How to compose multiple microservices with WSO2 API MicroGateway - api

The new WSO2 API MicroGateway 3.0 states as new feature Support for composing multiple microservices.I cannot find an example of how to do that.
We are trying a use case with just this type of processing:
An API that queries a back-end database using OData and if not found queries another (non OData) API.
In both cases the result must be transformed (reformatted).

Idea of composing microservices, is to expose set of microservices as a single API using microgateway. Basically you can define define set of REST resources and then point them to different microservices. For ex:
/list . -> micro service1
/add -> micro service2.
You can define per resource back ends using swagger (open API) extensions as below
https://github.com/wso2/product-microgateway/blob/master/samples/per_resource_endpoint.yaml
As of now microgateway does not have out of the box capability to call subsequent endpoints based on the response from the previous endpoint.
But you can transform the response using the response interceptors as explained below link
https://docs.wso2.com/display/MG300/Adding+Interceptors

Related

How to convert a LinqExpression into OData query URI

There are a lot of answers on how to convert ODataQuery into an Expression or into a Lambda, but what I need is quite the opposite, how to get from a Linq Expression the OData query string.
Basically what I want is to transcend the query to another service. For example, having 2 services, where your first service is not persisting anything and your second service is the one that will return the data from a database. Service1 sends the same odata request to Service2 and it can add more parameters to the original odata request to Service2
What I would like:
public IActionResult GetWeatherForecast([FromServices] IWeatherForcastService weatherForcastService)
{
//IQueryable here
var summaries = weatherForcastService.GetSummariesIQ();
var url = OdataMagicHelper.ConvertToUri(summaries);
var data = RestClient2.Get(url);
return data;
}
OP Clarified the request: generate OData query URLs from within the API itself.
Usually, the queries are so specific or simple, that it's not really necessary to try and generate OData urls from within the service, the whole point of the service configuration is to publish how the client could call anything, so it's a little bit redundant or counter-intuitive to return complex resource query URLs from within the service itself.
We can use Simple.OData.Client to build OData urls:
If the URL that we want to generate is:
{service2}/api/v1/weather_forecast?$select=Description
Then you could use Simple.OData.Client:
string service2Url = "http://localhost:11111/api/v1/";
var client = new ODataClient(service2Url);
var url = await client.For("weather_forecast")
.Select("Description")
.GetCommandTextAsync();
Background, for client-side solutions
If your OData service is a client for another OData Service, then this advice is still relevant
For full linq support you should be using OData Connected Services or Simple.OData.Client. You could roll your own, or use other derivatives of these two but why go to all that effort to re-create another wheel.
One of the main drivers for a OData Standard Compliant API is that the meta data is published in a standard format that clients can inspect and can generate consistent code and or dynamic queries to interact with the service.
How to choose:
Simple.OData.Client provides a lightweight framework for dynamically querying and submitting data to OData APIs. If you already have classes that model the structure of the API then you can use typed linq style query syntax, if you do not have a strongly typed model but you do know the structure of the API, then you can use either the untyped or dynamic expression syntax to query the API.
If you do not need full compile-time validation of your queries or you already have the classes that represent the resources served by the API then this is a simple enough interface to use.
This library is perfect for use inside your API logic if you have need of generating complex URLs in a strongly typed style of code without trying to generate a context to manage the connectivity to the server.
NOTE: Simple.OData.Client is sometimes less practical when developing against a large API that is rapidly evolving or that does not have a strict versioned route policy. If the API changes you will need to diligently refactor your code to match and will have to rely on extensive regression testing.
OData Connected Services follows a pattern where some or all of the API is modelled in the client with strongly typed client side proxy interfaces. These are POCO classes that have the structure necessary to send to and receive data from the server.
The major benefit to this method is that the POCO structures, requests and responses are validated against the schema of the API. This effectively gives you full intellisense support for the API and allows you to explor it's structure, the generated code becomes your documentation. It also gives you compile time checking and runtime safety.
The general development workflow after the API is deployed or updated is:
Download the $metadata document
Select the Operations and Types from the API that you want to model
Generate classes to represent the selected DTO Types as defined in the document, so all the inputs and outputs.
Now you can start using the code.
In VS 2022/19/17 the Connected Services interface provides a simple wizard for establishing the initial connection and for updating (or re-generating) when you need to.
The OData Connected Service or other client side proxy generation pattern suits projects under these criteria:
The API definition is relatively stable
The API definition is in a state of flux
You consume many endpoints
You don't want to manually code the types to serialize or deserialze payloads
Full disclosure, I prefer the connected service approach, but I have my own generation scripts. However if you are trying to generate OData query urls from inside your API, its not really an option, it creates a messy recursive dependency... just don't go there.
Connected services is the low-(manual)-code and lazy approach that is perfect for a stable API, generate once and never do it again. But the Connected Service architecture is perfect for a rapidly changing API because it will manage the minute changes to the classes for you, you just need to update your client side proxy classes more frequently.

Azure Function API Versioning - How to structure my code?

