API Mediation Layer 1.15.0

Jakub Balhar
3 min readAug 31, 2020
Packages by Marc Falardeau

New version of the API Mediation Layer 1.15.0 was released on Friday. If you are using Zowe, it will be available to you once the Zowe 1.15 is released which will happen in just a few days.

Why do I write about the API Mediation Layer outside of the scope of the Zowe? Well, with the changes introduced in this release it’s simpler and more possible to use and/or package the API Mediation Layer also outside of the Zowe.

So what’s new in version 1.15.0 of the API Mediation Layer?

Features

You can run API ML without zOSMF

This one is kind of a biggie. Up until the 1.15 version of the API Mediation Layer there were only two possible authentication providers. The first one known as dummy wasn’t going to make it into the production environments. The second one zOSMF kind of introduced dependency on the zOSMF and as such without zOSMF there will be no authentication in the API Mediation Layer. In the version 1.15 the API ML squad introduced directly SAF as a provider, which means that it is possible to authenticate without the zOSMF running on the platform.

Try It Out functionality for zOSMF if Swagger related APAR present

If there is a zOSMF installed on the system running API Mediation Layer and the zOSMF contains the APAR for Swagger, you will get out of the box a Try It Out functionality via the API mediation Layer in the API Catalog UI.

Documentation and Try it out for zOSMF

Put the context/serviceId in front of your path

Up to the version 1.15 the conformant service has the following structure while accessed via the gateway:

Since version 1.15 we support technically the following structure while accessed via the gateway:

We will support for limited time both patterns and allow access to the service via both patterns and in the near future we plan to update the conformance criteria to allow for the new path.

Access URLs such as HLQ.T%2FT.LLQ

The default configuration now supports enablement of the encoded slashes within the URL. So a bit less configuration for the usual default needs.

Fixes

  • The discovery service will properly start in the HTTP mode again, but please don’t use that preferably not even in development and definitely not in production.
  • Properly handle cases when no api-doc is available for given service. The API Catalog Service was stating that everything is ok, even when there was no documentation for a given service. But please provide the documentation for your service, it will simplify the lives of your users.

Summary

The 1.15 of API ML is out there and available via Zowe JFrog repository and the key part is that it is possible to run API Mediation Layer standalone without the zOSMF and other Zowe dependencies.

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Jakub Balhar

I always try to find answers to the complex questions. Now exploring the world of Mainframes in the Broadcom inc.