Getting Started: Publishing a Simple API Using Policy Manager

A guide to installing and configuring the Community Manager developer portal, and then publishing an API using Policy Manager.

Table of Contents

Overview

This document will walk you through the steps to add and configure Community Manager (CM) on top of the Policy Manager container. Then it walks you through how to create a tenant, publish your API in CM, and send a test request from CM.

Prerequisites

This document assumes that you've already installed the platform, created and started the Policy Manager and Network Director containers, and configured those containers. If you need instructions on how to complete those tasks, see Managing a Simple API.

Step 1: Add the Community Manager feature

The simplest way to install Community Manager is to install it into the same container as Policy Manager. Configuration consists of installing features, and managing schemas.

Downloading Community Manager

  1. Log in to the support site support.akana.com.
  2. Under "Popular Knowledgebase Articles," click CM/PM compatibility support matrix. Review the matrix for your version of Policy Manager, and note the most recent version of Community Manager you can download.
  3. Go back to the Support Center and click Downloads.
  4. Select EnterpriseAPIPlatform.
  5. Select CommunityManager.
  6. Select the version of Community Manager you noted in Step 2.
  7. Download the zip file.
  8. Unzip the zip file into the sm70/lib directory.

Installing features in the Policy Manager container

  1. Log in to the Container Administration Console.
  2. Click on the Repository tab, and click the Refresh icon in the top-right corner of the list. You should see "Akana Community Manager Repository" and "Akana OAuth Repository."
  3. Click the "Available Features" tab.
  4. Check Akana Community Manager. In the lower-right corner, click Install Feature.
  5. The Install Wizard will run through the installation steps. Click Install Feature.
  6. When the installation is complete, you will see a pop-up window. Click Configure to complete the deployment using the following wizard step.

Managing Schemas

In the Manage Schemas Wizard you'll see a list of schemas that are available to install, as well as schemas that you've already installed. Select the schemas you want to add - typically selecting all of the available schemas.

Note: Do not check the box for installed schemas unless you want to uninstall it. Checking an installed schema and clicking Finish can cause the schema to uninstall, and could cause data loss.

After installing the schemas, the system will recommend a restart. Restart.

Installing Plug-ins in the Policy Manager container

  1. Log in to the Container Administration Console.
  2. Click on the "Available Features" tab, and choose Plug-in from the filter drop down.
  3. Check Akana Community Manager Policy Console and click Install Feature.
  4. The Install Wizard will run through the installation steps. Click Install Feature.

After installing the Plug-in, the system will recommend a restart. Restart.

Installing Plug-ins in the Network Director

  1. Log in to the Network Director Console.
  2. Click on the Available Features tab.
  3. Ensure your Filter is set to Plug-in.
  4. Select Akana API Security Policy Handler.
  5. Click Install Feature. Then click Install Feature again.

After installing the Plug-in, the system will recommend a restart. Restart.

Step 2: Create a Community Manager Tenant

Next you'll need to enter the command to create the Community Manager Tenant. At the same time, you need to add your parameters for your CM Tenant. The parameters are explained below the command. The command is as follows:

./jython.sh ../scripts/Lib/soa/atmosphere/tenant.py -a -v [url] [email] [password] [tenant name] [tenant id] [address] [console address] [theme] [contact email address] [from email address] [virtual hosts]
Command Command Parameter Detail
--url URL Enter the Atmosphere container URL.
--email Email The user name to use when registering with the Community Manager developer portal.
--password Password The password to use when registering with the Community Manager developer portal.
--tenant Tenant name The name you give to your tenant.
--tenantId Tenant ID The TenantID is all lowercase, with no special characters. It identifies your tenant.
--address Address The url for the trusted Federation Member.
--consoleAddress Console address The Console url for the trusted federation member.
--theme Theme The theme to be used by the Tenant.
--contactEmailAddress Contact email address The email address to contact regarding issues with the tenant.
--fromEmailAdress From email address The email address for any generated email.
--virtualHosts Virtual hosts a comma-delimited list of host names used to identify the tenant.

To see an example of how it looks as a command string:

./jython.sh ../scripts/Lib/soa/atmosphere/tenant.py -a -v --url http://mytenant.local:9900 --email email@address.com --password Password1 --tenantName mytenant --tenantId mytenant --address http://mytenant.local:9900 --consoleAddress http://mytenant.local:9900/atmosphere --theme default --contactEmailAddress email@address.com --fromEmailAddress email@address.com --virtualHosts mytenant.local

Verify your Tenant

You'll want to verify that your Tenant is set up correctly by entering your console address into a browser. Log in to the Tenant using your email address and password you assigned in the parameter script.

Note that the landing page will not have any content until you add it.

Step 3: Publish the API from Policy Manager to Community Manager

You can only create APIs using Virtual Services, and these Virtual Services must be in your Tenant Organization. In this example, it is called "mytenant."

  1. Verify that your Virtual Service is in the Tenant Organization. You can either move it, or create it specifically in the Tenant Organization.

  2. Attach a consumer authentication security policy to your virtual service. This serves to authenticate applications that call the API. To do this:

    a. Go to Policy Manager.

    b. From the Organization Tree, click on Tenant - Services - virtual service.

    c. From Policy Attachments, in the "Operational" section click Manage.

    d. Click Policies - Operational Policies - AtmosphereApplicationSecurityPolicy. Click Apply.

    Examples of this policy include:

    • API Consumer Application Security Policy
    • OAuth Security Policy
  3. Log onto the Tenant you created in Step 2.
  4. Click the plus sign in the top-middle of the screen, then click Add New API.
  5. Enter the details of the API, such as the name, description, version, name, and version description. Click Next.
  6. On the Target API screen, in the "Service Key" field, enter the name of the API you've entered into the Policy Manager. (You might need to log into Policy Manager to retrieve the name if you have forgotten it. ) Click Finish.

Step 4: Send a test request from Community Manager

To get the end result of sending a test request from the Community manager, you'll need to create an app, register it, activate it, and then you can send the request.

Create the App

  1. Log onto Community Manager.
  2. Click the plus sign at the top-middle portion of your screen, click Add a New App.
  3. Enter the details of the app, such as name, version id, tags, description.
  4. Click Save.

Register the App

  1. Click on the cogs icon to access the APIs.
  2. Find the API you want to connect, then click Access.
  3. You'll see your application name, click Add, then Next.
  4. Choose your environment. Click Next.
  5. (Optional) You have the option to add legal agreements. If you have any, add them here.
  6. Click Save.

Activate the App

  1. From the Community Manager, click the cogs icon to access the APIs.
  2. Find the API to activate and click on its link.
  3. From the left navigation pane, click Apps.
  4. In the "Production" column, click the drop-down and select Activate. Then click Confirm.

Send a test request

  1. From the Community Manager, click the Applications icon.
  2. Select your App.
  3. On the left navigation pane, click Dev Console.
  4. In the "API" field, choose your API from the drop down. The other fields should fill in automatically.
  5. In the field Accept - Please specify: enter application/xml.
  6. Click Run It.

After running it, you can scroll down to see the results and ensure it ran successfully. Also, from the left navigation pane, you can click on Monitor - Logs to ensure it was successful.