Tutorial: Register APIs in your API inventory

In this tutorial, start the API inventory in your organization's API center by registering APIs and assigning metadata using the Azure portal.

For background information about APIs, API versions, definitions, and other entities that you can inventory in Azure API Center, see Key concepts.

In this tutorial, you learn how to use the portal to:

• Register one or more APIs
• Add an API version with an API definition

Prerequisites

• An API center in your Azure subscription. If you haven't created one already, see Quickstart: Create your API center.

• One or more APIs that you want to register in your API center. Here are two examples, with links to their OpenAPI definitions:

  • Swagger Petstore API
  • Conference API

• Complete the previous tutorial, Define custom metadata, to define custom metadata for your APIs.

Register APIs

When you register (add) an API in your API center, the API registration includes:

• A title (name), type, and description
• Version information
• Optional links to documentation and contacts
• Built-in and custom metadata that you defined

After registering an API, you can add versions and definitions to the API.

The following steps register two sample APIs: Swagger Petstore API and Conference API (see Prerequisites). If you prefer, register APIs of your own.

1. In the portal, navigate to your API center.

2. In the left menu, under Assets, select APIs > + Register an API.

3. In the Register an API page, add the following information for the Swagger Petstore API. You'll see the custom Line of business and Public-facing metadata that you defined in the previous tutorial at the bottom of the page.

   Setting	Value	Description
   API title	Enter Swagger Petstore API.	Name you choose for the API.
   Identification	After you enter the preceding title, Azure API Center generates this identifier, which you can override.	Azure resource name for the API.
   API type	Select REST from the dropdown.	Type of API.
   Summary	Optionally enter a summary.	Summary description of the API.
   Description	Optionally enter a description.	Description of the API.
   Version
   Version title	Enter a version title of your choice, such as v1.	Name you choose for the API version.
   Version identification	After you enter the preceding title, Azure API Center generates this identifier, which you can override.	Azure resource name for the version.
   Version lifecycle	Make a selection from the dropdown, for example, Testing or Production.	Lifecycle stage of the API version.
   External documentation	Optionally add one or more links to external documentation.	Name, description, and URL of documentation for the API.
   License	Optionally add license information.	Name, URL, and ID of a license for the API.
   Contact information	Optionally add information for one or more contacts.	Name, email, and URL of a contact for the API.
   Line of business	If you added this metadata in the previous tutorial, make a selection from the dropdown, such as Marketing.	Custom metadata that identifies the business unit that owns the API.
   Public-facing	If you added this metadata, select the checkbox.	Custom metadata that identifies whether the API is public-facing or internal only.

   

4. Select Create. The API is registered.

5. Repeat the preceding three steps to register another API, such as the Conference API.

Tip

When you register an API in the portal, you can select any of the predefined API types or enter another type of your choice.

The APIs appear on the APIs page in the portal. When you've added a large number of APIs to the API center, use the search box and filters on this page to find the APIs you want.

After registering an API, you can view or edit the API's properties. On the APIs page, select the API to see pages to manage the API registration.

Add an API version

Throughout its lifecycle, an API could have multiple versions. You can add a version to an existing API in your API center, optionally with a definition file or files.

Here you add a version to one of your APIs:

1. In the portal, navigate to your API center.

2. In the left menu, select APIs, and then select an API, for example, Swagger Petstore.

3. On the API page, under Details, select Versions > + Add version.

   

4. On the Add API version page:

   1. Enter or select the following information:

      Setting	Value	Description
      Version title	Enter a version title of your choice, such as v2.	Name you choose for the API version.
      Version identification	After you enter the preceding title, Azure API Center generates this identifier, which you can override.	Azure resource name for the version.
      Version lifecycle	Make a selection from the dropdown, such as Production.	Lifecycle stage of the API version.

   2. Select Create. The version is added.

Add a definition to your version

Usually you'll want to add an API definition to your API version. Azure API Center supports definitions in common text specification formats, such as OpenAPI 2 and 3 for REST APIs.

To add an API definition to your version:

1. On the Versions page of your API, select your API version.

2. In the left menu of your API version, under Details, select Definitions > + Add definition.

3. On the Add definition Page:

   1. Enter or select the following information:

      Setting	Value	Description
      Title	Enter a title of your choice, such as v2 Definition.	Name you choose for the API definition.
      Identification	After you enter the preceding title, Azure API Center generates this identifier, which you can override.	Azure resource name for the definition.
      Description	Optionally enter a description.	Description of the API definition.
      Specification name	For the Petstore API, select OpenAPI.	Specification format for the API.
      Specification version	Enter a version identifier of your choice, such as 3.0.	Specification version.
      Document	Browse to a local definition file for the Petstore API, or enter a URL. Example URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/swagger-api/swagger-petstore/refs/heads/master/src/main/resources/openapi.yaml	API definition file.

      

   2. Select Create. The definition is added.

In this tutorial, you learned how to use the portal to:

• Register one or more APIs
• Add an API version with an API definition

As you build out your API inventory, take advantage of automated tools to register APIs, such as the Azure API Center extension for Visual Studio Code and the Azure CLI.

Next steps

Your API inventory is starting to take shape! Now you can add information about API environments and deployments.

Add API environments and deployments