Streamlining Access through Developer Auto-Registration in the API Business Hub Enterprise.

[Nyna_Rao]

Introduction

API business hub enterprise is a one-stop catalog offering from SAP API Management, where application developers can discover, search for, and consume APIs published by the organization. In API business hub enterprise, the administrator has the ability to manage catalog access for developers. Currently, developers who want to access the catalog can submit a registration request, which requires approval from the administrator.

 

The current developer registration process in API business hub enterprise is effective in situations where:

1. The administrator wants to have a strong governance mechanism for the catalog.


2. The administrator is actively available to approve the registration requests.


3. The application developers are outside the organization and are small in number.

 

Problem

There are cases where a large number of employees within a company use the API business hub enterprise and are verified through an identity provider. However, the manual registration and approval process for these employees can be time-consuming.

 

Solution

To address this issue, we have implemented automatic registration for developers in API business hub enterprise.

Now, any user who is authenticated by the identity provider and has the role AuthGroup.API.ApplicationDeveloper in SAP Business Technology Platform will be automatically registered as a developer in API business hub enterprise when they log in for the first time.

 

NOTE: This feature is only applicable to the new design of the API business hub enterprise. This blog will help you to get familiarised with the new design.

 

How does it work?

 

1. The SAP BTP administrator assigns the role AuthGroup.API.ApplicationDeveloper to the users. This role assignment can be done in multiple ways. A few of them are:
   
   
   
   • Static role assignment: Assign the role collection AuthGroup.API.ApplicationDeveloper to the user in the SAP BTP cockpit.
   
   
   • Dynamic role assignment in the identity provider: Add the attribute mapping or user groups for the identity provider for the role AuthGroupAPI.ApplicationDeveloper.For example, all users belonging to the user group ‘ABHE_Developer’ should have the   AuthGroup.API.ApplicationDeveloper role.
   
   
   • Custom role assignment:
     
     
     
     • Create a custom role from the ApplicationDeveloper template and assign it to a role collection.
     
     
     • Assign the newly created custom role collection to the user.
     
     
     
     
   
   
   
   

 

2. When a user who is not yet registered in the API business hub enterprise and has the role assignment in BTP logs in to the API business hub enterprise, they will be automatically registered as an API business hub enterprise developer and will have the ability to search, discover, and consume APIs.

 

3. The API business hub enterprise administrator can now see this user in the list of registered users .

 

 

 

Benefits

 

1. Time-saving : Users with the right roles skip the manual registration step.


2. Efficiency : Admins no longer need to manually approve registrations for users with the specified roles.


3. Enhanced User Experience : Reduced friction in the onboarding process.

 

Conclusion

The introduction of Auto-Registration represents a major advancement in our continuous effort to simplify and improve your API experience. By seamlessly integrating with your identity provider and automating user registration for specific roles, we have made API access more convenient and efficient. This feature not only saves time but also ensures that users with the appropriate permissions can easily utilize your API catalog.

 

What’s next

We're excited to provide a preview of the upcoming features that will enable administrators to customize the API experience according to their organizational requirements. One of the enhancements on the horizon is the introduction of administrative control over enabling public access to the API catalog. This forthcoming capability aims to find a middle ground between openness and security, allowing organizations to adjust API catalog accessibility to align with their specific governance policies. Stay tuned for more information as we refine and enhance our API Management product to better cater to your evolving needs.