APIS discovery service
The APIs Discovery Service is a service that exposes machine readable metadata about APIs, enabling users to build client libraries, IDE plugins, and other tools that interact with these APIs.
1. A computer-implemented method for managing access to metadata related to application programming interfaces (APIs), the method comprising:
receiving, by a server, a request for metadata related to one or more APIs from an API client;
searching, by the server, an API directory based on the request, the API directory having a plurality of APIs each of which have a respective directory entry and a respective discovery document, to find a directory entry corresponding with the request, the directory entry having a link to a location of a discovery document;
parsing the directory entry to obtain the link to the location of the discovery document; and
retrieving, by the server, the discovery document from the API directory based on the link in the directory entry, that contains machine-readable metadata related to one or more functions of the one or more APIs.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the directory entry and discovery document are transferred in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the directory and the discovery document are each accessed using HTTPS.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the discovery document comprises a list of API-specific properties.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the discovery document comprises authentication information for the API.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the discovery document comprises information about the resources provided by the API.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the discovery document comprises information about the methods provided by the API.
8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the information about the methods is stored in key-value format.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising: building a custom client library based on the discovery document.
10. A system for managing access to metadata related to application programming interfaces (APIs), the system comprising:
one or more processors, configured to receive a request for metadata at a server related to one or more APIs from an API client;
a directory data repository, configured to store directory entries and discovery documents corresponding to a plurality of APIs;
a directory data searching unit, configured to search the directory data repository based on the request to find a directory entry corresponding with the request, the directory entry having a link to a location of a discovery document; and
a discovery document retrieval unit, configured to:
parse the directory entry to obtain the link to the location of the discovery document;
retrieve the discovery document from the directory data repository, based on the link in the directory entry, that contains machine-readable metadata related to one or more functions of the one or more API.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the directory entry and discovery document are transferred in JSON format.
12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the directory and the discovery document are each accessed using HTTPS.
13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the discovery document comprises a list of API-specific properties.
14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the discovery document comprises authentication information for the API.
15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the discovery document comprises information about the resources provided by the API.
16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the discovery document comprises information about the methods provided by the API.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the information about the methods is stored in key-value format.
18. The system of claim 10 , further comprising:
a client library building unit configured to build a custom client library based on the discovery document.
19. A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to execute a method for managing access to metadata related to application programming interfaces (APIs), the method comprising:
receiving, by a server, a request for metadata related to one or more APIs from an API client;
searching, by the server, an API directory based on the request, the API directory having a plurality of APIs each of which have a respective directory entry and a respective discovery document, to find a directory entry corresponding with the request, the directory entry having a link to a location of a discovery document;
parsing the directory entry to obtain the link to the location of the discovery document; and
retrieving, by the server, the discovery document from the API directory based on the link in the directory entry, that contains machine-readable metadata related to one or more functions of the one or more APIs.