Installing the toolkit

You can install the toolkit that provides CLI commands, and the API Designer user interface, for IBM® API Connect.

To install and run the toolkit, complete the following steps:

1. Download the toolkit compressed file.
   • To download the toolkit from IBM Fix Central, complete the following steps:
     1. Open the IBM Fix Central site in your browser.
     2. In the Product selector field, enter API Connect, then select IBM API Connect from the drop down list.
     3. Select your installed 2018.x.y version from the Installed Version list, then click Continue. If you do not know your installed IBM API Connect version, contact your administrator.
     4. In the Text field, enter toolkit, then click Continue.
     5. Select the required file, as identified in Table 1.
        Note: When you download from IBM Fix Central, the release number is appended to the file name.
     6. Click Continue, then follow the instructions to complete the download operation.
   • To download the toolkit from either the Cloud Manager or API Manager user interface, complete the following steps:
     1. Cloud Manager or API Manager user interface.
     2. Select Help () in the navigation.
     3. Select Install API Connect CLI & API Designer.
     4. Select CLI or CLI + LoopBack + Designer according to your preferred option.
     5. Select your platform to download the toolkit compressed file.
     6. Close the Install API Connect CLI & API Designer window.
2. Extract the contents of the toolkit compressed file to a folder of your choice.
   The contents of the file depend on the your chosen toolkit option and platform, as follows:

   Table 2. Toolkit compressed file contents, by option and platform

   Toolkit option	Mac OS X	Linux	Windows
   CLI	apic-slim	apic-slim	apic-slim.exe
   CLI + LoopBack + Designer	apic api_designer-mac.zip: contains the API Designer user interface application.	apic api_designer-linux	apic.exe api_designer-win.exe

   The apic-slim or apic-slim.exe file is the CLI for IBM API Connect.

   The apic or apic.exe file is the CLI for IBM API Connect including LoopBack support.

   Tip: If you are using the CLI option, then if you rename the apic-slim file to apic, or the apic-slim.exe file to apic.exe, you can run the CLI commands exactly as documented, copy and paste sample commands from the documentation, and use any command scripts as-is if you later move to the CLI + LoopBack + Designer option.

   The api_designer-platform file is the API Designer user interface application for the specified platform.

3. Run the CLI.
   • For the Mac OS X or Linux platforms, complete the following steps:
     1. Open a terminal instance and navigate to the folder where you extracted the contents of the toolkit compressed file.
     2. Make the CLI file an executable file by entering the following command:

        chmod +x download_name

        Where download_name is the name of the toolkit file that you downloaded, either apic or apic-slim.
     3. Run CLI commands as follows:

        ./apic command_name_and_parameters

        or

        ./apic-slim command_name_and_parameters

        For details of the CLI commands, see apic.
   • For the Windows platform, complete the following steps:
     1. Open a terminal window and navigate to the folder where you extracted the contents of the toolkit compressed file.
     2. Run CLI commands as follows:

        apic command_name_and_parameters

        or

        apic-slim command_name_and_parameters

        For details of the CLI commands, see apic.

   Tip: Add the folder location of your CLI file to your PATH variable so that you can run CLI commands from anywhere in your file system.
4. Launch the API Designer user interface by running the application from the location to which you extracted the contents of the toolkit compressed file.
   Note:

   • To uninstall the API Designer application on a Windows platform with a non Administrator account, complete the following steps:
     1. In Windows File Explorer, navigate to the USER_HOME\AppData\Local\Programs\api-designer folder.
     2. Run the Uninstall API Designer application application. Do not use the Add or remove programs window.
   • To uninstall the API Designer application on a Windows platform with an Administrator account, you can either run the Uninstall API Designer application application, or you can use the Add or remove programs window.