Q&A: How to Build a Successful API Program

[This article was written by Reza Shafil.]

Thanks to those of you who attended our webinar last week, “The API Love Triangle: Delivering Successful API Programs,” and we hope that you found the session valuable. Now you know that the API love triangle is composed of three key people and that the success of your API program depends on satisfying the needs of each:

• The API Developer, who’s always looking for ways to be more efficient, to get their APIs to market faster, to re-use existing artifacts rather than re-creating things from scratch.

• The Application Developer, who wants to know which APIs are available for use and when they find one that fits their project, how can they get started with it quickly?

• The IT Leader, who wants to make sure that the APIs their team releases are properly secured and managed and that developers use those APIs instead of creating their own.

There were a lot of great questions during the Q&A session, so many in fact that I didn’t have a chance to answer them all live. So, I’m taking the opportunity here to respond to some of the questions that remained outstanding.

Q: Can I convert a WDSL project to a RAML project?

A: Yes. You can do so by creating a WSDL based proxy then modifying the proxy using Anypoint Studio so that its frontend is an APIkit-based RAML project and to perform the necessary data transformations and mapping.

Q: Can I install the software located on anypoint.mulesoft.com on my own server? If yes where I can download the installation files/binaries?

A: Anypoint Platform for APIs is hybrid solution and some components can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud. Please refer to the system architecture document for a more detailed description of current deployment options.

Q: How would you expose the same API for internal and external use with different SLAs?

A: This can be done easily by creating two separate proxies (represented by two different API versions in API Manager) on top of the same API.

Q: Do you have any developer sandbox for people interested in learning about the product? How can we deploy the demo you have showed?

A: Yes, we do have a developer sandbox where you can get started working with Anypoint Platform for APIs. Just create a free account at anypoint.mulesoft.com/apiplatform.

Then read the product tutorial and getting started guide here »