Gain a deeper understanding of the core concepts by exploring our API Management & API Gateway blog. This knowledge will be integral in grasping the role of API Developer Portal within your enterprise architecture.

What Are APIs?

APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are sets of rules and protocols that allow one software application to interact with another. They act as intermediaries, enabling different systems to communicate and share data. Think of APIs as the connectors that link your smartphone apps to external services like social media platforms, payment gateways, and cloud services.

APIs are everywhere. They power the conveniences of our digital lives, from booking flights online to using voice assistants and integrating with smart home devices. By enabling these connections, APIs play a pivotal role in delivering smooth and streamlined user experiences.

The Role of an API Developer Portal:

An API Developer Portal serves as a central hub for accessing and managing APIs. It is designed to provide developers / customers with the tools and resources they need to effectively use and integrate APIs into their applications. Key features of a robust API developer portal include:

• Comprehensive Documentation: 

  Detailed guides and reference materials that explain how to use the APIs, including endpoints, parameters, and response formats.

• SDKs and Tools: 

  Software Development Kits (SDKs), code samples, and integration tools that simplify the development process.

• Sandbox Environment: 

  A testing environment where developers can experiment with APIs without affecting live systems or data.

• Analytics and Monitoring: 

  Insights into API usage, performance metrics, and usage patterns to help developers and businesses optimize their API strategies.

• Support and Community Resources: 

  Access to support channels, forums, and community-driven resources to help developers troubleshoot issues and share knowledge.

Figure 1: API Developer Portal in an Enterprise Architecture

Why You Need an API Developer Portal?

1. Simplified Integration

An API developer portal streamlines the integration process by providing all necessary resources in one place. Developers can easily find documentation, tools, and support, reducing the time and effort required to integrate APIs into their applications.

2. Enhanced Security

API developer portals help enforce security protocols, such as API keys, OAuth tokens, and usage limits. This ensures that only authorized users can access your APIs, protecting sensitive data and preventing misuse.

3. Improved Developer Experience

A well-designed API developer portal enhances the developer experience by providing intuitive interfaces, comprehensive documentation, and responsive support. This can lead to higher adoption rates and more successful integrations.

4. Visibility and Control

With built-in analytics, API developer portals provide visibility into how your APIs are being used. You can monitor performance, identify potential issues, and understand usage patterns to make informed decisions and optimize your APIs.

Getting Started with Your API Developer Portal 

1. Define Your API Strategy

Before building your API developer portal, define your API strategy. Determine the goals of your APIs, the target audience, and the key functionalities you want to offer. This will guide the development of your portal and ensure it meets your objectives.

2. Choose the Right Platform

Select a platform or tool to create your API developer portal. Consider factors like ease of use, scalability, customization options, and support. There are several options available, ranging from open-source solutions to commercial products.

3. Create Comprehensive Documentation

Documentation is the cornerstone of a successful API developer portal. Ensure your documentation is clear, detailed, and easy to follow. Include examples, use cases, and step-by-step guides to help developers understand how to use your APIs effectively.

4. Provide Testing and Sandbox Environments

A sandbox environment allows developers to test your APIs without affecting live data. This is essential for experimentation and debugging. Ensure your sandbox mirrors the production environment as closely as possible.

5. Implement Security Measures

Protect your APIs with robust security measures. Use API keys, OAuth tokens, rate limiting, and other security protocols to control access and prevent misuse.

6. Offer Support and Community Resources

Support is critical for developer success. Provide multiple support channels, such as forums, FAQs, and direct contact options. Encourage community interaction and feedback to continuously improve your portal.

7. Monitor and Optimize

Use analytics to monitor API usage and performance. Identify trends, troubleshoot issues, and gather feedback to continuously optimize your APIs and the overall developer experience. 

Features that Make an API Developer Portal Stand Out 

• One-Stop for all Solutions

While API documentation is an important aspect of an API Developer Portal, it can ideally act as a central resource for all interfaces to a company’s products and services. While REST APIs are a focus of developer portals, other kinds of APIs like GraphQL APIs, or native library APIs can also be documented.

