Glossary

9.1 Endpoint

An endpoint is a resource that is exposed via your API. For instance, if you have a REST service for obtaining supported countries in your application - GET /countries, then the endpoint is GET /countries.

9.2 Backend application

Backend application is the application which API will be publicly exposed.

9.3 Mapping

A mapping is the translation or transformation between a public request to a request to your system. For instance, if you have a recourse /countries/{code} and you want to expose it as /v1.0/countries/{code}, then the mapping will be between those two requests. Each mapping has its own description in the mappings configuration file.
So depending on the context, a mapping could be the process of a request/response translation or a specific mapping description.

9.4 Mappings configuration file

Mappings configuration file is an XML file that defines all your API resources that will be exposed via ApiFest. There could be many mappings configuration files - for instance, a separate file for each of your API supported versions. All mappings configuration files must be placed in one folder and the path to that folder must be setup in the ApiFest Mapping Server properties file as apifest.mappings property.

9.5 Action - request transformation

In the ApiFest context, an action represents a request transformation that happens in the process of a request mapping. Actions are custom classes that extend com.apifest.api.BasicAction class.

9.6 Filter - response transformation

In the ApiFest context, a filter represents a response transformation applied on the response received from your application as a result of a mapping. Filters are custom classes that extend com.apifest.api.BasicFilter class.

9.7 Scope

The scope in the mappings configuration file defines the OAuth 2.0 scope of the access tokens that are permitted to access a given endpoint. For more details, see chapter 3.10.

9.8 Mapping errors

Custom mapping errors are custom errors defined in the mappings configuration file/s. If defined, they will replace the error responses from the backend application with customized error responses depending on the HTTP status code.

9.9 Global errors

Global errors are customized errors that are not related to any specific mappings. For instance, if a response with HTTP 404 code should be returned from the ApiFest Mapping Server (in case when a resource is not mapped at all) then it could be customized with global error, i.e. the content of the response will be the error message defined in the corresponding global error. Global errors are defined in the global errors configuration file.

9.10 Global errors configuration file

Global errors configuration file is an XML file that defines the errors that are not related to a mapping configuration that will be returned by the ApiFest Mapping Server. For more details, see chapter 3.8.