Exporting and importing assets and configurations

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webMethods API Gateway supports the import and export of the assets that you create or configure in API Gateway. You can import archives of APIs, global policies, and other related assets that you exported and re-create them in webMethods API Gateway. This feature enables easy export and archive of assets. When needed, import them to a different instance of webMethods API Gateway or redeploy them on the same instance.

Each artifact in an archive is associated with a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) that is unique across all webMethods API Gateway installations. When you are importing an archive, the UUID helps in determining whether the corresponding artifact is already available in webMethods API Gateway. You can configure whether you want to overwrite the existing artifact or keep the available artifact during the import process.

Note:
  • The APIs, applications, policies, and aliases you import become visible in webMethods API Gateway immediately.
  • Active APIs are replaced during import with the updated API and the API level policies.
  • The updated APIs and updated API level policies do not become effective for ongoing requests.
  • Active APIs are replaced during deployment with zero downtime without breaking ongoing requests.
  • Imported applications become effective immediately. Even the ongoing requests are affected.
  • Imported aliases and global policies do not affect ongoing requests.
  • You cannot define multiple aliases with the same name in webMethods API Gateway. Overwriting of aliases based on their names during import is not supported. Aliases, like other assets, are identified based on their UUID. Hence, if you want to overwrite an alias by importing, then make sure that the alias imported has the same UUID as the one in the target instance. Do not attempt to modify and import an archive file because import of modified archive files is not supported.
  • Do not attempt to modify and import an archive file because import of modified archive files is not supported. You can export archives from an earlier version to a later version of webMethods API Gateway. However, you cannot import from a later version to an earlier version. For example, you cannot import an 10.5 asset into a 10.3 webMethods API Gateway. You can also export and import assets by using the API Gateway REST APIs. For more information, see API Gateway Archive.

When you export an asset, the dependent assets are also exported. If any of the exported assets contain secure strings, the user credential information (passwords) associated with the assets is also exported. When you import this exported asset, webMethods API Gateway enforces conditions to check the order of import. The dependency evaluation between assets, and the dependent assets along with the user credential data are imported. For example, if you import an API, webMethods API Gateway checks and makes sure that all associated policies and aliases are imported along with any passwords, if present, before you import the API.

The Overwrite option available for all the assets lets you decide whether the asset must be imported if an existing version of the asset exists in the target instance. In scenarios where you select to overwrite the asset in the target instance, webMethods API Gateway also checks for any associated passwords and applies the overwrite. No separate overwrite option is available for the passwords during import. The password uses the overwrite option of the asset that it is associated with. For example, if you are importing an alias with a password, the overwrite option that is provided for the alias is applied for the password as well. If set to true, the password is overwritten if it exists in the system.

Functional privileges

The Export or Import assets and Purge and Archive events category on the Access profile details page has the available import and export privileges. Assign the following functional privileges for the needed permissions:

  • Import assets- To import assets previously exported assets from a local system.
  • Export assets- To export assets and save them on a local system.

Accessing the Export and Import commands in the webMethods API Gateway user interface

The export command is either an option with the label Export, or the icon icon. You can export multiple items within lists, such as APIs in the API page, by using the export command in the list menu.

You can import assets by using the user menu Import command.