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This guide gives a quick walk through the WSO2 API Manager product to get started fast. It introduces some of the basic features and the process from creating to testing a simple API. For a detailed description of how to install, set up and use the product's features and functionality, see each individual section of this documentation.

This guide covers the following:

Setting up the API Manager

1. Ensure that the following prerequisites are satisfied.
   
   • JDK 1.6.* or higher installed.
   • JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to <JDK_HOME>. For example, JAVA_HOME=c:/Program Files/java/jdk1.6.0_27.
2. Download the API Manager Binary distribution from http://dist.wso2.org/products/api-manager/1.4.0/wso2am-1.4.0.zip
3. Extract the zip file to a folder which will be referred to as the <APIM_HOME> throughout the rest of this guide.
4. Open a command prompt (or a shell in Linux) and go to <PRODUCT_HOME>/bin directory.
5. Start the API Manager server by executing wso2server.sh (or wso2server.bat in Windows).
6. The operation log keep running until the server starts, which usually takes several seconds. Wait until the server has fully booted up and displays a message similar to "WSO2 Carbon started in n seconds."

Creating an API

Now that the API Manager is up and running, let's create a simple API using the API Publisher Web application.

1. Open a web browser and access the URL: https://localhost:9443/publisher.
2. You should see the API Publisher login screen. Type user/password as admin/admin and click Log in button.
3. The API Provider home page opens with all created APIs listed. Since first-time users haven’t created any APIs so far, they will not see any APIs. Click on the Add button to open the Add New API window.
4. As our first example, we are going to create an API named TestAPI, which is based on the YouTube functionality provided by http://youtube.com. Our API will accept both GET and POST requests and the output will be an Atom feed.
   
   
   Enter following values into the respective fields of the Add New API form. In this example, we have not provided some fields which are optional.
   
   
   • Name: TestAPI
   • Context: /youtube
   • Version: 1.0.0
   • Visibility: Public
   • Endpoint Security Scheme: Non Secured
   • Production URL: http://youtube.com
   • Tiers Availability

     Anchor
     tiers tiers

     : Gold, Silver, Bronze (select all 3 – this field supports multiple values)
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5. Click Create at the end of the form to save the API configuration. You will be taken back to the API Provider home page where the new TestAPI will be listed.
6. By clicking the TestAPI, you can open its Overview tab, which lists a summary of the information entered when creating the API. The page also has other tabs.
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Publishing the API

When you create a new API, it's initially in the CREATED state of its life cycle. When an API is in this state, the consumers cannot see it in the API Store. To enable consumers to view and subscribe to this created API, it should be promoted to the PUBLISHED state.

1. To publish the API, select the Life Cycle tab where you will see a drop down with different states the API can be in.
2. Select the PUBLISHED state in the drop down and click the Update button to apply the state change. The API Provider immediately displays the API state as PUBLISHED.
   

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Subscribing to the API as a consumer

Now that the API is published, consumers should be able to see it and subscribe to it through the API Store.

1. To access the API Store, open a Web browser and type the URL: https://localhost:9443/store. The TestAPI will be listed on the home page itself. Anonymous users also can access this API. You must log in to subscribe to an API.
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2. Log in to the API Store (Log in link is in the top right-hand corner of the screen) to see the Subscribe option.
3. To subscribe to an API, you should have an application in place. Select the DefaultApplication in the Applications drop down.
4. The Tiers drop down lists all the tiers specified when creating the API. Select the Gold tier and click on the Subscribe button.
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5. Choose to proceed to the My Subscriptions page in the pop-up that appears.
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6. Click Generate to obtain a key for your application. You need these access keys to invoke the API.
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Testing the API

Any REST client can be used to invoke the TestAPI. For Curl, use the following command to invoke it.

curl -v -H "Authorization: Bearer xxxxx" http://localhost:8280/youtube/1.0.0/most_popular