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Create and Publish a WebSocket API

Follow the instructions in this tutorial to design and publish API with a WebSocket backend, and thereafter invoke it using the wscat WebSocket client.

Note

For more information on WebSocket APIs, see Create a WebSocket API.

Step 1 - Design a WebSocket API

1. Sign in to the API Publisher Portal.

   https://<hostname>:9443/publisher

   Example: https://localhost:9443/publisher

   Let's use admin as your username and password to sign in.

2. Click CREATE API and then click Design a New WebSocket API.

   Note

   The CREATE button will only appear for a user who has the creator role permission.

   

3. Enter the detials of the new WebSocket API.

   Field	Sample value
   Name	EchoWebSocket
   Context	/echowebsocket
   Version	1.0
   Endpoint	Use one of the following endpoints. ws://echo.websocket.org:80 wss://echo.websocket.org:443
   Business Plan	Gold, Silver

   

   Note

   The CREATE & PUBLISH option will appear only if the optional fields Endpoint and Business plan(s) are provided by a user who has publisher permission. You need to add a Name, Context, Version, and a valid Endpoint (For non-secured WebSockets enter the protocol as ws:// or for secured WebSockets enter the protocol as wss://) to create the API.

4. Click CREATE or CREATE & PUBLISH.

   The overview page of the created WebSocket API appears.

   

5. Optionally, enter the endpoint configurations.

   1. Click Endpoint.

   2. Click the Endpoint Advanced Configurations link as shown below and update the endpoint related configurations as required.

      For more information, see the following sections on endpoint related configurations.

      • Endpoint Timeouts
      • Endpoint Suspension
      • Prevent API Suspension

   

Now, you have created and configured the WebSocket API successfully.

Step 2 - Publish the WebSocket API

Click LIFECYCLE to navigate to the API lifecycle and click PUBLISH to publish the API to the API Developer Portal.

Step 3 - Invoke a WebSocket API

1. Sign in to the DEVELOPER PORTAL.

   https://<hostname>:9443/devportal

   Example: https://localhost:9443/devportal

2. Click on the WebSocket API.

   The API overview appears.

3. Subscribe to the API.

   1. Click KEY GENERATION WIZARD.

      This wizard takes you through the steps of creating a new application, subscribing, generating keys, and generating an access token to invoke the API.

      Note

      You can use any application (e.g., JWT or OAuth) to subscribe to the API.

      

   2. Copy the authorization token that appears.

      

4. Try out the operations.

   1. Install wscat client.

      npm install -g wscat

   2. Invoke the API by using an authorization header by executing the following command.

      WS

      wscat -c ws://localhost:9099/echowebsocket/1.0.0 -H "Authorization: Bearer [accesstoken]" 

      WSS

      wscat -n -c wss://localhost:8099/echowebsocket/1.0.0 -H "Authorization: Bearer [accesstoken]"

      Note

      There are clients (specially browsers) that do not allow to add headers to the Websocket handshake. In such cases, you can send the access token for the Websocket API invocation as a query parameter named access_token by using the command below:

      WS

      wscat -c "ws://localhost:9099/echowebsocket/1.0.0?access_token=[accesstoken]" 

      WSS

      wscat -n -c "wss://localhost:8099/echowebsocket/1.0.0?access_token=[accesstoken]"

   Note

   BasicAuth and API Key do not work for security of WebSocket APIs.

You have successfully created and published your first WebSocket API, subscribed to it, obtained an access token for testing, and tested your API with the access token.

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