I have created a demo microservices application implemented with the help of Azure Function Apps. For separation of concerns, I have created an API Layer, Business Layer, and a Data Layer.
The API layer, being the function app, calls the business layer which implements the business logic while the data layer implements logic for storing and retrieving data.
After considerable thought, I have decided to use query-based API versioning for my demo.
The question I have is,
What is the best way to organize my code to facilitate this? Is there any other way to organize my code to accommodate the different versions apart from using different namespaces / repos?
As of now, I've created separate namespaces for each version but this has created a lot of code duplication. Also after getting it reviewed by some of my friends, they raised the concern that If separate namespaces are being used I would be forcing legacy systems to change references to the new namespace if they need to update which is not recommended.
Any help would be appreciated.
The simplest way to implement versioning in Azure Functions is using endpoints. The HttpTrigger Attribute allows the definition of a custom route where you can set the expected version.
// Version 1 of get users
[FunctionName(nameof(V1UserList))]
public static IEnumerable<UserModel> V1UserList(
[HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, "get", Route = "v1/users")]HttpRequest req, ILogger log)
{
}
// Version 2 of get users
[FunctionName(nameof(V2UserList))]
public static IEnumerable<UserModel> V2UserList(
[HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, "get", Route = "v2/users")]HttpRequest req, ILogger log)
{
}
When deploying each version in isolation a router component is required to redirect requests to the correct API endpoint.
The router component can be implemented in Azure using different services, such as:
Azure Function Proxies : you can specify endpoints on your function app that are implemented by another resource. You can use these proxies to break a large API into multiple function apps (as in a microservice architecture), while still presenting a single API surface for clients.
API Management :Azure API Management supports importing Azure Function Apps as new APIs or appending them to existing APIs. The process automatically generates a host key in the Azure Function App, which is then assigned to a named value in Azure API Management.
Sample code for Versioning APIs in Azure Functions

WCF Data Services version 5.0 and Json

I want my OData service to support Json serialization, I read about a WCF Data Service toolkit which add this behaviour to the V2 version. After I read WCF Data Service released a new version of WCF Data Service 5.0, I need to know how to do it.
I add the $Format=json and I get all the time this attribute isn't supported.
Any suggestion .
Thanks in advance ...
The usual way to request JSON is to use Accept header (basically following HTTP, if the client wants a certain representation of the response, it should ask for it in the Accept header).
So if you send Accept: application/json;odata=verbose, you will get the Verbose JSON response.
WCF Data Services currently doesn't implement the $format query option. But you can add it "on top". There are several ways to do this (just search the web). One of them is for example here: http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/DataServicesJSONP

Implementing versioning a RESTful API with WCF or ASP.Net Web Api

Assume i've read a lot about versioning a restful api, and I decided to not version the the service through the uri, but using mediatypes (format and schema in the request accept header):
What would be the best way to implement a wcf service or a web api service to serve requests defining the requested resource in the uri, the format (eg. application/json) and the schema/version (eg player-v2) in the accept header?
WCF allows me to route based on the uri, but not based on headers. So I cannot route properly.
Web Api allows me to define custom mediatypeformatters, routing for the requested format, but not the schema (eg. return type PlayerV1 or PlayerV2).
I would like to implement a service(either with WCF or Web Api) which, for this request (Pseudo code):
api.myservice.com/players/123 Accept format=application/json; schema=player-v1
returns a PlayerV1 entity, in json format
and for this request:
api.myservice.com/players/123 Accept format=application/json; schema=player-v2
returns a PlayerV2 entity, in json format.
Any tips on how to implement this?
EDIT: To clarify why I want to use content negotiation to deal with versions, see here: REST API Design: Put the “Type” in “Content-Type”.
What you are bringing here does not look to me as versioning but it is is more of content negotiation. Accept header expresses wishes of the client on the format of the resource. Server should grant the wishes or return 406. So if we need more of a concept of Contract (although Web API unline RPC does not define one) then using resource is more solid.
The best practices for versioning have yet to be discussed fully but most REST enthusiast believe using the version in the URL is the way to go (e.g. http://server/api/1.0.3/...). This also makes more sense to me since in your approach using content negotiation server has to keep backward compatibility and I can only imagine the code at the server will get more and more complex. With using URL approach, you can make a clean break: old clients can happily use previous while new clients can enjoy the benefits of new API.
UPDATE
OK, now the question has changed to "Implementing content-negotiation in a RESTful AP".
Type 1: Controller-oblivious
Basically, if content negotiation involves only the format of the resource, implementing or using the right media type formatter is enough. For example, if content negotiation involves returning JSON or XML. In these cases, controller is oblivious to content negotiations.
Type 2: Controller-aware
Controller needs to be aware of the request negotiation. In this case, parameters from the request needs to be extracted from the request and passed in as parameter. For example, let's imagine this action on a controller:
public Player Get(string schemaVersion)
{
...
}
In this case, I would use classic MVC style value providers (See Brad Wilson's post on ValueProviders - this is on MVC but Web API's value provider looks similar):
public Player Get([ValueProvider(typeof(RequestHeadersSchemaValueProviderFactory))]string schemaVersion)
{
...
}

wcf restful service detail at client

Is there some way that I can get list of all the WCF restful services operations at client side( something like helpEnabled).
I tried to use http://servername/service/help, but it returns complete html. I want to get the operations suported by the service in the program.
I want to list all the operations supported by the service.
Is there any way to do it?
The short answer: It depends on what the creator of the service you are trying to consume has exposed.
There are two sides to this particular "issue". One side states that you should be able to hit a GET endpoint and then follow links (often ATOM PUB, esp. for the REST in Practice crowd). The other is pushing WADL, a REST analog to WSDL (SOAP Services). In the first camp, there is no map and the service works more like a website. In the second, you have a description of all services.