API First design in API Gateway

Starting webMethods API Gateway 10.5, the application provides seamless support for API First approach for your APIs.

Using webMethods API Gateway, you can define API contract for the APIs and download provider specification for the APIs that you create. As a provider, you might not want to expose all resources and methods of an API to consumers. The API Contract given to the consumer has only the part of the API exposed to the consumer whereas the provider specification consists of the complete specification. The API contract is useful for providers to implement the API.

You can enable mocking and activate the API for consumption. The mocked version of the API returns respective responses for the consumer requests. These responses ensure the required user experience to the consumers.

When the API is ready to be implemented, you can implement your APIs in Integration Server or any other implementation server. If you are using Integration Server, you can add the required Integration Server instance in webMethods API Gateway. You can add multiple Integration Server instances and publish your API to the required instance. If you are using Integration Server, you can send the API contract from webMethods API Gateway. Else, the API contract must be retrieved from webMethods API Gateway.

After implementation, you can update the actual implementation end point to webMethods API Gateway. This step is mandatory to disable API mocking and divert the invocations to the actual end point.

The following workflow shows the high-level workflow of the API First implementation approach by using webMethods API Gateway: