To run through this exercise, you will need to have done the following steps:
Prerequisite 1: Installed the API Connect toolkit (Exercise 1).
Prerequisite 2: Generated a LoopBack app (Exercise 3).
Prerequisite 3: Created a database service on Bluemix and connected it to your LoopBack app (Exercise 4).
Prerequisite 4: Created database CRUD APIs in the API Designer (Exercise 5).
In this exercise we will test the APIs created in the previous exercise, explore the swagger-based API UI, and deploy your APIs to Bluemix.
Ensure that you are in the LoopBack directory you created in Exercise 3.
cd <path-to-loopback-folder>
The API Connect Designer is a GUI that allows developers to graphically create and manage their APIs.
apic edit
After a brief pause, the following message is displayed.
Express server listening on http://127.0.0.1:9000
The API Designer opens in your default web browser. If it prompts you to login, use your IBM Bluemix credentials.
On the bottom left of the API Designer, hit the Play button to start your application. After a short delay, your application will change to "Running", and you should see two links: Micro Gateway and Application.
The application link corresponds to the LoopBack application you created in the earlier exercises. It hosts the CRUD APIs you created in exercise 5. The Micro Gateway link corresponds to a fully-featured API gateway which proxies requests to your LoopBack application, allowing you test your gateway policies.
Now that the application is running, let's try calling some of the APIs!
On the top right of the API Designer, hit the Explore button. This takes you to an API Explorer, allowing you to explore the APIs defined in your generated Swagger doc.
Along the left side, you should see a number of operations for the Employee model you created in exercise 5. Let's try calling a series of these operations.
Let's test retrieving the list of Employees.
Navigate to the operation GET /Employees. Along the right side, there is a black section which shows you how to call that operation, provides boiler code, and has a button "Call Operation". Hit the button to call your GET operation.
You might get a CORS error. Please override the CORS error as suggested in exercise 2. Then, retry the Call Operation.
You should see a 200 OK response, along with a large list of employees in the database!
Let's test adding an employee to the database.
Navigate to the operation POST /$Employees to create a database entry. Scroll down to the "Call Operation" button, enter some data into the Parameters section (or use the Generate button), and hit call Operation.
You should see a 200 OK response, as well as a response body indicating that the database update has succeeded.
Once you're happy with the APIs you've created, you can push them the Bluemix, IBM's PaaS (Platform as a Service). Bluemix will host your APIs and allow you to graphically manage them.
Start by hitting the Publish button on the top right of the API Designer.
Choose Add and Manage Targets and Add IBM Bluemix target.
Ensure that the organization is correct -- it should correspond to your Bluemix email. Choose the Sandbox catalog.
Type a new application name: EmployeeAPI. Then hit the (+) button, and hit Save.
You've now created a publish target; deploy to it by hitting the Publish button and choosing the target you just created.
Choose both Publish Application and Stage or Publish products. Hit Publish. That's it! Your APIs are now securely pushed to the cloud.
It may take a few minutes for the application to get started. You can track the status of your application by using the CF client that you setup in Exercise 1. Simply run the cf app EmployeeAPI command:
$ cf app employeeapi
Showing health and status for app employeeapi in org [email protected] / space dev as [email protected]...
OK
requested state: started
instances: 0/1
usage: 256M x 1 instances
urls: apiconnect-be783035-d8e9-4ceb-b2d7-f16e9340c1d1.raghsrinusibmcom-dev.apic.mybluemix.net
last uploaded: Tue Sep 13 19:06:32 UTC 2016
stack: cflinuxfs2
buildpack: unknown
Once the requested state is started, the application is started and your APIs are being managed by API Connect!
In this exercise we explored, tested and deployed the application to Bluemix.
In the next two exercises, we'll explain how you can test your APIs and create a developer portal so others can consume your APIs.
Next up, Exercise 7: Explore your deployed APIs with the API Manager on Bluemix