Using the Do-Not-Track middleware with Tyk OAS APIs

The Do-Not-Track middleware provides the facility to disable generation of transaction records (which are used to track requests to your APIs). When working with Tyk OAS APIs, you can currently disable tracking only at the endpoint-level.

When working with Tyk OAS APIs the middleware is configured in the Tyk OAS API Definition either manually within the .json file or from the API Designer in the Tyk Dashboard.

If you’re using the legacy Tyk Classic APIs, then check out the Tyk Classic page.

Configuring the middleware in the Tyk OAS API Definition

The design of the Tyk OAS API Definition takes advantage of the operationId defined in the OpenAPI Document that declares both the path and method for which the middleware should be added. The path can contain wildcards in the form of any string bracketed by curly braces, for example {user_id}. These wildcards are so they are human readable and do not translate to variable names. Under the hood, a wildcard translates to the “match everything” regex of: (.*).

The do-not-track middleware (doNotTrackEndpoint) can be added to the operations section of the Tyk OAS Extension (x-tyk-api-gateway) in your Tyk OAS API Definition for the appropriate operationId (as configured in the paths section of your OpenAPI Document).

The doNotTrackEndpoint object has the following configuration:

• enabled: enable the middleware for the endpoint

For example:

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{
    "components": {},
    "info": {
        "title": "example-do-not-track",
        "version": "1.0.0"
    },
    "openapi": "3.0.3",
    "paths": {
        "/anything": {
            "get": {
                "operationId": "anythingget",
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": ""
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "x-tyk-api-gateway": {
        "info": {
            "name": "example-do-not-track",
            "state": {
                "active": true
            }
        },
        "upstream": {
            "url": "http://httpbin.org/"
        },
        "server": {
            "listenPath": {
                "value": "/example-do-not-track/",
                "strip": true
            }
        },
        "middleware": {
            "operations": {
                "anythingget": {
                    "doNotTrackEndpoint": {
                        "enabled": true
                    }               
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

In this example the do-not-track middleware has been configured for requests to the GET /anything endpoint. Any such calls will not generate transaction records from the Gateway and so will not appear in the analytics.

The configuration above is a complete and valid Tyk OAS API Definition that you can import into Tyk to try out the do-not-track middleware.

Configuring the middleware in the API Designer

Adding do-not-track to your API endpoints is easy when using the API Designer in the Tyk Dashboard, simply follow these steps:

Step 1: Add an endpoint

From the API Designer add an endpoint that matches the path and method to which you want to apply the middleware.

Step 2: Select the Do Not Track Endpoint middleware

Select ADD MIDDLEWARE and choose the Do Not Track Endpoint middleware from the Add Middleware screen.

Step 3: Save the API

Select SAVE API to apply the changes to your API.