Glossary

A set of our official term definitions, to ensure that we all share the same language

.net

The Microsoft Development Framework for developing applications, APIs and more.

.net runs historically on Windows - see .net core for cross-platform

.net core

The renaissance of .net

• Cross-platform (runs on windows, linux, mac)

• Modular

• Faster (performance)

API

Application Programming Interface

Defined interfaces through which interactions happen between an enterprise and applications that use its assets, which also is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to specify the functional provider and expose the service path or URL for its API users (Wikipedia)

We use as a shortcut to speak about REST/JSON Web API

API Catalog

Part of this Developer portal, our API catalog is the place where API producers and consumers can met.

It has designed in an API-first approach, and thus, all features available in the UI are also exposed as an API.

API-first

The principle of designing and developping a feature as an API first, with reusability in mind, before focusing on a specific set of screens and user interactions.

C#

Leading Programming Language for .net and .net core

Certificate

A cryptographic element that, when verified by a CA, authenticates a system (machines, APIs) (Wikipedia)

Certificates are signed via CSR.

Client App

In the Developer portal, The contact information about an application, web api that connects to others using SG Connect.

you can create and manage your own clients in your Developer portal Dashboard

Client Manager

A Client Manager, and its deputies, are the people accountable for the behaviour of the client program and that asks to subscribe to needed services and, when needed, discuss with the API manager to agree on an SLA and usage plan.

CORS

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing

The Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) mechanism gives web servers cross-domain access controls, which enable secure cross-domain data transfers (CORS - Mozilla).

Credential (API)

The credential identifying a client app calling an API.

See Client (OAuth)

CSR

Certificate Signing Request

The procedure of requesting a CA to sign Certificates.

Upon successful validation of the request, the CA delivers a verifiable Public Key/Private Key pair.

This is the XL Deploy’s standard package format.

A DAR contains all files (binaries, configuration, etc.) to be deployed on Nodes as well as a manifest that describes where files must be copied, what actions must be done before/after deployment, etc. so XL Deploy knows what to do in order to deploy the DAR.

Under the hood, a DAR is just a ZIP archive.

Developer portal

You are here.

Feature Toggling

The activation/deactivation/control of various API behaviors, wether technical or functional.

Behaviors may concern the API itself or functional entities inside the API (per user/role/department..).

Feature Toggling is often dynamic, to allows faster changes without requiering another deployment.

Feign

a java to http client binder inspired by Retrofit, JAXRS-2.0, and WebSocket. Feign’s first goal was reducing the complexity of binding Denominator uniformly to HTTP APIs.

See https://github.com/OpenFeign/feign

Go

The Go Programming Language (golang).

GraphQL

Graph Query Language

Another API standard, different from REST.

HTTP

Hyper Text-Transfer Protocol

The ubiquitous transport protocol for APIs and web pages.

see HTTP Requests, HTTP Responses.

HTTP Request

Requests sent to an API over HTTP/HTTPs for given Operations.

HTTP Response

Replies received from an API over HTTP/HTTPs for given Operations.

HTTPs

Secure HTTP

HTTPs establish a secure, confidential communication between client and server using Certificates.

Its main purpose is to authenticate the server and to avoid Man in the middle security breaches, by encrypting (e.g. making “opaque”) the conversation between the client and the server.

Java

https://www.java.com/en/

Programming Language.

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation

An open-standard file format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objects (Wikipedia)

Man in the middle

A security breach where a software/hardware spy the traffic you send or receive from a legit server.

HTTPs is the secure protocol commonly used by APIs to avoid such breaches.

OAS

See OpenAPI specification

OData

Open Data

Another API standard, different from REST.

OpenAPI specification

An open standard manifest listing the operations supported by an API.

Previously known as Swagger (TM)

Operation (REST)

A distinct invokable unit of work within an API.

• Operations are invoked by Clients (OAuth), usually through HTTP Requests / HTTP Responses exchanges.

• An operation usually operate on Resources (ex: deals) and is something like : create, update (partially or fully), delete, search with criteria, get by id…

• It may be also sometimes a purely computational operation like “compute-price”.

• An API usually expose multiple operations, like average 5 operations per resource, so between 5 to 50 operations.

• The use of REST semantics helps distinguish operations that change data, and the ones that have no impact on data.

Polling

The periodic call of an API endpoint to retrieve data over time.

Resource (REST)

A resource, in REST terminology, represents some data (entity, business object) on which are usually applied various operations like create, update (partially or fully), delete, search with criteria, get by id, …

REST APIs typically perform Operations on resources.

A resource is expressed in plural form. ex: deals, thirdparties, users, products, …

REST

Representational State Transfer

An architectural style that defines a set of constraints to be used for creating web APIs (Wikipedia)

RPO

Recovery Point Objective

The maximum amount of data that may be lost when service is restored after an interruption.

RTO

Recovery Time Objective

Objective of maximum time allowed for recovery of an IT service following an interruption.

SLA

Service Level Agreement defines several indicators you commit to. For instance a volume of requests and a delay to treat them, usually expressed with a percentile.

SOA

Service Oriented Architecture

SOAP

Simple Object Access Protocol

An older standard to expose Web APIs. Uses XML instead of JSON data format.

The main benefit of HTTP/REST/JSON APIs is they can be easily invoked from browser apps wereas SOAP is difficult to use without the appropriate toolkits.

Spring

Spring-Framework

Spring-Boot

A leading technical stack to build APIs in Java.

SSE

Server Sent Events

Server Sent Events is a technology where a browser receives automatic updates from a server via HTTP connection.

Swagger

Precursor of OpenAPI specification.

SwaggerHub, Swagger Tools are trademarks of SmartBear software.

Swagger UI

A simple, generic UI to interact with an OAS/Swagger API

XML

XML Markup Language

A data representation standard. See also JSON.