Consumer Catalog and Developer Portal considerations

A customer can have a Developer Portal, Consumer Catalog, or both to test and subscribe to the APIs published in the Catalog.

Consumer Catalog

The Consumer Catalog is a non-customizable, web-based site for application developers to test and subscribe to the API published in your Catalog. The site uses less resources when compared to the Developer Portal and offers quick and basic credential access. The Consumer Catalog is ideal for smaller API catalogs and internal users, who are looking for a lightweight consumer experience with basic functionality.

You can enable or disable the Consumer Catalog in the API Manager under Catalog settings. By default, the Consumer Catalog is enabled. For more information, see Configuring Consumer Catalogs on API Manager.

The Consumer Catalog site supports the following key features:
  • Create consumer accounts
  • Delete consumer accounts
  • Create new applications
  • View analytics for an application
  • View the available API products
  • Local user registry, OIDC user registry, or LDAP registry
  • Test the API
  • Subscribe to the API
Attention:

It is not possible to modify the Consumer Catalog settings except for the options provided in the Catalog settings. For example, the self-service feature of the Consumer Catalog depends on your catalog settings. If the Self service onboarding option is not enabled for your catalog, the user cannot sign up to the Consumer Catalog. If you want to control the user experience, configure a Developer Portal for your site.

Known limitations

If your catalog has more than one user registry, the default user registry is used. Furthermore, the Consumer Catalog does not support the following options:
  • Twitter OIDC user registries
  • Content or documentation update after the API or Product publish
  • Consumer organization management:
    • Changing the consumer organization ownership
    • Viewing users
    • Editing users
    • Adding users
    • Removing users
  • Custom consumer catalog URL
  • Branding
  • Customization
  • Configuration options
  • Monetization
Note: If you have any suggestions to enhance the Consumer Catalog in future releases, you can raise your ideas in the IBM Ideas portal.

Developer Portal

The Developer Portal is a fully customizable, web-based portal site for application developers to explore, discover, test, and subscribe to the APIs published in your Catalog. The portal also provides extra features, such as application and consumer organization analytics, forums, blogs, and ratings, for socialization and collaboration. The default configuration supports consumer organization management, content management, user registry management, and other options. The Developer Portal is ideal for larger API catalogs and external users, who are looking for complete developer experience.

You can create the Developer Portal in the API Manager under Catalog settings. For more information, see Creating Developer Portal.

Important: Each portal site created, even if unused, uses resources in the portal service that's associated with the catalog, and more infrastructure might be required. If you do not want to modify your portal site, you can consider configuring a Consumer Catalog.