Introduction to API management

Azure API Management

Fiodar Sazanavets

Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft

REST API overview

API = Application Programming Interface
- Used for communication between software applications
REST = Representational State Transfer
- Architectural style for data retrieval via the internet
- Example: How an app deployed on a mobile device or a PC can retrieve its data from a server hosted on the web.
REST APIs use different HTTP methods for different operation types, such as GET, POST, DELETE, etc.

HTTP requests

REST endpoint types

GET for retrieval data
POST for creating new data
PUT for updating existing data
DELETE for deleting data

API endpoints

Endpoint types: weather app example

Example weather app.png

GET: App sends a request to the server to pull the weather data
POST: User stores Paris as favorite
- Automaticaly send a GET request when the user opens the app
PUT: Updates Paris to London as favorite city
DELETE: Deletes London as the favorite city

REST principles

Stateless = server doesn't store data
Uses JSON or XML for data transfer
Adheres to RESTful architecture
Example: Fetching the weather

weather example.png

Hosting REST API in Azure

Azure App Services
Azure Container Apps
Azure Function Apps
Other Azure Web Services

Azure App Service

Azure Container App

Azure Function App

Azure API Management (APIM) overview

API Management logo

Large applications with complex APIs are difficult to manage
APIM is designed to make API management easy

How APIM operates

APIM is an API gateway
Sits between APIs and consuming clients
Centralizes API security
Monitors performance
Enforces policies and rules

API Management functionality

Setting up APIM

Creating API Management instance
Importing APIs
Configuring policies

API Management connectivity

APIs supported by APIM

RestAPIs, WebSockets, gRPC, ..

APIs supported by APIM

Let's practice!

Azure API Management

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