Tutorial: Using the Developer Portal

Follow the lessons in this tutorial to learn how to use the Developer Portal. You can then monitor how your APIs are being used by using the administrator dashboard in the API Manager UI.

Before you begin

You must have a Developer Portal installed, and created an invoke REST API. For more information, see Installing the Developer Portal and Creating an invoke REST API.

Download the BankA logo.

About this task

In this tutorial you are going to complete the following lessons:
Note: The administrator account cannot create an App, or register to an App. To create or register to an App, you must have a developer account. A developer account that has been assigned administrator privileges can create and register Apps.

Enabling the Developer Portal through the API Manager

By proceeding with the following steps, you will create an administrator account:

  1. In API Manager, if you have not previously pinned the UI navigation pane then click the Navigate to icon The Navigate to icon. The API Manager UI navigation pane opens. To pin the UI Navigation pane, click the Pin menu icon The Pin menu icon..
  2. Click Dashboard, then click Sandbox.
  3. In Sandbox, click Settings > Portal.
  4. Select IBM Developer Portal.
  5. Enter your Developer Portal URL, which will have been configured in the DNS settings during Developer Portal installation, then click Save.

    After a few minutes, you receive an email with a link to your Developer Portal site for that Catalog. The link is a single use only link for the administrator account. When the link is active and you have accessed it, you can change the password of this administrator account.

Creating a developer account in the Developer Portal

By proceeding with the following steps, you will create a developer account:

  1. Open a Developer Portal at the previously specified URL, then click Create an account and complete the fields. If the Create an account link is not visible, log out as Admin from the Developer Portal first.
    Note: Your email is used as your user name for the Developer Portal. The email address must be different from the address used for creating the administrator account.
  2. Click Create an account. Your Developer Portal site is activated and you receive a confirmation email as a result. Click the account activation link in the confirmation email to activate your account.
  3. To use the Developer Portal, click Login and sign in with the user credentials you specified.

Inside the Developer Portal

By proceeding with the following steps, you will create and register a new App:

  1. To view the Products available in the Developer Portal, click API Products.
  2. To view the details of the Branches API that you created in the tutorial, Creating an invoke REST API, click Banking Services, then click Branches.
  3. Review the GET /details operation that is available for use under the Paths heading.
  4. To download and review the OpenAPI (Swagger 2.0) definition of the Branches API, click the Download icon The Download icon.
  5. In the Developer Portal, click Apps.
    Note: You cannot register new applications if you are logged in as the administrator.
  6. [V5.0.5 or later]Click Create new App.
    [V5.0.4 and earlier]Click Register new Application.
    The Register application window opens.
  7. Enter the following values for the application that is being registered.
    Table 1. Values for registering the application
    Field Name Value
    Title Branch details
    Description An application that provides details of a branch
    The Register Application window.
  8. Click Submit.
  9. To add an image for the application, click Update in the Branch details App. The Upload application image window displays.
  10. Click Choose file and select the BankA logo, banka_logo.png, that you downloaded earlier.
  11. Click Submit.
  12. To select the Plan that you want to use with this application, click API Products.
  13. Click the Banking Services Product. The details of the Plan named Basic are displayed.
  14. Click Subscribe.
  15. Under the Application heading, select the Branch details radio button.
  16. Click Subscribe.

You have created and registered a Branch details App and subscribed it to a Plan.

Testing the Branches API in the Developer Portal

  1. Click API Products in the Developer Portal dashboard.
  2. Click the Banking Services Product, then select the Branches API from the list on the left of the window.
  3. Scroll down the right pane of the display to the Try this operation section, then click Call operation.
    The API Key Identification window.
    Note: If no response is received, navigate to the URL that is displayed at the beginning of the Try this operation section, in a new browser tab. Accept the security certificate, and then call the operation again.
  4. A returned response of 200 OK and the message body are displayed, indicating that the REST API operation call was successful.
    A successful response to the test API call.

What you did in this tutorial

In this tutorial, you completed the following activities:
  • Enabled a Developer Portal site and created an administrator account.
  • Created a developer account in the Developer Portal.
  • Created and registered a new App, and subscribed it to a Plan.
  • Tested an API in the Developer Portal.
For more tutorials, see the API Connect website on IBM developerWorks® https://developer.ibm.com/apiconnect/.

What to do next