1. SWAGGER, LOOPBACK AND API
CONNECT
Bringing awesome to your APIs

2. SPEAKER
Raghavan N. Srinivas
Cloud Architect/Evangelist, IBM
raghsrin@us.ibm.com or rags@acm.org
@ragss

3. AGENDA (WITH LOTS OF DEMOS STREWN IN)
➤ API Economy
➤ What is Swagger?
➤ What is Loopback?
➤ What in the heck is IBM API Connect?
➤ How can I get it?
➤ How can I use it?
➤ Where do I learn more and ask for help?

4. 68 Billion
16 Billion
26 Billion

5. THE FIRST THING AN API DOES IS
ALLOW [A STARTUP] TO CREATE A
PARTNERED ECOSYSTEM THAT IS
TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN
Sean O’Neal - Adaptly
APIS - A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

6. NODE IS FOR APIS
➤ Based on Google’s highly performant v8
engine
➤ Small memory footprint
➤ E2e Asynchronous i/o out of the box
➤ Modular, composable and rich ecosystem
➤ Large scale microservice creation
➤ Lightweight, developer friendly,
heightened productivity

7. WHAT ATTRACTED DEVELOPERS/COMPANIES TO THE SWAGGER
PROJECT?
• A common, public contract
between services
• Independent of language,
framework, deployment
technology
YAML or JSON format
• Supports both API-first and
code-first approaches to
defining, building and
documenting APIs
• Broad industry/developer
adoption

8. SWAGGER PROJECT BACKGROUND
• Swagger Project founded in 2010
by Tony Tam / Reverb to design and
document API interfaces
• Groups large & small drawn to
Project Interested in its simplicity,
pragmatic approach, potential open
governance
• Acquired by SmartBear in early
2015
• Decision to form a Linux
Foundation Working Group Project
in late 2015
• Swagger Spec donated by
SmartBear Software to the Open API
Initiative

9. A BRIEF HISTORY
➤ APIs - A digital Transformation
+

10. LoopBack

12. ➤ LB is an open source Node.js framework
built on top of Express
➤ Optimized for building REST based APIs
for mobile, web, and other devices.
➤ Create and consume APIs quickly
following best practices.
➤ Model-based approach
➤ Provides OOB solutions for DRY tasks yet
highly extensible.
➤ http://loopback.io
LOOPBACK

13. LOOPBACK &
➤ StrongLoop was a member of Swagger 2.0 WG and we
continue to drive towards v3.0
➤ Both Swagger 1.0 & 2.0 are supported in LoopBack since
inception
➤ LB Apps can also be generated directly from swagger specs
using the cli
➤ LB & APIC API explorer UIs are Swagger based
➤ Working closely with the OpenAPI Initiative to further
advance and promote open APIs.

14. ANATOMY OF A LOOPBACK APP
➤ Models are at the heart of LoopBack, and represent back-end
data sources
➤ Models automatically come with a predefined REST API
with a full set of CRUD

15. GENERATING MODELS
➤ Models can be generated in many ways
➤ LB Model/App generator based on the Yeoman generator
➤ Model Discovery from an existing relational database
➤ By instance introspection for free-form data
➤ Ex: NoSQL or REST
➤ Models are generated in a JSON file, which can then be
further customized
➤ Swagger specs are generated from model metadata

17. CREATE
➤ You can create APIs via the UI or CLI
➤ You can import existing APIs
➤ You can mashup APIs

18. RUN
➤ Ability to test APIs
➤ Language help provided (Node, PHP, Curl, and more)

19. MANAGE
➤ Take a set of APIs and define a "product"
➤ Create and manage a complete developer portal (docs +
testing)
➤ Deep analytics (what APIs are being used and how often)

20. SECURE
➤ Define how people login
➤ Define when they must login
➤ Set up rate limits

21. PRE-REQ
➤ Install npm (Node Package Manager)
➤ Easiest way is to install Node
➤ At command prompt/terminal, type npm

22. npm install -g apiconnect

23. DEMO
➤ Create a new application
➤ Launch the API Designer
➤ Test the API
➤ Add our own API
➤ Create + Run

24. FYI - BLUEMIX
➤ Platform as a Service solution
➤ Does lots and lots and lots of stuff (my marketing, not IBM)
➤ https://console.ng.bluemix.net/registration/

25. FYI - DESIGNER HELP

26. TESTING THE APIS
➤ Explore menu
➤ Sample code provided as well as a browser-based testing
➤ https issues like CORS to watch out for

27. ADDING NEW APIS
➤ Visual via the editor
➤ CLI

28. ADDING NEW APIS VIA SWAGGER
➤ You can import via Swagger files or URLs
➤ To the demo!

29. RESOURCES
➤ Docs: https://developer.ibm.com/apiconnect/doc/
➤ Getting Started:
https://developer.ibm.com/apiconnect/getting-started/
➤ Blog: https://developer.ibm.com/apiconnect/blog/
➤ Intro videos:
https://developer.ibm.com/apiconnect/2016/06/02/
introducing-the-api-connect-getting-started-video-series/
➤ StrongLoop, LoopBack and API Connect:
https://www.raymondcamden.com/2016/04/27/loopback-
strongloop-and-api-connect-how-in-the-heck-do-they-relate
➤ API frameworks comparision:
https://strongloop.com/strongblog/compare-express-restify-
hapi-loopback/

30. HANDS-ON LABS
➤ HOL:
https://github.com/ragsns/apichol/
OR ibm.biz/apichol
https://ibm.biz/nodejsboston

31. GET INVOLVED WITH THE OAI COMMUNITY
Join the technical community and engage with projects!
➤ Get involved in creating the next version of the OpenAPI Spec
➤ https://openapis.org/news/blogs/2016/07/you-can-get-involved-creating-
openapi-specification-and-heres-how
➤ IRC: #openapis at irc.freenode.net
➤ Twitter: @OpenApiSpec
➤ GitHub
➤ https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification URL
• https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification/tree/OpenAPI.next
• https://github.com/swagger-api
What role would you/your company like to play in the OAI?
➤ https://openapis.org/join

32. THANK YOU!
@ragss