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Introduction

Software Catalog in Harness IDP provides a comprehensive framework for defining and managing software entities, including APIs. Here’s a guideline to add API specifications, based on the Backstage descriptor format:

The type of API specs could be added in IDP.

  1. openapi - An API definition in YAML or JSON format based on the OpenAPI version 2 or version 3 spec.

  2. asyncapi - An API definition based on the AsyncAPI specification.

  3. graphql - An API definition based on GraphQL schemas for consuming GraphQL based APIs.

  4. grpc - An API definition based on Protocol Buffers to use with gRPC.

More details on descriptor format for API's could be found below in the references.

Example for different use cases​

info

Note that to be able to read from targets that are outside the normal integration points such as github.com, you'll need to explicitly allow it by adding an entry in the URL Allow List under Admin

Import API spec for all API defined in openapi spec​


apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: API
metadata:
  name: ce-nextgen
  description: The official CE NEXTGEN service REST APIs
spec:
  type: openapi
  lifecycle: production
  owner: johndoe
  definition:
    $text: https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification/blob/main/examples/v2.0/json/api-with-examples.json
info

In the above example we import all the API specs in json format as a $text embedding, and it's a suggested hack to import multiple APIs in openapi format.

The above-mentioned catalog-info.yaml when registered in the catalog would display all the APIs in the following format.

Import API spec for a single API defined in openapi spec in swaggger​

apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: API
metadata:
  name: petstore
  description: The petstore API
  tags:
    - store
    - rest
  links:
    - url: https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-petstore
      title: GitHub Repo
      icon: github
    - url: https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-petstore/blob/master/src/main/resources/openapi.yaml
      title: API Spec
      icon: code
spec:
  type: openapi
  lifecycle: dev
  owner: Harness_Partners
  definition:
    $text: ./petstore.oas.yaml

The above-mentioned catalog-info.yaml when registered in the catalog would display all the APIs in the following format.

Define API spec for a single API openapi format and import the same​

apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: API
metadata:
  name: artist-api
  description: Retrieve artist details
spec:
  type: openapi
  lifecycle: production
  owner: artist-relations-team
  system: artist-engagement-portal
  definition: |
    openapi: "3.0.0"
    info:
      version: 1.0.0
      title: Artist API
      license:
        name: MIT
    servers:
      - url: http://artist.spotify.net/v1
    paths:
      /artists:
        get:
          summary: List all artists
    ...

The above-mentioned catalog-info.yaml when registered in the catalog would display all the APIs in the following format.

Steps to add the API as an entity.​

  1. Save the YAML, created following the steps above, in your git repository.
  2. Follow the steps mentioned to register a software component, to add your API docs to IDP.

References​

Here’s a guideline to add API specifications to your IDP based on the Backstage descriptor format.

Descriptor File Structure​

1. File Naming:​

Typically named catalog-info.yaml or idp.yaml.

2. Format:​

YAML

3. Sections:​

Envelope, Metadata, API Specification, Relations, Status.

Defining an API Entity​

1. apiVersion:​

Specify the API version, e.g., backstage.io/v1alpha1.

2. kind:​

This should be API.

3. metadata:​

Includes name, description, labels, and annotations.

4. name:​

Unique identifier for the API.

5. description:​

Brief overview of the API.

6. labels/annotations:​

Key-value pairs for additional metadata.

API Specification​

1. spec:​

Contains the actual API specification details.

2. type:​

The type of API (e.g., openapi, grpc), the current set of well-known and supported values for this field is:

openapi - An API definition in YAML or JSON format based on the OpenAPI version 2 or version 3 spec.

asyncapi - An API definition based on the AsyncAPI specification.

graphql - An API definition based on GraphQL schemas for consuming GraphQL based APIs.

grpc - An API definition based on Protocol Buffers to use with gRPC.

3. lifecycle:​

Stage of the API lifecycle (e.g., production, experimental).

4. owner:​

Team or individual responsible for the API.

5. definition:​

Location of the API definition file (e.g., a URL to a Swagger file).

Substitutions in Descriptor​

  1. Supports $text, $json, $yaml for embedding external content.
  2. Useful for loading API definitions from external sources.

Example​

apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: API
metadata:
  name: petstore
  description: The petstore API
  tags:
    - store
    - rest
  links:
    - url: https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-petstore
      title: GitHub Repo
      icon: github
    - url: https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-petstore/blob/master/src/main/resources/openapi.yaml
      title: API Spec
      icon: code
spec:
  type: openapi
  lifecycle: dev
  owner: Harness_Partners
  definition:
    $text: ./petstore.oas.yaml

gRPC Docs​

You can render gRPC documentation by using the protoc-gen-doc plugin, which contains ApiDefinitionWidgets for grpc-docsto enable Swagger UI for gRPC APIs.

JSON Format​

info

You can render gRPC documentation when the type is set to grpc-doc or grpc and the definition is provided in JSON format.

Type: grpc​

##Example
apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: API
metadata:
  name: grpc-docs-test-1
spec:
  type: grpc
  lifecycle: production
  owner: group:engineering
  definition:
    $text: https://github.com/pseudomuto/protoc-gen-doc/blob/master/examples/doc/example.json

Rendered Output for JSON Format​

Type: grpc-docs​

Example catalog-info.yaml

apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: API
metadata:
  name: grpc-docs-test
spec:
  type: grpc-docs
  lifecycle: production
  owner: group:engineering
  definition:
    $text: https://github.com/pseudomuto/protoc-gen-doc/blob/master/examples/doc/example.json

Rendered Output for JSON Format​

proto file Format​

## Example
apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: API
metadata:
  name: helloworld-unary-api
  description: helloworld unary gRPC
  
spec:
  type: grpc
  lifecycle: production
  owner: zalopay-oss
  definition:
    $text: https://github.com/zalopay-oss/backstage-grpc-playground/blob/main/examples/unary/helloworld.proto
  files:
    - file_name: helloworld.proto
      file_path: examples/unary/helloworld.proto
      url: https://github.com/zalopay-oss/backstage-grpc-playground/blob/main/examples/unary/helloworld.proto
      
  targets:
    dev:
      host: 0.0.0.0
      port: 8084

Rendered Output for proto file​