API Connect 10.0.8 includes lifecycle reports within analytics. These reports are designed to make it easier to manage your API estate and ensure that the right APIs are being used and called by consumers.
There are overheads to running APIs that are no longer needed, both from a maintenance and security point of view. It is in the interests of the API provider to ensure that consumers are on the latest version of a given API and unused and deprecated APIs are removed from the platform once no longer needed.
In the past it required extensive analysis to find which APIs are actually being used and which ones are now safe to retire and remove from the gateways. The new lifecycle reports in API Connect 10.0.8 can provide this information in seconds.
Another import consideration is ensuring that as consumers onboard to the platform (possibly via the Developer portal), that they are actually successful and do not fall by the wayside at any stage of the onboarding process. The Inactive consumer organization report is designed to help here, it can show consumers who have created an application but then never subscribed to any products for example. That information can then be used by marketing and customer support teams to directly engage with the consumers and help them complete their onboarding journey, benefiting both consumer and provider.
These reports are compiled by combining Analytics data with that held in the API manager database to derive business value from looking at the whole API landscape rather than purely what is happening on the gateways.
Inactive products
The Inactive product report is a very fast way to see which products are deployed to your gateways and are not actively being called. It will show the products which have no subscriptions at all, those with subscriptions but have had no API calls, and those which have historically received API calls but have not received any recently (in the specified timeperiod).
Those which have no subscriptions at all can likely be retired immediately with no impact - those APIs are not being used by anyone. The products with subscriptions but not API calls lists the products consumers have subscribed to but never actually started using. It is unlikely anyone is currently relying on those APIs are there is no traffic, however there are existing subscriptions so these products could need deprecating and then removing at some point in the future. Its also possible that these Products should be being used, but for some reason they aren’t, in which case maybe there is a documentation issue or onboarding problem that is preventing consumers from actually making use of their subscriptions. The final table in the report shows products which were being used, but have not received any API calls in the specified time period (the previous 30 days in the above screenshot). These products were being actively called in the past but the traffic has dropped off to zero - these would need further investigation to find whether this is expected and the products can be deprecated or is there some issue with these products that has lead to the traffic stopping.
As with elsewhere in API Connect Analytics, each of the rows in the table can be clicked on to get the Detail report for that specific item. It will show the call history for the product, which catalogs it is published to along with data received, sent and response times. It also includes the biggest consumers (both consumer organizations and indivudual applications). Obviously for the items in this report, these are products with no traffic so the detail report is likely to be fairly empty.
Inactive consumer organizations
The Inactive consumer organizations report focuses on the consumer onboarding journey, it shows the various stages the consumer goes through in order to start making API calls and highlights those who have got stuck at one of those stages.
The onboarding process involves the consumer creating a consumer organization (either through self-service registration in the developer portal, or via invitation), then creating an application, subscribing to a product plan and then starting to make API calls.
The “sales funnel” diagram shows the consumers which have got stuck and failed to successfully invoke an API. Each of the stages in the funnel can be clicked on and the table at the bottom will show the specific consumer organizations which have failed to progress further than that stage. The above screenshot shows that there are 70 consumer organizations in total and 29 of them have failed to even create an application, a further 26 created an application but then did not subscribe to any products. In the above example all of those who did create a subscription were then able to successfully invoke the APIs within it. In fact it shows they are still actively doing so as the bottom row of the funnel is those who have made API calls in the past but not done so recently (in the specified time period - here the previous 30 days). In this example maybe there is an issue with the onboarding process - maybe approvals are taking too long? Or maybe the API products don’t appeal to the whole market? Maybe the consumers just need a gentle email from marketing to remind them to continue their onboarding journey? However, with 78% of registered consumers failing to invoke APIs there does appear to be a definite problem here the API provider should investigate further.
Deprecated products
The Deprecated products report shows the products which have been deprecated but are still being actively used. It can be expensive to maintain multiple versions of an API along with any legacy backend that goes with the older deprecated versions, so it is in the interests of the API provider to encourage consumers on to the newer current API versions where possible.
The products shown in the table were superseded by a new version at some point in the past but the consumers have not migrated to the new version. The information shown here could be used to engage with those consumers directly and remind them of the new version and what benefits it might bring to encourage them to complete their migration in the developer portal.
If you have suggestions for further reports we could add that would make life easier for the API provider then please do let us know!
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