Validate API specification

The Validate API specification policy validates the incoming request and outgoing responses against the API's various specifications.

In the Validate API specification policy, specifications such as schema, query parameters, path parameters, cookie parameters, content-types, and HTTP Headers are referenced in their corresponding formats. The request sent to the API by an application must conform with the structure or format specified. The incoming requests are validated against the API specifications in this policy to conform to the structure or format that the API expects.

In IBM API Studio, the kind ValidateAPISpecification identifies the policy.

Example of a Validate API Specification policy in code view.

kind: ValidateAPISpecification
apiVersion: api.ibm.com/v2
metadata:
  name: validate-api-spec
  version: 1.0
  namespace: wm_project
spec:
  input: request #Required
  validate:
    request:
      schema:
        validate: true 
      query: true
      path: true
      header: true 
      cookie: true
      contentType: true 
  extensions:
    webm-gateway:
      apiVersion: api.ibm.com/v2
      spec:
        validate:
          custom-headers:
            condition: (${request.httpMethod} equals POST) or (${request.headers.name} notEquals ${request.payload.jsonPath[$.customer.name]})
          schema:
            feature:
              - name: TOLERATE_DUPLICATES
                value: true
              - name: DISALLOW_DOCTYPE
                value: false

For the ValidateAPISpecification policy kind, configure these specifications:

Code view	Form view	Description
`validate`	N.A.	Denotes the API Specifications to validate. Validates the Request or Response against the definitions in the API specification.
`schema`	Schema	Defines validation features that affect how schema compliance is enforced. Configure the following under the `feature` spec in the code view, or use the Add condition option in the form view: `name` and `value`. Specify the name of the feature for XML parsing during XML schema validation in the code view under `name`, or in the form view under Feature name. Specify the value of the feature for XML parsing during XML schema validation in the code view under `value`, or in the form view under Feature value. Specify whether the feature value is `True` or `False` in the code view.
`query`	Query parameters	Validates the query parameters in the incoming request against the query parameters that are defined in the API Specification of the request.
`path`	Path parameters	Validates the path parameters in the incoming request against the query parameters that are defined in the API Specification of the request.
`cookie`	Cookie parameters	Validates the cookie parameters in the incoming request against the query parameters that are defined in the API Specification of the request.
`header`	Header	Validates the HTTP headers in the incoming request against the query parameters that are defined in the API Specification of the request.
`contentType`	Content types	Validates the content types in the incoming request against the query parameters that are defined in the API Specification of the request.
`custom-headers`	Custom headers	Defines the condition for applying custom headers. The condition evaluates an expression that checks whether the incoming request meets specific criteria. It can include comparison and logical operators such as `AND`and `OR`. You can use the following operators: `Equals` `Not equals` `Contains` `Not Contains` `Exists` `Not Exists` `Range` `Greater Than` `Lesser Than` `schema`. Validates the request payload against the appropriate schema. You can provide the following features for XML schema validation: `Feature name`. Specifies the name of the feature for XML parsing during XML schema validation. `Feature value`. Specifies whether the feature value is `True` or `False`.