• Defined business model

Give a broad overview of services the platform offers to the customer by categorizing based on a function or an area or specific business challenges they solve.

• Clear Pricing Structures

Lay-out a clear and concise pricing model for monetizing the APIs through various options like free-tier, pay-as-you-go, pay monthly as appropriate along with call-out of inclusive and restricted features.

• Structured Content

Organize the content as structured information hierarchically to ensure clarity, consistency, and accessibility right from the landing page, overview of the offered services/solutions, grouping the services until inclusion of getting started tutorial / contact us options.

• Cohesive Experience

A well-designed API developer portal has elements that support the customer journey as they discover, learn about, and interact with a platform. An effective design reinforces the overall brand. Documentation should be written with consistency across all services / solutions.

• Discoverability

Enable the customer to discover the services / solutions at ease. It must be easy to filter by category to narrow down the list of possibilities.

• Serving Non-Technical Users

Content in the API Developer Portal should be represented in a way that helps all types of users who may or may not be technical like Business.

• Getting Started

Onboarding is the first experience for customers using the services / solution. Smooth onboarding of customer with a process walk-through for each step is hence crucial.

• API Documentation

Concise and detailed guide to understand an API. Effective documentation would enable locating information about fields, schemas during discoverability. Interactive API console feature provides a hands-on way of interacting with an API.

• Community

Community comes first point of support for troubleshooting issues in API Developer Portal. This can go beyond just discussion forums leading to an expansion in the platform thereby benefiting the business.

• Recent Changes

Posting updates in API Developer Portal with changes being rolled-out in every release for example, gives a signal for reliability and trustworthiness.

Real-World Applications 

While API Developer Portal will fit across industries / domains, below are some real-world application examples: 

1. Healthcare

In healthcare, API developer portals enable seamless data exchange between Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems, medical devices, and diagnostic tools. This integration improves patient care, real-time monitoring, and predictive analytics for patient outcomes.

2. Finance

Financial institutions use API developer portals to integrate disparate systems for fraud detection, risk management, and customer service automation. API-driven integration helps in real-time transaction monitoring, predictive analytics for market trends, and personalized financial services.

3. Retail

In retail, API developer portals facilitate integration between e-commerce platforms, payment gateways, inventory management systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. This leads to streamlined operations, enhanced customer experiences, and data-driven decision-making.

4. Manufacturing

Manufacturing companies leverage API developer portals to connect IoT devices, production systems, and supply chain management tools. This integration optimizes production processes, enables predictive maintenance, and improves supply chain efficiency.

Common Challenges

API portals play a critical role in the developer experience by providing access to APIs, documentation, and other resources. However, they come with their own set of challenges:

1. Technical Challenges

• Integration Complexity: Integrating APIs into diverse systems can be complex, especially with different technology stacks.
• Performance Issues: Ensuring optimal performance under varying loads is crucial for the developer experience.
• Security and Authentication: Implementing robust security measures, including handling API keys and OAuth, is challenging but essential.
• API Versioning and Lifecycle Management: Managing API versions and ensuring backward compatibility can be challenging.
• Error Handling and Debugging: Clear and actionable error messages are essential for effective issue resolution.

2. Usability Challenges

• Documentation Quality: Incomplete or disorganized documentation can hinder API understanding and usage. Comprehensive documentation is crucial.
• User Interface (UI) Design: A cluttered or confusing UI can impede portal navigation and information retrieval.
• Search and Navigation: Ineffective search and poor navigation frustrate users seeking API endpoints or related information.
• Onboarding: Complex or lengthy onboarding deters new users. Clear guides and quick start resources are essential.
• Interactive Features: Lack of tools like API explorers and code samples limits developers’ ability to experiment and understand API functionality.

