API Lifecycle¶

The API lifecycle is one of the key factors in API management. An API lifecycle has predefined states. These states represent the stages that an API has in the process of starting to develop an API until it's retirement. WSO2 API Manager related APIs and API Products have a lifecycle that contains six stages which allows you to identify in which state that the APIs or API Products are currently in.

API lifecycle states¶

The following lifecycle states are available in the default API lifecycle and applicable for APIs and API Products.

API Lifecycle State	Use Case	Action
CREATED	The API has been created, but it is not available for usage.	API metadata is added to the Developer Portal, but it is not published in the API Gateway and therefore, it is not visible to subscribers in the Developer Portal.
PRE-RELEASED	A prototype is created for the purpose of early promotion and consumer testing. You can deploy a new API or a new version of an existing API as a prototype by using the PRE-RELEASED state. It gives subscribers an early implementation of the API.	The API is published in the Developer Portal as a pre-release.
PUBLISHED	The API is ready to be used by users in the Developer Portal.	The API is visible in the Developer Portal and available for subscription.
BLOCKED	The API is temporarily blocked from being used. A publisher can publish the API from the BLOCKED state.	Access to the API is temporarily blocked. Runtime calls are blocked and the API is not shown in the Developer Portal anymore.
DEPRECATED	The old version of the API is DEPRECATED when a newer version of the API is created and PUBLISHED.	When an API is deprecated, new subscriptions are disabled. However, the API is still deployed in the Gateway and is available at runtime to existing subscribers. Existing subscribers can continue to use it as usual until the API is retired.
RETIRED	The API is no longer in use and has been moved to the RETIRED state.	The API is unpublished from the API Gateway and deleted from the Developer Portal.

Manage API lifecycle¶

The lifecycle of an API or API Products can be managed by the users with publishing privilege, using the API Publisher portal in WSO2 API Manager.

Follow the instructions below to manage the API lifecycle appropriately:

Sign in to API Publisher.

https://localhost:9443/publisher/
Click on the API for which you need to change its lifecycle state.
Click Lifecycle.

The lifecycle state transition grid and the lifecycle change history appears. The current lifecycle state and the next possible lifecycle transitions are available in lifecycle state grid. The lifecycle history contains the data such as the lifecycle transition action, the user who performed the transition and the timestamp of the state change.
Click on the lifecycle state change buttons to change the lifecycle state.