The Product lifecycle

When you manage your Product versions, you move them through a series of lifecycle states. From initially staging a Product version to a Catalog, through to publishing to make the Product version available to your application developers, and to eventual retiring and archiving. The syndication feature in IBM® API Connect means that Product lifecycle states can also be managed within Spaces in the associated Catalog.

Product lifecycle state diagram

The following diagram shows the possible lifecycle states for a Product version, and the Product management operations that move a Product version from one lifecycle state to another. For example, the Retire operation moves a Product version from the Published to the Retired state.

Note: The same Product lifecycle states apply irrespective of whether your Product is managed within a Catalog, or within a Space in a Catalog. For more information about the syndication feature, see Using syndication in API Connect.

If approval is required for a Product management operation, an approval request is sent and the Product version moves to the pending state. When the request is approved, the operation is completed and the Product version moves to the next lifecycle state. If approval is not required, the operation is completed immediately.

Note: Approval is not required for the following lifecycle state transitions:

Retired to Staged.
Deprecated to Published.

For information on configuring Product lifecycle approvals for a Catalog, see Creating and configuring catalogs. For information on approving requests, see Approving Product lifecycle and subscription requests.

Note:

Approval for product lifecycle state changes in a catalog is disabled by default. You must explicitly enable the product lifecycle state changes that you want to enforce.
Product lifecycle approvals can be configured only at the Catalog level. This feature is not available at the Space level.
You can view the history of Product lifecycle requests and approvals, by clicking the options icon alongside the Product that you want to work with, and selecting View Approval History.

The following sections describe the various lifecycle states for a Product version.

Note: All references in this topic to a Catalog, can also be applied to a Space in a Catalog, unless specified otherwise.

Draft

The draft state for a Product or API is when a Product or API definition is not deployed and is not associated with any Catalog.

Staged

When you stage a Product, a copy of the Product version is deployed to the target Catalog. Staged is the initial state when you publish a Product. When a Product is in the staged state, it is not yet visible to, or subscribable by, any developers. For more information about staging a Product, see Staging a Product.

You stage a Product so that the appropriate approvals, internally within the organization, can be given for it to then be published. For information on configuring Product lifecycle approvals for a Catalog, see Creating and configuring Catalogs. For information on approving requests, see Approving Product lifecycle and subscription requests. For information on publishing a Product, see Publishing a Product.

Published

When you publish a Product, a fixed copy of the Product version is deployed to the target Catalog. The Product version is visible to, and subscribable by, the targeted developers or communities. When a Product is published in a Catalog, the visibility and subscription settings can be changed for the published version of that Product. Any further changes require a new version of the Product to be staged and published before they take effect.

If you replace a Published Product with a Staged or Deprecated Product, the replacement Product is published, and the replaced Product is retired.

If you supersede a Published Product with a Staged or Deprecated Product, the superseding Product is published, and the superseded Product is deprecated.

For more information about publishing a Product, see Publishing a Product.

Note: If you want to update a Product, you must republish it. The products:update command only updates a Product's metadata.

Deprecated

When you deprecate a Product, the Product version is visible only to developers whose applications are currently subscribed. No new subscriptions to the Plans in the Product are possible. For more information about deprecating Products, see Deprecating a Product.

A Product is also deprecated if you supersede it with another Product. For more information, see Superseding a Product with another Product.

Retired

When you retire a Product, the Product version can neither be viewed nor can its Plans be subscribed to, and all of the associated APIs are taken offline. For more information about retiring Products, see Retiring a Product.

A Product is also retired if you replace it with another Product. For more information, see Replacing a Product with another Product.