3. Organizational Challenges

• Resource Allocation: Maintaining and updating the API portal requires dedicated resources including time, personnel, and budget, which may be difficult to allocate.
• Governance and Compliance: Ensuring API compliance with internal policies, industry standards, and regulatory requirements is an ongoing challenge.
• Scalability: Handling increased traffic and usage as the number of users and API calls grows can be difficult without proper infrastructure scaling.
• User Feedback and Engagement: Capturing, analyzing, and acting on user feedback to improve the portal and APIs can be challenging. Ongoing effort is needed to engage effectively with the developer community.
• Change Management: Effectively communicating changes to the API or portal, such as updates, deprecations, and new features, to the user base is crucial to avoid disruptions.

4. Community and Support Challenges

• Support Availability: Providing timely and effective support to developers is essential for a positive experience.
• Community Building: Fostering an active developer community around the API portal is crucial for success.
• Learning Resources: Offering diverse learning resources and keeping them updated is vital for developer empowerment.

5. Content Management Challenges

• Keeping Documentation Updated: It’s crucial to update documentation as APIs change to avoid misunderstandings and errors in implementation.
• Localization and Accessibility: Making the API portal accessible globally through translations and adherence to accessibility standards requires careful planning.

To overcome these challenges, it’s crucial to take a strategic approach, implementing continuous improvement, incorporating user feedback mechanisms, and embracing best practices in API management and developer experience design.

API Developer Portals in Market 

Some of the API Developer Portal solutions available in market today are: Apigee (by Google cloud), Kong, Azure API Management (Microsoft), AWS API Gateway, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, Software AG, Tyk, IBM API Connect.

These API developer portal solutions vary in terms of features, capabilities and pricing models, catering to different organizational needs looking to manage and optimize their API ecosystems effectively. Choosing the right API Developer Portal depends on specific requirements for an organization.

Conclusion

An API developer portal is more than just a gateway to your APIs; it is a strategic asset that drives innovation, enhances security, and improves the developer experience. By providing comprehensive documentation, robust security, and valuable support resources, you can unlock the full potential of your APIs and create a thriving ecosystem around your digital services. Whether you are just starting out or looking to optimize your existing setup, investing in a well-designed API developer portal is a step toward a more connected and efficient digital future.

Unlocking the power of APIs through an effective API developer portal can transform your business, open new opportunities for growth, efficiency, and innovation. Embrace this journey and see how APIs can propel your organization to new heights.

Learn More:

Utilize our extensive expertise in APIs and API management, encompassing API Gateway and API Developer Portal, to formulate a robust API strategy for your enterprise. Should you require consultation or assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us for customized support.

Kindly reach out to us for further elucidation.

The post Unlocking the Power of APIs: A Beginner’s Guide to API Developer Portal appeared first on Sandhata.

We recommend acquainting yourself with the foundational concepts by reading our blog on API Management & API Gateway, which sets the stage for a deep dive into Kong, the premier API Gateway choice among industry leaders.

Understanding the Kong API Gateway

Kong API Gateway is a sophisticated platform designed to facilitate the seamless interfacing between clients and an array of services they seek to utilize. Positioned as an intermediary, Kong streamlines the intricacies inherent in navigating microservices architectures and diverse digital environments.

The platform is adept at a multitude of critical functions including directing traffic, evenly distributing loads for optimal performance, and fortifying interactions for enhanced security, among others.

Key Components of Kong API Gateway

Here are the key components of Kong API Gateway:

Kong Manager: Management interface for Kong. Allows administrators to configure and manage Kong’s settings, plugins, and other features through a RESTful API.

Plugins: Modular components that extend Kong’s functionality. Kong comes with various built-in and community-contributed plugins that handle tasks like authentication, rate limiting, logging, security, and more.

Kong Vitals: Monitors health and performance. Uses visual API analytics to see exactly how your APIs and Gateway are performing.

Portal: Consumer Self-Service & Onboarding. Standard API documentation. Mock API responses.

Consumer: Represents the users or applications that access your APIs. Can be associated with specific authentication and authorization configurations.

Service Route: Services represent your backend APIs or microservices. Routes define how requests are matched to services based on criteria like paths, hosts, and headers.

Upstream: Endpoint of target backend API / microservice

Load Balancer: Manages traffic for upstream targets.

