Interface definition

Copyright 2017 Graham Berrisford. One of about 300 papers at http://avancier.website. Last updated 29/06/2017 19:13

An interface in general

An interface is a list of services (aka operations or methods) that is required or provided by a system of any kind.

An interface may be coupled to one system that provides every service in it.

Or else decoupled, and presented as a façade to several systems.

Each service/operation can be defined in service contract that captures functional and non-functional requirements

· Signature (name, inputs, outputs)

· Functional rules (preconditions and post conditions)

· Non-functional attributes (response time, throughput, availability, security etc.)

If the non-functional attributes (e.g. response time and security) of all services are the same, they can be treated as attributes of the whole interface instead.

User interface design

A user interface is façade via which enables the user to invoke services/operations (which may each be defined as above).

But given a Human-Computer Interface (HCI) that is only a small part of what UI design is about.

UI design is very extensive topic, for which there are User Experience (UEx) training courses.

Application use case

An application use case is a process during which a user makes use of a system, via an HCI.

Each use case can be defined by defining a service contract for the whole use case, and adding process flow.

· Service contract

o Signature (name, inputs, outputs)

o Functional rules (preconditions and post conditions)

o Non-functional attributes (response time, throughput, availability, security etc.)

· Process flow

o Main path (numbered steps)

o Exception paths (cross-referenced to main path steps).

A use case may be equate to an “epic” in the SCRUM agile development method,

Each step in the flow of a use case might be defined as a “user story”.

Application Programming Interface (API)

Programmers define an API using an interface definition language like WSDL.

An API includes what a programmer needs to know to call services/operations.

For each, that is likely to include.

· Service signature (name, inputs, outputs, fault messages)

· One or more protocols for invoking the operation (e.g. SOAP, HTTP)

· One or more addresses at which to find the operation (URLs)

To code and test a service/operation, the programmer needs additional information.

· Functional rules (preconditions and post conditions)

· Non-functional attributes (response time, throughput, availability, security etc.)

API policies

Programmers can attach policies to APIs.

I don’t understand policies, but I know policies can relate to non-functional requirements.

And by default, a policy applies to the entire API.

References for policies

https://docs.mulesoft.com/api-manager/using-policies

A policy is a mechanism for enforcing filters on traffic.

By default, a policy applies to the entire API, filtering traffic requests to every resource and method [operation or service].

Filters generally control authentication, access, allotted consumption, and service level access (SLA).

An API Manager provides a number of policies; you can also build custom policies.

http://docs.apigee.com/api-services/reference/reference-overview-policy

By exposing an API through Apigee Edge, you gain the ability to modify and monitor its behavior using out-of-the-box policies.

Edge's out-of-the-box policies enable you to augment your API with sophisticated features to control traffic, enhance performance, enforce security,

and increase the utility of your APIs, without requiring you to write any code or to modify any backend services.

Extension policies enable you to implement custom logic in the form of JavaScript, Python, Java, and XSLT.

Apigee provides the following categories of policies.

Traffic management policies	Mediation policies	Security policies	Extension policies
Traffic management policies let you configure cache, control traffic quotas and spikes, set concurrent rate limits, and so on. Cache policies Concurrent Rate Limit policy Quota policy Reset Quota policy Spike Arrest policy	Mediation policies let you perform message transformation, parsing, and validation, as well as raise faults and alerts. Access Entity policy Assign Message policy Extract Variables policy JSON to XML policy Key Value Map Operations policy Raise Fault policy SOAP Message Validation policy XML to JSON policy XSL Transform policy	Security policies let you control access to your APIs with OAuth, API key validation, and other threat protection features. Access Control policy Basic Authentication policy JSON Threat Protection policy LDAP policy *† OAuth v2.0 policies OAuth v1.0a policy Regular Expression Protection policy SAML Assertion policies Verify API Key policy XML Threat Protection policy	Extension policies let you provide custom policy functionality, with support for such features as service callout, message data collection, and calling Java, JavaScript, and Python behavior you have created. Flow Callout policy Java Callout policy * JavaScript policy Message Logging policy Python Script policy * Service Callout policy Statistics Collector policy

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