Approving Product lifecycle and subscription requests

To approve or decline requests to change the lifecycle state of a Product, and requests by application developers to subscribe to a Plan, use the Approvals tab in the Catalog that contains the associated Product in API Manager. [V5.0.5 or later]The syndication feature in IBM® API Connect means that you can also use the Approvals tab within a Space in a Catalog to approve or decline requests.

Before you begin

To see lifecycle change requests for a Product, you must either be the owner of the API provider organization, or you must be assigned a user role that has permission to view or manage Products in the Catalog that contains the Product. For information on configuring Product management permissions for a Catalog, see Creating and configuring Catalogs.

[V5.0.5 or later]The syndication feature in IBM API Connect means that Products can be contained within a Space in a Catalog. In this case, to see lifecycle change requests for a Product, you must either be the owner of the API provider organization, or you must be assigned a user role that has permission to view or manage Products in the Space that contains the Product. For information on configuring Product management permissions for a Space, see Managing user access in a Space.

About this task

If approvals for Product lifecycle changes are enabled for a Catalog, then an attempt to change the lifecycle state of a Product results in an approval request being sent. This request is displayed in the Approvals tab on the Catalog page, from where the request can be approved or declined. The authority to approve Product lifecycle state changes is restricted to users in specified roles. For information on configuring Product lifecycle approvals for a Catalog, see Creating and configuring Catalogs.
Note:
  • Approval for Product lifecycle state changes in a Catalog is disabled by default. You must explicitly enable the Product lifecycle state changes that you want to enforce.
  • [V5.0.5 or later]Product lifecycle approvals can be configured only at the Catalog level. This feature is not available at the Space level.

If a Product is set to require approval for subscription by application developers, then an attempt by an application developer to subscribe to the Product results in an approval request being sent. This request is displayed in the Approvals tab in the Catalog that contains the associated Product in API Manager, from where the request can be approved or declined.

Procedure

To work with a Product lifecycle change request, complete the following steps.

  1. On the Dashboard of the API Manager UI, select the Catalog that you want to work with.
    The Products tab of the Catalog opens, and all of the Products available in that Catalog are displayed. You can select which states are shown by clicking the filter icon in the Search banner and selecting one or more of the State check boxes.
  2. [V5.0.5 or later] If the Product that you want to work with is contained within a Space, select the required Space by clicking the down arrow next to the Catalog name in the submenu navigation banner.
    The Products tab of the Space opens, and all of the Products available in that Space are displayed. You can select which states are shown by using the filter check boxes in the State bar.
  3. Select the Approvals tab, then locate the Product lifecycle change request that you want to deal with.
  4. Click the Approve Approve icon, Decline Decline icon, or Cancel Request Cancel icon icon as required. Depending on the action you selected, either the Approve this request, Decline this request, or Cancel this request window opens.
    Note:
    • The option to cancel a lifecycle change request for a Product is available only if you are assigned a user role that has permission to manage Products in the Catalog in which the Product resides.
    • You can approve or decline lifecycle change requests only if you have a user role that has permission to approve Product publish requests in the Catalog in which the changes will take place.

    For information on configuring Product management permissions for a Catalog, see Creating and configuring Catalogs.

  5. Optional: Enter a comment.
  6. Click Approve, Decline, or Cancel Request.

To work with a subscription request, complete the following steps.

  1. On the Dashboard of the API Manager UI, select the Catalog that you want to work with.
    The Products tab of the Catalog opens, and all of the Products available in that Catalog are displayed. You can select which states are shown by clicking the filter icon in the Search banner and selecting one or more of the State check boxes.
  2. [V5.0.5 or later] If the Product that you want to work with is contained within a Space, select the required Space by clicking the down arrow next to the Catalog name in the submenu navigation banner.
    The Products tab of the Space opens, and all of the Products available in that Space are displayed. You can select which states are shown by using the filter check boxes in the State bar.
  3. Select the Approvals tab, then locate the subscription requests that you want to deal with.
    Note: To see subscription approvals, you must either be the owner of the API provider organization, or you must be assigned a user role that has permission to view or approve subscription requests. For information on creating and assigning user roles, see Administering user access.
  4. Click the Approve Approve icon or Decline Decline icon icon as required.
    Note: The options to approve or decline a subscription request are available only if you are assigned a user role that has permission to approve subscription requests. For information on configuring permissions for a Catalog, see Creating and configuring Catalogs For information on assigning user roles, see Managing Catalog membership.

Results

For a subscription request, an email is sent confirming whether you approved or declined the request. For a request to change the lifecycle state of a Product, no email is sent.