitHub - JuliaWeb/JuliaWebAPI.jl: Julia package for deploying APIs](https://github.com/JuliaWeb/JuliaWebAPI.jl)**
>
> Julia package for deploying APIs. Contribute to JuliaWeb/JuliaWebAPI.jl development by creating an account on GitHub.

I get, that the URL parameters ( author=Beethoven, …) map to keyword arguments, non keyword arguments are passed via / in the URL path itself, for you this could have been:  
`http://localhost:8888/updateSoundFiles/Beethoven/01102020/...`  
In general in URLs the parameters starts with `?` after the URL host and path and are concatenated with `&` , therefore this URL:  
`http://localhost:8888/updateSoundFiles?title1=Concerto&author1=Beethoven&date1=01102020&tag1=classical&url1=https://duckduckgo.com`

And just in general: Try to copy paste the code from your first post above from here, not from your file, into a fresh Julia session and you will see, that this alone already is a problem. Try to make it as easy as possible for us to help you.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![digeratus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/digeratus/32/12364_2.png) [@digeratus](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/digeratus)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/noob-question-juliawebapi-does-not-accept-keyword-arguments/33228/5 "2020-01-11T17:40:07Z")

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I realized that InfoncastSoundFiles is an array so updateSoundFiles should probably look like this:

```julia
function updateSoundFiles(InfoncastSoundFiles, title1, author, date1, tag1, url1)
    a = SoundFile(title1,author,date1,tag1,url1);
    #push!(InfoncastSoundFiles, a);
    append!(InfoncastSoundFiles, a);
    print(InfoncastSoundFiles);
end

```

Whether is push! or append! I’m not to clear on, but no matter what I still get the same error which lets me to believe the error I’m getting is from APIResponder in the JuliaWebAPI package.

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**Author:** ![oheil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oheil/32/220745_2.png) [@oheil](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oheil)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 6:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/noob-question-juliawebapi-does-not-accept-keyword-arguments/33228/6 "2020-01-11T18:30:03Z")

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A moving target here!  
I try again. This is what you want:

```julia
function updateSoundFiles( ; title1=title1, author1=author1, date1=date1, tag1=tag1, url1=url1)
        a = SoundFile(title1,author1,date1,[tag1],url1)
	append!(InfoncastSoundFiles, a)
end

```

With this function, you can pass the parameters in the URL as:  
[http://host/path?title1=“xxx”&author1=“somebody”&](http://host/path?title1=%22xxx%22&author1=%22somebody%22&)…  
(see full example above)

The error is clearly from your code! What I posted in the previous answer does work as expected.

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**Author:** ![digeratus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/digeratus/32/12364_2.png) [@digeratus](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/digeratus)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 7:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/noob-question-juliawebapi-does-not-accept-keyword-arguments/33228/7 "2020-01-11T19:08:50Z")

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@oheil

Thank you so much. For some reason I didn’t even see your first response. I’ll try as you suggested and inform.

Thanks again for the help.

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**Author:** ![digeratus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/digeratus/32/12364_2.png) [@digeratus](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/digeratus)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 7:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/noob-question-juliawebapi-does-not-accept-keyword-arguments/33228/8 "2020-01-11T19:53:36Z")

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@oheil It worked!!

Just as you said. I looked at the documentation for keyword arguments before, but I guess in that sentence I stopped at “optional” and missed the caveat that follow. Take a look [Functions · The Julia Language](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/functions/#Keyword-Arguments-1)

Like you, I was doing my tests via the browser prior to my post but decided to post here using curl, but what’s up with that? I had issues with curl as well even with your fix. Any idea what might be causing that?

In any case…  
Color me \<\<whatever those that use Julia call themselves Julian?\>\> I’m a convert. I could’ve done this in Rust - Actix-web example contributor at one point - but wanted to force myself to do this in Julia and get a feel for the language as well as tools. More importantly, I’m delighted that the community is just as great to interface with as the language. Thank you.

My interests are in cybersec, AI and hardware so I’m sure you’ll see my tagname around more often in this forum.