API Lifecycle

Overview

API advocacy is on an all-time rise. It is essential to understand the concept of MuleSoft API and its lifecycle in depth before adopting it across all areas of business. Organizations must learn all the tools facilitated by the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform to meet the rising challenges that necessitate, and flexibly adapt the API culture to continue developing and maintaining the same.

What is an API?

API stands for an Application Programming interface. An interface can be defined as a place where independent and unrelated applications can communicate and exchange information.

API Lifecycle in MuleSoft

API lifecycle management is the supervision of an API across all of the stages from creation to retirement. This includes everything from designing, publishing, documenting, securing, and analyzing APIs. The MuleSoft best practices in API development guide us to create API which is easily discoverable, and reusable by different LOBs.

3 Stages of the API Lifecycle

MuleSoft teaches organizations to emphasize the importance of taking an API-first approach which treats API as a product and focuses on enhancing its reusability. The end result of this approach is a well-oiled, articulated, and secure API that serves as amplified experiences.

The three stages of the API lifecycle are design, implementation, and management.

Anypoint Platform provides all the necessary tools to complete the API lifecycle. Let us explore each lifecycle stage in detail.

Design

The first step of the lifecycle, designing an API starts with an outside-in perspective. Beginning at the interface and then developing the implementation of the API.

Developers start by creating an interface to determine the look and behavior of the API. MuleSoft provides API Designer to create API specifications and also mock them as a service to lay the foundation for the API implementation. This is usually coined as the “Design-first” approach which is followed by the API design lifecycle.

This step includes 4 levels:

Design: Translating the business requirement into logical implementation by using service modeling languages such as RAML, OAS, etc.

Simulate: Model API resources, methods, and payloads/codes

Feedback: Use the mock service provided in the Design Center by MuleSoft to publish the interactive console and create notebooks and receive feedback

Validate: Modify API design based on developer feedback, continue to validate

Implementation

API implementation is the critical next step toward enabling the API. After the validation of the design of an API, the next step is to write the code to implement the design.

API implementation can be categorized into two stages: building and testing.

Building: MuleSoft provides Anypoint Studio to enable the development process. It allows the developers to build on top of the API design created in the Design Center.

Testing: After the API is built, it goes through rounds of testing to ensure its functioning.

Management

It is essential that after the completion of an API, the said API is managed in accordance with the best practices in security and governance. It is key to ensure that the API works as expected until retirement. MuleSoft provides a tool called API Manager to help us monitor the API.

Within this lifecycle stage are the following steps: Secure, Deploy, Monitor, Troubleshoot, and Manage.

Who manages the API Lifecycle?

An individual or a team of individuals may be assigned to manage the API lifecycle. An API manager oversees the full lifecycle, while in bigger organizations, the duties may be divided into portions.