Whether your APIs are for internal use or public consumption, an API catalogue can ensure they are discoverable. It can provide greater efficiency within your business, easy access management and superior monetisation. Below, we’ll explain what an API catalogue is, why you need one and how to create one.
What is an API catalogue?
An API catalogue is an organised library of available APIs. It is searchable by both humans and machines, meaning it needs to be highly organised, with APIs categorised to make them easy to find. Most organisations embed their API catalogue within their developer portal.
API catalogues can be both private and public:
- A private API catalogue contains APIs that are solely for use within your organisation.
- A public API catalogue contains APIs for external consumption.
In addition to detailing your APIs in your catalogue, you can add documentation, service level agreements, tests, examples, security policies and other artefacts. These aid consumers in discovering your APIs and integrating and using them swiftly and efficiently.
Benefits of an API catalogue
An API catalogue is an important tool for the strategic management, promotion and sharing of your APIs. The headline benefits include improved discoverability, greater collaboration and enhanced governance. Several factors support this:
- Increased visibility: Private API catalogues can help internal teams discover APIs, overcoming lack of visibility between departments. This can reduce duplication of effort and enable greater efficiency. Public API catalogues also deliver increased visibility, enabling third-party consumers to connect with and consume APIs, supporting higher adoption rates and greater income.
- Organisation and efficiency: APIs in your catalogue can form the basis of organisation-wide standards, supporting an organised, efficient approach to matters such as API security. An API catalogue can also help your internal teams to identify redundant code.
- Collaboration: For external consumers, the organisation and efficiency that an API catalogue delivers can foster developer communities that are helpful in shortening feedback loops between you and your consumers, enabling you to enhance your support offering.
- Better security: It’s easy for a business to lose track of its APIs. Old versions that weren’t taken offline or decommissioned properly can represent serious security vulnerabilities, with forgotten zombie, rogue or shadow APIs with outdated security mechanisms providing unauthorised access to company data and systems. Maintaining a catalogue of all APIs can combat this by ensuring everything is visible.
How to create an API catalogue: three-step guide
It’s not difficult to create an API catalogue. Simply follow these three steps.
Step 1: Gather APIs and documentation
The easiest way to create your API catalogue is to use a service catalogue API or an API management tool. This enables the programmatic creation and management of your catalogue with minimal effort. Be sure to include documentation to underpin the usability of your APIs and make them discoverable.
Step 2: Set up the catalogue structure
Setting up the catalogue structure requires some thought. An API catalogue can simply be a list of APIs on your website. However, embedding your catalogue within your developer portal is the more common approach.
Where this gets complicated is when you have more than one developer portal. For example, some businesses have separate private and public developer portals. Organisations may also have multiple API gateways. The API catalogue structure needs to take this into account, with the catalogue able to span multiple portals, gateways and so on.
You also need to ensure your catalogue is both machine-searchable and human-searchable. Organising your APIs by type can make a lot of sense, as can including APIs in multiple categories (when their functionality warrants this). You could also organise your APIs by access level, with one set for developers, another for admins and so on. Keep discoverability top of mind when making these structural decisions.
Step 3: Publish the catalogue
Once your catalogue is ready, you can publish it via your developer portal using your chosen API management tool.
API catalogue best practices
Follow these best practices to ensure you get the best out of your API catalogue:
- Do regular API audits: Keep your API catalogue organised through regular audits to ensure your APIs are current and up to date.
- Include documentation and examples: Include documentation, examples and other artefacts to support the easy adoption and integration of your APIs. Doing so will make them easier to consume and provide a better developer experience.
- Make it easy to search and filter APIs: The easier it is to find your APIs, the more people are likely to adopt them. Ensure humans and machines can easily search your catalogue and filter your list of APIs based on differing needs.
- Provide access control settings: Set access permissions based on different roles to ensure your APIs are only accessed by those with the appropriate permissions.
How to overcome common challenges with API catalogues
Creating an API catalogue can present challenges. You’ll need to keep everything up to date, including the documentation. Inadequate documentation can hinder developers’ productivity and make your APIs harder to integrate, so you need to allocate time and resources to keeping your documentation current.
It’s also essential to ensure all APIs in your catalogue adhere to the latest security best practices, including authentication, authorisation and encryption. This is essential for data protection and for maintaining trust.
You’ll also need to allocate sufficient resources to build an active, engaged community around your API catalogue. This can help boost its success, encouraging developers to share experiences and feedback and create a collaborative community.
Take care of these common challenges and you can enjoy a well-organised API catalogue with benefits ranging from greater efficiency to higher income. Before you go ahead and publish everything though, be sure to read our guide to exposing APIs securely.