Core Features of Kong API Gateway

Request Routing: Kong adeptly directs incoming API requests to the relevant services or upstream targets. As the central access point for your APIs, it operates with routes and services, and its broad range of plugins can further refine routing capabilities.

Load Balancing: Kong distributes traffic across service instances to maintain high availability and peak performance. This load management is essential for enhancing the reliability and speed of your services.

Security: Security stands at the forefront of modern API management, and Kong delivers a comprehensive security suite. This includes features for authentication, access controls, rate limiting, and protection against threats. It also enables SSL/TLS termination, JWT validation, and OAuth2 integration, offering robust defences against unauthorized access and securing your APIs. Additionally, Kong supports the development of bespoke authentication plugins, allowing for security measures tailored to specific needs.

Authentication and Authorization: Kong secures your APIs through robust authentication and access control measures, including role-based access control and authorization to prevent unauthorized access.

Rate Limiting: Implement rate limits with Kong to ensure equitable API usage and safeguard your infrastructure. Limits can be customized per API, consumer, or route, and tailored based on client IP addresses or request headers, which is useful for distinguishing between clients sharing an IP address. Kong’s distributed rate-limiting feature is particularly effective in clustered or microservices environments.

Logging, Analytics, and Monitoring: Kong provides comprehensive logging, analytics, and monitoring tools, offering valuable insights into API utilization, performance metrics, and emergent issues, aiding in the informed optimization of APIs.

Plugins: Kong’s vast plugin ecosystem facilitates the extension of its core capabilities, accommodating a variety of use cases, including but not limited to caching and data transformations.

Service Discovery: Kong seamlessly integrates with service discovery mechanisms, fostering dynamic routing capabilities essential for microservices architectures.

Scalability and Performance: Distinguished by its proficiency in managing substantial API traffic volumes with minimal latency, Kong is engineered for scalability, serving organizations ranging from burgeoning startups to established enterprises.

How Kong Works?

Kong operates as a gateway that processes incoming client requests by enforcing routing, authentication, and other predefined policies before directing them to the appropriate backend services. The responses are then relayed back to the clients, with the potential for additional processing by Kong.

Real-time Scenarios

Kong serves various functions, such as:

API Management: Offers centralized API oversight with enhanced security measures, analytical insights, and developer portal capabilities.

Microservices Management: Manages microservices infrastructure with effective routing and load distribution.

Security: Shields APIs with robust authentication, authorization, and encryption protocols.

Scalability: Maintains service availability and optimal performance across large-scale API implementations.

Open Source and Enterprise Edition

Kong is accessible in an open-source format, supported by its community and an enterprise edition with advanced features and professional support.

Extensibility: Kong’s design encourages extensibility, with provisions for developing custom plugins for specific needs or third-party integrations.

Community and Resources: Kong boasts a dynamic community, comprehensive documentation, and a diverse range of plugins, supporting user engagement and problem-solving.

Other Kong Products

In addition to Kong API Gateway, Kong presents specialized offerings:

Developer Portal and Documentation: Kong’s developer portal and documentation aid API consumers and developers, with Kong Konnect as a SaaS solution and Kong Enterprise for on-premises deployment.

Kong Mesh: An enterprise-level service mesh built on Envoy, Kong Mesh is designed for simplicity, security, and scalability, compatible with Kubernetes, VMs, and various cloud environments.

Insomnia: A collaborative API design tool streamlining the API development process from design to debugging.

Summary

Kong is a multifaceted platform ideal for entities aiming to refine their API management and microservices strategies, with a track record endorsed by its consecutive recognitions in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and as a Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice.

Learn More

Leverage our in-depth expertise in APIs, API Gateways, and API management to forge a robust API strategy for your business. For consultation or assistance, do not hesitate to contact us for tailored support.

Reach out to us for further information.

The post The Leader of API Gateways: A Deep Dive into Kong appeared first on Sandhata.

In this 3-day event in Guildford, UK  we encouraged and inspired our people to embrace eco-friendly lifestyles while focusing on the importance of human values and quality of life.

