Local dev support for property sets

[alex-wiggle]

Hi there!,

I'm attempting local development using the apigee setup described in the docs (VS code, docker etc) but I can't seem to get any property sets to work in target endpoint definitions. 

For example: I have a property set called `system.properties` with a key value such as: 

endpoints.ct.path=somepath 

If I try to refer to this property in my targets:

<TargetEndpoint name="default">
    <HTTPTargetConnection>
        <LoadBalancer>
            <Server name="server0"/>
        </LoadBalancer>
        <Path>/{propertyset.system.endpoints.ct.path}</Path>
    </HTTPTargetConnection>
</TargetEndpoint>

All calls that I make result in:

{"fault":{"faultstring":"Illegal propertyset keysystem.endpoints.ct.path","detail":{"errorcode":"Bad Request"}}}

I have tried all manner of combinations to get this to work (e.g. propertyset.system.properties.endpoints.ct.path, propertyset.endpoints.ct.path) but to no avail. 

What I'm trying to achieve is a per-env deployment configuration (different servers managed via targets but different paths via propertysets).

Has anyone come across a solution or know how to debug this?

Cheers!

[dknezic]

As per this page https://cloud.google.com/apigee/docs/api-platform/cache/property-sets

"The property set name and property name cannot have dots in them." so you cannot use "endpoints.ct.path=..." for example.

[alex-wiggle]

Fantastic - I totally missed that bit as I had read the 'java properties' and away I went. I'll give it a whirl.

Thanks @dknezic !

[dchiesa1]

I use underlines. 

The restriction against dots seems arbitrary, but ok.  I can use underlines as a separator.

[alex-wiggle]

So made the change and it's not complaining about the format anymore which is ace, so I've updated my config to specify the URL in HTTPTargetConnection to be the following:

<TargetEndpoint name="default">
    <HTTPTargetConnection>
        <URL>https://{propertyset.system.endpoints_server_host}/{propertyset.system.endpoints_server_path}</URL>
    </HTTPTargetConnection>
</TargetEndpoint>

based upon what I had seen in this answer:

https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/Apigee/How-can-I-dynamically-set-the-URL-for-a-ServiceCallou...

When I test this locally, the value is not being replaced:

{"level":"WARNING","thread":"NIOThread@0","mdc":{"messageId":"4ea537fe-13e4-4305-8081-3a45f10d825b1","apiName":"commerce-tools","env":"dev","org":"hybrid","revision":"0"},"className":"com.apigee.httpclient.DNSCache$2","method":"failed","severity":"WARNING","message":"Failed to resolve hostname {propertyset.system.endpoints_server_host}. Reason {propertyset.system.endpoints_server_host}: Name or service not known. This log message will snooze for 2 hours [ERROR: UNUSED LOG ARGUMENTS] [CONTEXT ratelimit_period\u003d\"2 HOURS\" ]","formattedDate":"2021-11-26T09:40:32.931Z","logger":"SERVICES.HTTPCLIENTSERVICE"}

[dchiesa1]

Hmmm...... I would have thought that would work.  Let me look into it.

[alex-wiggle]

Awesome - thanks for the followup @dchiesa1 - let me know if you need anything from my side

[harishgoogler]

First let me give some information regarding using Flow variables in the URL of HTTPTargetConnection.

HTTPTargetConnection with URL can be  used in two places as of now - service callout and target endpoint. Following are the configuration differences in both usages.
Service Callout

<HTTPTargetConnection>
    <URL>http://{backend_url}</URL>
</HTTPTargetConnection>​

Target Endpoint

<HTTPTargetConnection>
   <URL>http://apigee.com/{backend_path}</URL>
</HTTPTargetConnection>​

Details:

• Protocol must be static in both cases it cannot be part of a flow variable used. The validation of requirements is done during deployment time.
• Host (apigee.com in above example) must be static in case of target endpoint. This cannot be part of the flow variable; making the host part of the flow variable causes failure with error code 500 even though the validation during deployment succeeds.

Now keeping this in mind, I used the below configuration for my local dev target configuration and got the propertyset property replaced in the url.

<TargetEndpoint name="default">
<HTTPTargetConnection>
<!-- <URL>https://mocktarget.apigee.net/xml</URL> -->
<URL>https://mocktarget.apigee.net/{propertyset.targetnameps.target_url}</URL>
</HTTPTargetConnection>
</TargetEndpoint>

Now if you need to hit different target hosts then you can use RouteRule to create different targets and send requests to different target endpoints.

I hope this helps you in solving your issue.

[dchiesa1]

And for truly dynamic URLs, you can also set "target.url" in the target request flow. That will override the configuration in the HTTPTargetConnection in the TargetEndpoint.