API Gateways

An API gateway is where Apiable imports your APIs from and deploys your subscriptions to. You connect the gateway that runs your APIs once, then package its APIs into plans. Amazon API Gateway connects through the guided setup and has the deepest support.

What does an API gateway integration do?

It links Apiable to the gateway that runs your APIs. Apiable imports your APIs from the gateway into the API Catalog, and deploys each subscription back to the gateway so consumers can call your APIs with their credentials.

A gateway integration does two jobs:

• Import your APIs. When you save the connection, Apiable imports the gateway's APIs into Catalog → API Catalog. You pick which of them each plan exposes.
• Deploy subscriptions. When a consumer subscribes to a plan bound to the gateway, Apiable provisions their access on the gateway, including the API key or OAuth client the plan calls for.

Plans come in two kinds. A Gateway-bound plan is tied to one connected gateway, and Apiable deploys its subscriptions there. A Catalog-bound plan draws its APIs from the API Catalog and does not deploy to a gateway, so it has no gateway rate limits or built-in usage analytics. See APIs and coupling.

Which API gateways does Apiable support?

Amazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, Kong and Apigee. Amazon connects through the guided setup; the other three connect through their own connect forms.

Amazon API Gateway is a single entry. There is no longer a choice between Basic and Advanced. Select API Gateway Type also lists Kong Enterprise Edition, which does not open a connect form; to connect Kong, choose Kong Community Edition.

How do you connect an API gateway?

Start from the gateway's card on the Integrations page, or from + Add Gateway on the API Gateways page. Amazon then opens the guided setup. Azure, Kong and Apigee open a connect form, where you fill in the fields, test and save.

1. Open Integrations → Integrations and choose Set up on the gateway's card. Or open Integrations → API Gateways, choose + Add Gateway, select the gateway on Select API Gateway Type and click Connect new API Gateway.
2. For Amazon API Gateway, follow the guided setup in Connect AWS API Gateway.
3. For Azure, Kong or Apigee, fill in the connection fields. Each gateway's page lists them.
4. Click the refresh icon labelled test. The result reads Connected or Unsuccessful.
5. Click Save Changes. If Save Changes stays unavailable on a new connection after the test reads Connected, contact support@apiable.io to finish connecting the gateway. Do not put keys or secrets in the email.

The API Gateways page shows how many gateways your plan includes, under Number of Gateways in your plan. When you have connected that many, + Add Gateway is unavailable; talk to Apiable sales to add more. If you buy Apiable through AWS Marketplace, the page says additional gateways are charged through AWS instead. To connect your first gateway, start from its card on the Integrations page or from Run the wizard.

If your plan does not include a gateway type, choosing it opens Please upgrade to access this feature, and its card on the Integrations page shows Plan upgrade required.

What happens when you save a gateway connection?

Apiable imports the gateway's APIs into Catalog → API Catalog. From there you add them to plans. For a plan to deploy subscriptions to the gateway, make it Gateway-bound to that gateway.

If your APIs do not appear, open Catalog → API Catalog and click Synchronize. Amazon API Gateway imports REST APIs and their stages. Azure API Management, Kong and Apigee import the APIs, services or API proxies the gateway lists.

Which gateway has the deepest support?

Amazon API Gateway. All four gateways support the core flow: import APIs, deploy plans and subscriptions, and issue, regenerate and revoke credentials. Amazon adds the per-key operations and gateway reads the other three do not implement.

Each gateway issues its own kinds of credential. Azure API Management issues subscription keys, Kong issues API keys, OAuth 2.0 apps or JWT credentials, and Apigee issues a developer app's consumer key and secret. Each gateway's page describes what Apiable creates on it.

On Amazon API Gateway you can also stream access logs to Apiable for usage-based billing. See Enable usage logs on AWS API Gateway.

Can you rotate a subscription's secret?

Not on standard setups, on any gateway. Rotate Secret appears only for one custom authorization server setup. Everywhere else, a subscription offers Regenerate Credentials, which revokes the current credentials and issues new ones. Regenerate works on all four gateways.

Regenerating invalidates the old credentials, so applications using them stop working until they switch to the new ones. The new credentials are shown once. See Credentials for how Regenerate and Rotate Secret differ.

How does a gateway connect to an Authorization Server?

Open the saved gateway and go to its Authorization tab. In the Level 1+ OAuth 2.0 section, the OAuth handler answers What handles OAuth flows?: Gateway-native only or Authorization Server.

• Gateway-native only is limited to Client Credentials, with no user flows.
• Authorization Server enables Client Credentials, Auth Code, PKCE and JWT validation. Picking it reveals a picker of your connected servers, and + Add new Authorization Server.

The tab also shows the Level 0 API Key section, provided by the gateway and always available, and Product-level governance, where Plan governance is Free choice or Locked to this pairing. Click Save Changes to apply.

The Authorization tab is available once the gateway is saved. For an Amazon API Gateway connected through the guided setup, its Authorization step, Choose your authorization enforcement model, sets how authorization is enforced. See Authorization Servers.

How do you delete a gateway?

Open Integrations → API Gateways, open the gateway's row menu and choose Delete. Delete Gateway asks you to confirm. You cannot confirm while a plan still uses the gateway.

Deleting a gateway also removes its APIs from the API Catalog, and cannot be undone. Remove the gateway from your plans first. Read-only gateways, marked read only in the list, cannot be deleted.

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