People of all ages, from young children to adults, participated in a rejuvenating event surrounded by the beautiful woods of Guildford. The Manavata volunteers provided healthy and nutritious food with love and care.

Manavata planned and executed a diverse range of activities for this retreat, ensuring a dynamic and memorable experience for all participants.

We embarked on an unforgettable journey and escaped the hustle and bustle of technology with our Day One trekking and nature walk.  The children connected with nature and learned the value of their beloved ancestors and parents. We immersed ourselves in the enlightening Pada Puja ritual and received blessings from our loved ones.

We wrapped up the day by indulging in group meditation and rediscovering inner harmony.

Women Of Sandhata At Manavata  Event

Joining the event, the Women of Sandhata (WOS) team seized an invaluable opportunity to connect with individuals who share their vision for a brighter, more inclusive society.

The post Sandians at Manavata 3H Family Retreat, UK appeared first on Sandhata.

This partnership is a huge step for Sandhata as it will enable them to expand their skills, meet new performance benchmarks, and explore new ways to grow their business. Besides, both Sandhata and Kong will jointly present solutions to customers, utilizing the industry-leading capabilities of Kong and the 18+ years of experience that Sandhata has in automation, system integration, and the API world.

At present, digital transformation is non-negotiable for enterprises operating in rapidly changing consumer-driven markets. Therefore, Sandhata is focused to increase productivity and efficiency while accelerating change for the customers.

Kong is a well-known name in the API world, providing businesses with unbeatable performance, fine-grained traffic and security policies, Kubernetes-native API management, and automation. By partnering with Kong, Sandhata customers will become better equipped to achieve incredible time to market on the platform they love.

Karim Chester, a Regional Director of UK and Ireland at Kong, added, “We’re excited to partner with Sandhata, who are respected leaders in digital transformation for many of our mutual clients. Our mission at Kong is to provide the most reliable, secure, and efficient cloud-native API platform that helps businesses scale and innovate more effectively. Through this partnership, the enterprise users of Kong can access Sandhata’s implementation services, maximizing the benefits of our platform.”. 

About Kong 

As a trusted and leading provider of cloud-native API platforms, Kong is loved by developers and trusted by enterprises. Kong provides solutions to enable market readiness with swift API and service connectivity. Top industry leaders such as Nasdaq, PayPal, Moderna, Wayfair, and Cargill rely on Kong to modernize their tech infrastructure, embrace innovation, and meet customer demands.

Kong is named as the “Leader” in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Full Lifecycle API Management for the third year in 2023. Follow @thekonginc on Twitter or visit www.konghq.com for more information.

About Sandhata 

Sandhata is a leading global technology integrator specializing in DevOps. With a team of highly skilled professionals, we offer expert Advisory, Management, and Technology consulting services to clients in the most demanding, regulated industries.

Our dedication to helping clients navigate the IT landscape, modernize their service delivery, and achieve strategic goals is genuine. We also provide guidance through the difficult decision-making process faced by businesses pursuing digital transformation.

We help our clients manage the many aspects of change that come with transforming IT infrastructure or operations. Our close work with leading organizations in Finance, Banking, Telecom, and Retail has enabled us to create and maintain sustainable, secure, and compliant digital businesses.

Learn More

We can support your API Gateway adoption to be successful with our vast knowledge and experience in APIs and API Management. We can also help you to create the right API Strategy for your business.

If you are looking for consultations or guidance, please feel free to reach out to us and we would be glad to help you!

Contact us to find out more.

The post Sandhata Forms Partnership With Kong appeared first on Sandhata.

Come on, let’s talk about API Gateways and see how they can help us!

Before we set off, read my blog on API Management if you want to understand API Architecture a bit more.

API Architecture without an API Gateway

Today, your organization may be offering several APIs to your clients without an API Gateway, shown below. But exposing all your APIs directly as public facing APIs is not a good idea and increases complexity with tight coupling. It is not good for you or your clients.

