Dave suggested an idea · Apr 13, 2017 at 09:30 PM · 6.7k Views api proxyproducts
An API that returns all Products for a particular API would be extremely helpful. I have requirement that we need to be able to register directly with an API as opposed to a proxy.
Hi Dave, can you elaborate on what you mean by "we need to be able to register directly with an API as opposed to a proxy." ?
In Apigee Edge
You want to keep these things separate.
In some cases you will map a single proxy to a single API Product.
In other cases, you may elect to map multiple proxies into an API Product.
In all cases, the app credentials (consumer key, secret) will be valid for the *Product*, not for the proxy.
If you elaborate on what you need, we may be able to clarify things for you further.
Dave commented · Apr 17, 2017 at 02:56 PM
I actually had a typo in there, sorry. We want to register with an API as opposed to a Product, not proxy.
Here is our use case. We think it's more intuitive for App Developers to register for a key directly with an API as opposed to a Product. API Developers search for particular API's in the Dev Portal based on Business Domains (for us, Banking, Insurance, Investing, etc). Once they find an API they are planning to use they have to register an App with the Product that API Proxy was associated with rather than just the API. Although we display the Product on the API summary page, the user has to remember which Product they need. It's a bit clumsy and we want to register directly with the API. In the background we will still associate the App with the product, but as far as the user is concerned that association will be hidden.
To implement the process to register directly with the API will have two components.
1. From the API summary page we will put a "Register Now" button (register-with-api.png) that will take you directly to the Add App screen. We will display the API Title as well as default the Products list to the associated product(s). (add-app.png )
2. If you go directly to the Add App page we want to have an auto complete text box if you know your API Proxy Name. Once enter your API Proxy name we want to populate the Products list with the associated product(s). In the case of multiple Products we would default to the first one but enable the App Developer to select multiple.
The screen shots are mock ups. We haven't implemented this yet and would like some support if possible by having an API call to get all Products for a Proxie.
Also it would be beneficial if there was some documentation for all of the Devconnect modules. It's very cumbersome to have to sort through code to find where the associated Dev Portal features are. For example, the Details tab of the App Summary page. if we wanted to add API to that tab I have no idea where that code is.
On a side note, there seems to be a key value mapping process that was developed (or started to be developed). From what I gather it associates a product with smart docs. However there doesn't seem to be any practical application of that association. It doesn't really do anything unless I'm missing something.
Dave commented · Apr 17, 2017 at 03:05 PM
I'm not sure what an "API is when you say, "register for a key directly with an API as opposed to a Product".
Generally speaking, the proxy is an implementation detail that should be opaque to your developer-consumers. They should not care about the details for how you built the proxies that direct traffic, though they certainly do care about how they add an API product to use an API (resource) whose reference documentation they may be viewing in the portal. If there were multiple products for which that API (resource) had membership, those might be useful to offer to the developer.
Have I understood your point correctly?
I think we're getting lost in terminology. We use the terms API, Model and Proxy interchangeably (maybe incorrectly). We display resources in the Dev Portal by Model Display Name. Model corresponds to a Proxy in the Management UI. That is what the App developer searches for in Dev Portal. Once you find the Model you want (register-with-api.png) if you want a key for that specific resource you have to leave that screen and go to the Register App screen. You then need to select a Product that contains the original resource you searched for. Not the actual resource.
Bottom line is, App Developers don't really care about Products (they don't search for a Product), they care about what they searched for, a Resource (aka Model, Proxy, API). We want to allow them to receive a key based on the discoverable resource in the Dev Portal. We will associate the Product in the background.
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