Sitecore RESTful api returning 404 (Javascript, Sitecore 7.1)

Question

I'm trying to use the Sitecore RESTful API to retrieve item children via Javascript. I'm following the documentation here: https://doc.sitecore.net/sitecore_experience_platform/developing/developing_with_sitecore/sitecoreservicesclient/the_restful_api_for_the_itemservice

I'm using the following Javascript function:

function loadChildren(id, parentNode) {
    var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xhr.open("GET", window.location.protocol + "//" + window.location.hostname + "/sitecore/api/ssc/item/" + id + "/children");
    xhr.onreadystatechange = function () {
        if (this.readyState == 4) {
            console.log(this.responseText);

            var innerHtml = "<ul>"

            innerHtml += "</ul>";
            $(parentNode).append(innerHtml);
        }
    };
    xhr.send(null);
}

But the GET request is returning the "page not found" HTML. Do I need to install something for this to work? I'm using Sitecore 7.1

Answer 1

Turns out I had to enable the Sitecore Item API in my config (Sitecore.ItemWebApi.config):

    <patch:attribute name="itemwebapi.mode">StandardSecurity</patch:attribute>
    <patch:attribute name="itemwebapi.access">ReadOnly</patch:attribute>
    <patch:attribute name="itemwebapi.allowanonymousaccess">false</patch:attribute>