Introduction to IBM App Connect
Tags: beginners, ibmcloud, api, tutorial
Published: 2021-09-28 12:44:02

## Introduction
Although I'm used to IBM API Connect, I'm quite new to App Connect, which sounds very similar.
Now it's time for me to learn App Connect as well and this post is a kind of my note. As I'm familiar with creating APIs, I'm going to start with [Creating a flow for an API](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/AppConnect?topic=AppConnect-tutorial-api-flow&locale=en).

## Requirements
1. Get an IBM Cloud account (Lite or whatever). App Connect offers free edition that you don't need to pay to give a try.
2. Deploy IBM App Connect on the IBM Cloud console, quite easy and simple with one click.

## Steps
1. Click "Create flows for an API".
![dashboard](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/4x6ea8r20q788kl7ido5.png)

2. Enter a name to represent your API.
![createflow](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/c9vav572pkvhgvikn7xt.png)

3. Add properties as needed.
![properties](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/cclm1q7ujmqzbmk78ge6.png)

4. click operations to select operations and implement flows for each operation.
![operations](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/yqotmm1jm4pomkb7ytsw.png)

5. Set request parameters, name and location in this case.
![reqparams](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/qe792zu4v0mjq3tpu5kz.png)

6. Add applications as needed. In this try I'm not going to add any application.
![apps](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9o3z53xo7a4wx6gp16tu.png)

7. Set response parameters for the name and location.
![resparams](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ddazz9pjwjy9edk4s1dg.png)

8. Click done and next.
![finish](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/cs8a5dhj6obkayd9vr15.png)
 
9. Repeat the same procedure for GET flow by clicking Implement flow.
![implflow](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/is63wywbdnmgrm5jo7o2.png)

10. Set request parameters. Below is default setting.
![reqparam](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/dhy0wgkamivxkjvwh9vf.png)
 
11. Add applications as needed. In this try I'm not going to add any application as well, but I think this is the biggest point that differs from API Connect, as API Connect doesn't have such functions to integrate with other services.
![apps](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/k6zis2iabdie9lircwiu.png)

12. Set response parameters for the name and location.
![resparams](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9idbertfq80ked3euw0i.png)
 
13. Click done
![finish](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/wlj1aa1z17zucrnifrli.png)
 
14. Start the API
![start](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/d48utghrzne3ye4imf18.png)

15. Now the API is running.
![running](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/vrq9xgweilfxlkx3wdr9.png)

16. Open Manage to check the API endpoint.
![manage](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/45qgyaf8tw8xhf7wmhay.png)
 
17. As this API is secured with API key by default. API key must be created to supply in API requests. In this try, I'm going to create API key for IBM Cloud internal use.
![security](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ofow0xh6haqkr92iryvs.png)
 
18. Click Create API key to generate one
![apikey](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/k2xsdxpx7dlrlyrv86qa.png)

19. Below is my API key
![mykey](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/awuu4z3etnqcb5mnuby6.png)

20. Now let's call the API with the key to POST (create) an entry.
![post](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/y6hhudea7b778xbt7elr.png)
 
21. Below is the request body and here's the response.
![body](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/sx4xe2y4tdukdcx5trzy.png)
  
22. Now let's call the API to GET (retrieve) an entry. Note that this API is not the entry created above, it's irrelevant  and this API simply returns the request parameter in the path  in the response body, and the location parameter is fixed as set in Step 12-13. 
![get](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7168w27l04haihlj4nrs.png) 
 
## Summary
Here I explained how to create an API flow with App Connect.