BookStack

Overview

This node integrates with the BookStack API, allowing users to manage and retrieve information about various BookStack resources such as books, pages, chapters, shelves, users, roles, attachments, and tags. Specifically, the "Get Many" operation for the "Book" resource fetches multiple book records from a BookStack instance.

Common scenarios where this node is beneficial include:

• Listing all books available in a BookStack knowledge base.
• Retrieving collections of books for further processing or display.
• Automating workflows that require bulk access to book metadata.

Practical example:

• A user wants to generate a report of all books in their BookStack system. Using this node's "Get Many" operation on the "Book" resource, they can fetch all book entries and then process or export the data as needed.

Properties

Note: For the "Get Many" operation on the "Book" resource, typically the "Tool Description" would be set to "automatic" with a relevant "Request Description" like "List all books".

Output

The output is an array of JSON objects representing the retrieved books. Each item corresponds to one book resource fetched from the BookStack API. The exact structure matches the API's response under the data property, which typically includes fields such as book ID, name, description, creation date, and other metadata.

No binary data output is produced by this operation.

Example output snippet (conceptual):

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "User Guide",
    "description": "Comprehensive user guide for the product",
    "created_at": "2023-01-15T12:34:56Z",
    ...
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "API Documentation",
    "description": "Documentation for the public API",
    "created_at": "2023-02-10T08:22:33Z",
    ...
  }
]

Dependencies

• Requires connection to a BookStack instance via its API.
• Needs an API authentication token credential configured in n8n with:
  • Base URL of the BookStack API.
  • Token and token secret for authorization.
• The node uses HTTP requests authenticated with these credentials to interact with the BookStack API.

Troubleshooting

• Common issues:

  • Incorrect or missing API credentials will cause authentication failures.
  • Invalid base URL or network connectivity problems may prevent API calls.
  • If the "Request Description" is ambiguous or does not clearly specify the intent, automatic detection of resource and operation might fail or select incorrect actions.

• Error messages:

  • Authentication errors usually indicate invalid tokens or misconfigured credentials.
  • HTTP 404 errors may occur if the requested resource path is incorrect.
  • Parsing errors could happen if the API response format changes or is unexpected.

• Resolutions:

  • Verify API credentials and ensure they have sufficient permissions.
  • Confirm the base URL points correctly to the BookStack API endpoint.
  • When using automatic mode, provide clear and concise descriptions to improve detection accuracy.
  • Use manual mode to explicitly set resource and operation if automatic detection fails.

Links and References

• BookStack Official API Documentation
• BookStack GitHub Repository
• n8n Documentation on Creating Custom Nodes