MuleSoft's Anypoint management software for APIs is built around a "design-first" approach to APIs for developers, says the company. Recently updated, this product aims to tackle API management from design to deployment with support for RAML.
(RESTful API Modeling Language) is a concise, expressive language for specifying APIs.
New features include Anypoint API Portal for API design and collaboration, and Anypoint API Manager, for managing any existing service through an integrated API gateway.
These API management features are components of the broader Anypoint Platform and are intended to connect APIs to backend services via CloudHub iPaaS or Mule ESB.
Architects and developers will be able to design and build APIs, operations can ensure reliable and secure APIs, and business owners can make better decisions based on analytics and usage of APIs.
According to MuleSoft, "Anypoint API Portal allows API and application developers to design, test, and discover APIs in a web-based collaboration suite. The portal bakes in design-first principles, decoupling design from implementation and leveraging RAML to deliver APIs that are easy for developers to understand and use, while facilitating collaboration between API and application designers."
Also here is Mule Studio with APIkit, the Eclipse-based graphical design environment. Mule Studio implements any API design expressed in a RAML file, automatically generating the flows required to implement that API and connect it to a wide range of backend applications and services.
According to Forrester Research, Inc.'s June 2013 report by Randy Heffner, Establish Your API Design Strategy, "Business opportunity awaits. But before diving in to create an API, it's wise to form an API design strategy — that is, to establish the major parameters that your teams must take into account as they design and implement your APIs. Even when the pressure is high to get an API out the door now, a design strategy's consideration of business context, as well as its quick look to your APIs' future horizons, is critical for creating a strong foundation for your organization's API initiative."