API Gateway

Here at Sandhata, we have worked with clients with and without an API Gateway. We see clients who have an API Gateway benefitting from features such as enhanced security, lower latency, simplified architecture and support, ease of client API integration and much more. To become fail safe, multiple API Gateway instances can be created for scalability, based on your business needs.

We shall share the 5W’s of API Gateways. This will help you re-evaluate if an API Gateway would benefit you and your organization.

1. What is an API Gateway?

“An API Gateway is an API Management tool which acts as a single point of entry for the client sitting between the client and the APIs. It abstracts the API layer from direct access of clients.”

An API Gateway accepts/routes requests from clients to appropriate APIs and sends back appropriate responses to the clients.

Some of the key features of API Gateway

• API Gateways help to prevent malicious attacks by providing an additional layer of protection from attack vectors such as SQL Injection, XML Parser exploits, and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.
• Supports multiple communication protocols.
• Insulates clients from the application architecture (how the application is partitioned into microservices).
• Insulates clients from the problem of determining the locations of service instances.
• Provides the optimal API for each client.
• Reduces the number of requests/roundtrips.

2. How an API Gateway benefits an organisation

• Security  SSL termination and Authentication

• Avoid Latency by supporting aggregate patterns  API Gateways can be used to aggregate multiple individual requests. This is most useful when a client needs to perform an operation involving multiple backend API calls.

• Throttling & Rate limiting  Throttling is a technique to control traffic that an API can handle and is used in conjunction with Rate limiting i.e., limiting the number of requests to an API from a client thereby preventing any overload on server / network where the API is hosted.

• Service discovery  Discover the active APIs available for invocation via Service Registry.

• Response Caching When enabled, an API Gateway caches responses from your endpoint for a specified time-to-live (TTL) period, in seconds. The API Gateway then responds to a new request by looking up the endpoint response from the cache instead of making a request to your endpoint.

• Logging & Tracing For traceability & Debugging purpose.

• Routing Routes incoming API requests to backend resources. Various routing options are available like content-based routing, dynamic routing, etc.

• Request / Response transformation Transformation of messages / Masking of selective fields for specific clients if needed.

• IP Whitelisting Whitelist the IPs of required clients

3. Organisations typically benefit from an API Gateway when:

• They wish to accelerate their Digital Transformation
• They need better Analytics capabilities
• They use low-code platforms for API development

4. In which organisations are API Gateways suitable?

All enterprises who expose APIs, including:

• Small, Medium and Large Enterprises
• Across all industries

5. Some of the key API Gateway solutions and services on the market today:

• Google Apigee API Management
• Kong API Gateway
• CA API Gateway
• IBM API Connect
• RedHat 3 Scale
• Software AG API Gateway
• MuleSoft Anypoint API Management
• TIBCO Mashery
• Axway – AMPLIFY API Management
• Akana API Management
• SAP API Manager
• Oracle API Manager
• AWS API Gateway
• Azure API Gateway
• Akamai API Gateway
• Sensedia API Management Platform
• WSO2 API Manager
• Tyk API Gateway
• API Man
• Fusio API Management
• Express API Gateway
• Loopback API Framework

Do I really need an API Gateway?

API Gateways are not mandatory. But if you don’t have an API Gateway, the client applications must send requests directly to your microservices.  That raises problems, such as coupling. Without an API Gateway, client apps are tightly coupled to your internal microservices and miss out on the benefits described above, e.g. lower latency, service discovery etc.

API Architecture with an API Gateway

An API Architecture including an API Gateway would look like:

It is never too late! To keep your business on par with the fast-evolving digital world, we need to move towards a simplified API Architecture by bringing in powerful API Gateways. I urge you to explore the various API Gateway products out there, and choose the most suitable one for your organisation!

How do you choose the right API Gateway for your business?

1. On Premise / Cloud

Depending on the features needed by your organisation and how your backend APIs are deployed, choose an appropriate API Gateway type. If choose on prem / self-hosted, you have more control but remember that you also have the responsibility for ensuring that your systems are configured correctly, and for keeping the software up to date.

