API Gateway Consolidating Multi-Server Endpoint Paths
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Solution Overview
Problem
In multi-server computing environments, such as cloud computing, clients cannot access consolidated API information from a single point of entry due to dynamic management of individual servers, where APIs can be added, updated, or removed, and clients are unsure which server to access for a common API.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that obtain API records from multiple computing resources, combine them into merged data by modifying relative paths to identify specific computing resources, generate an interface to display APIs to clients, and invoke connections to selected APIs, enabling centralized access to APIs across multiple servers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If individual servers are managed separately with dynamic API additions and updates, then server flexibility and adaptability are improved, but client access complexity and difficulty in locating APIs worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway server as an intermediary between clients and multiple backend servers. The gateway server consolidates API information from various servers, resolves path conflicts by incorporating server identifiers, and provides a unified entry point for clients. This mediator approach allows individual servers to remain flexible and dynamically manageable while simplifying client access through a single consolidated interface.
2Ease of operation
If APIs are consolidated from multiple servers, then centralized access is improved, but path conflicts and identification ambiguity worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by modifying API paths differently based on their origin server. When consolidating APIs from multiple servers, the system incorporates server-specific identifiers (such as server names or addresses) into the path structure. This ensures that while all APIs are accessible through a centralized gateway, each API path maintains its unique identification and routing information, preventing conflicts and ambiguity.
3Ease of operation
If a single interface is provided for API access, then ease of operation is improved, but the system complexity for managing multiple servers worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple server management functions into a single gateway server. The gateway consolidates API information from various backend servers,统一管理 (unified management) of API paths, and provides a single interface for client access. This combining approach simplifies the client experience while centralizing the complexity of multi-server management within the gateway, reducing the overall system complexity from the client perspective.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, computer program product, and system includes a processor(s) obtaining application programming interface (API) records from one or more computing resources in a shared computing environment, which include individual API data from each computing resource, identifying, for each API record, a relative path to an endpoint of a respective application deployed on the computing resource. The processor(s) combines the individual API data into merged API data, which includes modifying the relative path of each API record to identify a specific computing resource in the path. The processor(s) generates an interface to display to a client a list of APIs identified in the merged API data. The processor(s) obtains a selection from the client, of a specific API, and invokes, a connection, via the interface and using one or more security artifacts, to the endpoint and the respective application of the specific API.