Product Manager

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Product Manager

Product Managers use the API management portal to package APIs into products and create different product offerings or plans.

API

An API as defined within the portal is a set of operations that share a common base path and lifecycle. The product manager creates an API through the portal as either a REST or SOAP API:

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A REST API is usually represented by the set of HTTP verbs supported for a single entity. It can be represented by a Swagger resource specification.

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A SOAP API is typically the set of operations that are exposed for a single service. It can be represented by a WSDL specification.

In addition to an optional specification, documentation can also be uploaded for the API, including attachments and rich text (HTML).

Each API is associated with one or more gateway environments; for example, Staging, Production-Europe, or Production-Americas.

APIs do not become visible to application developers until they are associated with a published Product.

Product

A product is a package of one or more APIs for use by internal or external application developers. Application developers subscribe to products and thus only indirectly to APIs. APIs can be added to or removed from products without affecting existing subscriptions.

A product manager creates a product name and icon to be used in the product catalog. Product level documentation can also be uploaded including attachments and rich text (HTML).

A product is associated with one gateway environment; for example, Production-Americas. This environment must be valid for all packaged APIs.

Once created, a product must be published in order to be visible to Application Developers.

The product page is generated from the specifications and documentation of the included APIs. The API Explorer user interface is generated from the aggregate Swagger resource specifications.

Product Plan

A plan is an offering of a product for a specific capacity, which includes the following:

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Plan name and description  Displayed within the product page.

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Quota  Maximum calls per day.

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Rate limit  Peak calls per second.

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Subscription model  Automatic manual approval.

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Price  The price for the plan.

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Custom  One-off custom plans can also be created for specific consumers.

Analysis

The product manager has an important role in monitoring usage of APIs and Products, looking at performance of applications consuming the APIs as well as the performance of back-end target systems.

For more information on analytics capabilities see Chapter 4, Analytics.

Swagger Support

To support REST, TIBCO API Exchange supports the Swagger specification, a standard for describing a REST-ful services for which interactive documentation and a test harness can be generated.

The Adapter Code for TIBCO® API Exchange and Joomla! example project, which is available on GitHub, includes an example of how the Swagger UI can be integrated into an API management portal.

Figure 11 shows the documentation for an API.

Figure 11 Documentation Repository

Product managers can provide detailed documentation for each operation supported by an API.

Figure 12 Documentation Detail for Post Operation