Viewing and Managing APIs

APIs helps large software ecosystems to scale. Therefore, APIs are a first-class citizen in the TIBCO Developer Hub model and the primary way to discover existing functionality in the ecosystem. It supports searching, documenting, and indexing all APIs so you can use them easily. Refer to Backstage Documentation to learn more about APIs.

Navigating an API

In TIBCO Developer Hub, you can navigate APIs in two ways.

  • From side panel APIs menu.

  • From the side panel Catalog menu, click the Kind dropdown and select API.

By using both ways, you can view a list of all the available APIs in your software ecosystem.

Creating or Registering an API

You can register an API using the similarly like Registering a Component. Navigate to APIs, then click Register Existing API to open the registration form. To view the list of registered APIs, see Catalog.

Viewing and Managing APIs in the Catalog

If you select the API from Kind dropdown, a catalog list opens in the catalog table with different columns. There are Common Searching and Managing Features in the Catalog that can help you find the API you want to manage.

You can search the key information of an API by using the following columns.

API Name

This column shows the list of resources present in the catalog. Click any API name from the column to view the following details.

  • Service Overview - The overview tab is segmented into the following details.

    • About - You can see the source repository of the resource in the View Source and technical documentation in the View TechDocs. To edit the About section, click the Edit Metadata icon. This takes you to the source repository location of the resource, where you can make the changes. To view the changed metadata of a resource, click the Schedule Entity Refresh icon. To view owner information in detail, click the owner name. To view system information in detail, click the system name.

    • Relations - This is a non-exhaustive and read-only list of relations between the existing entity and other entities. Each relation has a source, a target, and a type that shows what relation the source has with the target. Relations are commonly bidirectional, so that there is a pair of relation types each describing one direction of the relation.

      In Relations, you can see the simple view of API relations with other entities. To view the elaborated relations of the API, click View Graph. Use the search filters like max depth, kinds, relations, directions, and curve to find the entity relations. Use the Simplified or Merge Relation toggle switches to see the simple or complex relations view. You can scroll to zoom in and zoom out and move around the relations diagram. Click to change the active node. To navigate the entity, press the Shift+Click button.

    • Links - You can view development resources like service URL, demos, code editor links, and more, that can help you learn more about the API.
    • Providers - You can view a list of entities where you provided the API.

    • Consumers - You can view a list of entities where you consumed the API.

  • Definition - Definition lets you invoke the service. You can view the API definition in the Swagger UI. To view the JSON file of the API, click the Raw tab. To copy the file, click the Copy icon.

System

In the catalog table, if you click the system name of the API, you can see the system overview details like about, relations, has resources, has subcomponents and APIs. To view complete relations of the API in the system, click the Diagram tab. Learn more about the system from Viewing and Managing Systems in the Catalog.

Owner

In the catalog table, if you click the owner name of the API, you can see the owner overview details like organization information, members, and ownership of other entities. Learn more about the owner from Viewing and Managing Groups in the Catalog.