2. Open-Source Vs Commercial

Depending on your end goal, consider if you may need additional extensions / plugins on top of the basic API Gateway capabilities. Open source software will allow you more flexibility, but commercial software will probably provide you more features and reliable support models.

3. Deployment Complexity

Think about the complexity of deployment considering your API landscape at the API Gateway layer:

• initial configurations required
• any additional software needed
• complexity of deployment of updates done on gateway
• also consider if gateway deployment can be automated

4. Features

Will you plan use the out of the box capabilities, or need to customise to suit your business?

5. Community

Collaborative work always helps. So, having a large, active community of users will be beneficial.

6. Cost

Understand the various pricing and the which suits your business.

Learn more

We can support your API Gateway adoption to be successful with our vast knowledge and experience in APIs and API Management. We can also help you to create the right API Strategy for your business.

If you are looking for consultations or guidance, please feel free to reach out to us and we would be glad to help you!

Contact us to find out more.

The post Are you still on the fence about an API Gateway? appeared first on Sandhata.

Are you looking to get an idea of what an API User Story is about and understand if it would help to streamline the way you work in your business?

I have previously talked about  how an API platform can help grow your business.

API User Stories, created right at the start of the project life cycle, capture the requirements of an API platform. An API User Story captures a business requirement with defined acceptance criteria and expected outcomes.

An API User Story can be defined based on different aspects, for example:

• The functionality of the API e.g. customer journeys
• Software features e.g. code framework, logging etc
• Access requirements for public / private / partner customers and each actor involved in the journey

Best Practices for API User Stories recommend The Four Cs.

An API User Story: The four Cs

1. Card

First, an API requirement is defined as a Card by briefly defining: As an [actor], I want / need to [action] so that I can [benefit].

2. Conversation

The next step is to identify the essential aspects which need to be defined on the card. This is achieved by engaging with others and collaborating in Conversation to identify the most important factors for this API User Story.

3. Confirmation

Once the conversations are all done we have the Confirmation stage: to work out how to recognize and measure success. Confirmation defines the set of observable outcomes which should occur (and can be evaluated/tested) for each scenario.

4. Context

Lastly is Context: where we consider the possible ways this solution could be utilized and understand the dependencies. This covers both pre-conditions and post-conditions from the requirement and solution perspective.

How does an API User Story fit into a project lifecycle?

To write a great API User Story, you need to understand the business requirements and artefacts, as well as expert conceptual knowledge.

1. Artefacts

Source artefacts which help to understand new requirements include:

• Business Requirement Specification: Captured by Business Analysts after discussion with Project team & Architects.
• High Level Design / End to End Solution Design: Captures the E2E solution design covering the entire impacted application landscape.

However, not all API requirements start from scratch. In scenarios where an API User Story will be created for existing APIs, or during migration from legacy technology, we will also require:

• API Specification Documentation: Defines the purpose of an API along with functional and technical overviews of the API. Interface details (request & response) form the core of this specification, along with error details. This specification may already include user story information along with example payloads for reference clients.

In the absence of any source artefacts for an existing API, we could reference:

• API Test Suite: Test suites which were used to test the APIs contain the scenarios / API user story information.
• API Low Level Design Documentation: This document focuses on the implementation of an API, contains basic information about the API, and various scenarios supported by the API.

2. Conceptual Knowledge

Discussion with people who are knowledgeable & expert in the business area ensures the API User Story is in-line with business expectations. It can also highlight gaps in initial definitions.

Some people who may add value to your API User Story definition include:

• Customers
• Product Owner / Product Manager
• E2E Solution Architect
• API Governance Board
• Domain Experts
• Test Manager

To ensure a common understanding and expectation of the API User Story, it is recommended to follow a process for evaluation, feedback and sign-off. Recommended participants in this process are:

• Product Owner / Product Manager
• E2E Solution Architect
• API Governance Board

Don’t forget the API Portal

A well-defined API User Story will clearly detail the requirements, set the right expectations and streamline the delivery of the new feature right from design to release.

