Creating a REST proxy API from an existing OpenAPI service

If you have an existing OpenAPI described target service that you want to expose through an IBM® API Connect API definition, you can create a proxy API and specify the target endpoint.

To compose a proxy API from an existing OpenAPI service, complete the following steps.

1. In the navigation pane, click Develop, and then click Add > API.
   The Add API: Create screen is displayed.
2. Select From existing OpenAPI service, and click Next.
3. To upload the service information from an OpenAPI file, you can either drag and drop your file, or browse and select the file that you want to use. Valid file types are YAML, YML, etc.
   • Click Browse and browse for the OpenAPI file.
   • Drag and drop the file into the active area.
   After you upload the file, the OpenAPI specification is evaluated and a message displays whether it is valid.
4. Click Next. Specify the API summary in the Info screen. You can fine-tune the API after it is created.
   • The Title can include special characters but should be kept short so that it can be easily displayed in the user interface.
   • The Name is entered automatically. The value in the Name field is a single string that is used to identify the Product in developer toolkit CLI commands. To view the CLI commands to manage draft APIs, see apic draft-apis.
   • The Version corresponds to the value of the info.version property of the API's OpenAPI definition. The version.release.modification version numbering scheme is recommended; for example 1.0.0.
   • The Base path is the URL segment of the API and does not include the host name or any additional segments for paths or operations. The base path cannot include special characters and must begin with a / character even if it is otherwise empty.
   • The optional Description helps to identify the API.
5. Click Next. In the Secure section, configure the API security that you require.
   • Secure using Client ID - Select this option to require an Application to provide a Client ID (API Key). This causes the X-IBM-Client-Id parameter to be included in the request header for the API. If selected, you can then select whether to limit the API calls on a per key (per Client ID) basis:
     • Limit API calls on a per key basis - If selected, you must configure the rate limit that you require. Rate limits control the maximum number of calls allowed within a time period (hour, minute, month or day). For example, 100 calls per hour.
     For information about security options in IBM API Connect, see Configuring API security.
   • CORS - Select this option to enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) support for your API. This allows your API to be accessed from another domain.
6. Optional: (API Manager UI only) Select Activate API if you want to immediately use the API for further development and testing.
   Note:

   • When you select the Activate API option, API Connect automatically completes the following actions:
     • Creates a draft Product, adds the API to the Product, and publishes the Product to the Sandbox Catalog so that the API is available to be called. The Product has the title api_title auto product. Note that if you later want to delete the draft Product, you cannot delete it directly; instead, delete the API and the draft Product is deleted together with the API; see Deleting an API definition. If you want to remove the Product from any Catalogs to which it is published, you must do this separately; see Removing a Product from a Catalog
     • Subscribes the Sandbox test application to the Product so that you can immediately test the API in the test environment. For information on testing an API, see Testing an API with the assembly test tool.
   • You cannot use the Activate API option if lifecycle approval is enabled in the Sandbox Catalog for the Stage, Publish, or Replace actions. If any such lifecycle approvals are enabled, then to be able to use the Activate API option they must be disabled; for information on lifecycle approval settings, see Creating and configuring Catalogs.
   • To use the Activate API option, you must be assigned a role that has the Product:Manage and Subscription:Manage permissions. The pre-supplied Developer role has these permissions by default; if you are assigned a custom role it must have these permissions. For more information, see Creating custom roles.
7. Click Next to create your API definition.

   The Summary panel displays messages as the definition is created, and the selected security options and rate limits are enforced.

   If you selected Activate API, the wizard populates an API Endpoint URL that you can use in testing. If you have also selected Secure using Client ID, the wizard displays a Client ID and Client Secret you can use.

8. Select one of the following options:
   • To further configure your API, click Edit API. For details, see Editing an API definition.
   • If you do not want to configure your API further at this time, click the left arrow icon to return to the APIs and Products page; you can then move on immediately to another task. For details on how to configure your API later, see Editing an API definition.