Set up your portal: the onboarding plan

Setting up an API Portal runs in six phases, from configuring the portal to publishing content. The dashboard's Getting Started page tracks the same work as a checklist in two tracks. This page is the map: it sets the order, says who usually owns each phase, and links to the guide for each.

What does the Getting Started page show?

Your setup progress in two tracks, each with a percentage complete. Technical Onboarding covers the gateway, sign-in and access. Portal & Product Setup covers what developers see. Open it from Getting Started in the sidebar.

A step with nothing done yet reads Pending.

The Technical Onboarding track also holds two buttons. Run the wizard starts the guided setup, and reads Resume setup once you have progress. Invite your tech lead hands the track to someone else. Until a gateway is connected, the track also shows Connect your API gateway to start serving APIs.

Organisation Admins also see Skip this screen next time. The setting applies to the whole organization: with it ticked, the dashboard opens on Consumers → Requests after sign-in instead of Getting Started.

How do you hand the technical setup to your tech lead?

Use Invite your tech lead on the Getting Started page. It invites one person as a Configuration Owner, the role that connects gateways, identity providers and authorization servers. Only an Organisation Admin can send the invite.

1. Open Getting Started and choose Invite your tech lead.
2. Enter their Email, and optionally a Context note (optional) of up to 500 characters.
3. Check the Role. It is fixed as Configuration Owner.
4. Click Send invite. The form confirms Invite sent to and their address.

When your tech lead accepts and signs in, the dashboard opens an overview of the technical steps and their status. From there, or from Getting Started, they can run the guided setup.

The invitation expires after one month. An address that already has an Apiable dashboard account cannot be invited, and each person can send a limited number of invitations per hour. If you see Could not send the invite., check that you are an Organisation Admin and that the address is not already registered, then click Retry. To invite someone with a different role, use Members and roles.

In what order should you set up your portal?

Settings, Organization, Integrations, Portal content, Products, then Content. Accounts and integrations come first because plans depend on a connected gateway, and paid plans on a payment provider. Content comes last because it documents the products you have built.

Who sets up an API Portal?

Apiable has five assignable roles, plus the Organisation Owner, who created the organization and holds the Organisation Admin role. You assign roles in phase 2. Each role owns the phases that match what the dashboard lets it manage.

Phase 1: How do you configure portal settings?

Set the portal's identity and access rules first. Configure the portal name and registration, including the terms users accept, then restrict access and turn on the security you need.

1. Set the portal name, registration approval, any extra sign-up fields, and the Registration acknowledgement text users accept. Renaming the portal needs an Organisation Admin.
2. Add your marketing and SEO details, such as Google Tag Manager and Open Graph tags.
3. Connect a custom domain if you serve the portal on your own address.
4. Set portal security, including restricted access and multi-factor authentication.

Phase 2: How do you set up accounts and roles?

Invite the people your team needs and give each a role. Add the groups that govern access and approvals. Only an Organisation Admin can invite people, change roles or remove members.

1. Invite an account for each team member.
2. Assign one or more of the five roles to each account.
3. Set up the groups that control access and the groups that approve requests.

To hand the technical phase to one person straight away, use Invite your tech lead on the Getting Started page, as described above.

Phase 3: How do you connect integrations?

Run the guided setup for the technical track, then connect Stripe. The guided setup walks four steps in order: Gateway, Authentication, Authorization and Access Control. Run the wizard on the Getting Started or Integrations page starts it.

1. Gateway. Connect your API gateway. The guided setup connects Amazon API Gateway. For Azure API Management, Kong or Apigee, connect the gateway from its card on the Integrations page first; the guided setup then shows it as already connected.
2. Authentication. Choose the identity provider people use to sign in to your API Portal. See Identity Providers for how the connection goes live.
3. Authorization. Choose how authorization is enforced on your gateway, and connect an authorization server if you use one.
4. Access Control. Once a gateway is connected, authorization is set up and your APIs are in the API Catalog, Run Scope Creation generates access scopes from your APIs. Scope creation is available on Apiable plans that include it. See Scopes.
5. Stripe. An Organisation Admin connects Stripe as the payment provider, so paid plans can charge.

When you connect a gateway, Apiable imports its APIs into the API Catalog, ready for your plans. You can close the guided setup at any point and return with Resume setup.

Phase 4: How do you set up portal content and presentation?

Prepare the pages developers land on and the look around them. Review the core pages, theme the portal, and arrange the header and footer menus.

1. Review and fill in your core pages, such as about, terms, contact and privacy.
2. Theme the portal: logo, colours, typography and the landing page. Saving a theme or landing page marks Branding as Configured.
3. Arrange the header and footer navigation.

Phase 5: How do you build products and plans?

Create the products developers subscribe to and the plans that set their access and price. A plan bundles APIs, sets the access level, and carries any rate limits and pricing.

1. Create a product and write its presentation.
2. Add plans, and on each plan choose the APIs and the coupling. A Gateway-bound plan needs the gateway you connected in phase 3. A Catalog-bound plan draws its APIs from the API Catalog.
3. Set the plan's security level, rate limits and pricing. Paid plans need Stripe from phase 3.

Phase 6: How do you publish content?

Write the content developers need and publish it. Add articles and API documentation, organise them with tags and collections, then set each page's visibility.

1. Write articles, and attach API documentation to your plans.
2. Organise content with tags and collections.
3. Publish each page with public or login-required visibility.

Articles, collections and documentation are managed by a Portal Admin or Organisation Admin. A Product Owner can attach API documentation to the plans they build.

Where to next