Having said that, remember an API User Story does not replace the information in the API Portal (if you have one, or are planning to create one). The specifics for each API should always be part of the API Portal documentation to help developers and consumers understand use cases, run mocks, and more.

Find out More

At Sandhata, our consultants are experts in APIs, API management and API monetisation. We can help you create the right API strategy for your business.

Find out how we can help you take advantage of digital transformation. Surviving and thriving in today’s digital economy demands no less.

Contact us today.

The post API User Story appeared first on Sandhata.

Here at Sandhata we spend a large amount of our time doing client consultations, understanding their business and technical challenges and goals across a broad spectrum of business units and technologies.

API management is one such area which is becoming increasingly important to our customers, as they realise the key benefits of a comprehensive API management strategy and implementation.

Traditional API exposure within organisations

Many leading enterprises follow a layered architecture within their Integration Architecture landscape. Creating and exposing reusable APIs for clients has traditionally been the core responsibility of integration departments. This is one way of abstracting downstream systems and reducing any impact to clients in case of any downstream changes.

This works ok for internal API exposure on a small scale, but what about exposing APIs externally, or on a large scale?

Have you ever thought if it’s a good idea to expose an API as-is to consumers?

Though it is technically feasible to expose and API to consumers as-is, there are various vital factors like security guidelines, API usage, metrics analysis and much more which is challenging, or not possible at all with direct API exposure.

In case of small/medium enterprises, direct API exposure may be sufficient and manageable. However, in this competitive digital world for large enterprises, API management is crucial for driving the digital transformation that every business needs.

API management is an additional layer in your layered architecture, providing capabilities including:

• traffic management
• self-service onboarding
• faster time to market
• monetization based on API usage
• security

API management simplifies code and APIs, and provides better business value!

Even legacy APIs can be exposed as a REST / SOAP API to clients by implementing data transformation capabilities available (often out-of-the-box) in the API management layer. This quickly transforms legacy APIs into strategic APIs.

Now, are you interested in getting a quick glimpse of API Management?

Here we go…

API management is the process of creating, publishing, and managing APIs in a secure and scalable environment.

An API management platform offers a centrally visible dashboard where enterprises can share and socialize their APIs while controlling access, collecting usage statistics, and enforcing associated security policies.

API management caters to the complete lifecycle of an API so that the organization can focus on adding value to your core business.

Key Components of API Management

API Design

– Enables the user to create, publish and deploy APIs. Additionally, API Design also provides a capability for mock testing the designed API.

API Gateway

– Sitting between the consumer and one or more APIs it acts as an abstraction layer for the APIs and provides a single point of entry for consumers of the application. The API Gateway is the traffic manager that handles the routing and appropriate data transformation of messages for the API consumers and API.

API Developer Portal

– A self-service hub for developers to gain access to APIs, documentation and other resources needed to consume the APIs. Developers can browse through a unified central API Catalogue to know more about all the public and private APIs available in the organization. Additionally, the API mock testing capability gives insights on the API interface to consumers to improve uptake and productivity.

 API Lifecycle Manager

– Covers the lifecycle of an API right from create, manage, secure, socialize, monetize, analyse to retirement.

API Dashboard

– It is critical to understand how APIs are being used by consumers to benefit your business. An API Dashboard displays API usage & load across geographic locations, with real-time monitoring capabilities to raise alerts while threshold is reached. This data can be used for monetization purposes.

Key business benefits of API Management

Don’t forget, API management is not just about improving technical capabilities, it is about helping to propel your business to the next level. API Management which is done well can help deliver these business benefits:

1. Enables a thriving digital transformation of your business
2. Maintains data integrity & security
3. Improves customer experiences and customer satisfaction
4. A platform to socialize APIs and better time to market

If you are ready to embrace digital transformation, start exploring and choose the right API Management product that will fit your business needs!

Learn more

At Sandhata, our consultants are experts in API management and API monetisation, and we can help you to create the right API strategy for your business.

We can support your microservices adoption to be successful, and help you take advantage of digital transformation. Surviving and thriving in today’s digital economy demands no less.

Contact us to find out more.

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