Manage taxonomies

This page applies to Apigee and Apigee hybrid.

Preview — Apigee API hub

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of the Service Specific Terms. Pre-GA features are available "as is" and might have limited support. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.

Required permissions: You must have administrator permissions to view the Settings page and manage taxonomies.

Taxonomies provide a way of organizing APIs and provide flexible options for defining API metadata. A taxonomy, as defined in the system, is simply a named list of values that provides categorization options for specific information. The Taxonomies settings page allows you to view and manage the different taxonomies that are available in the system.

System taxonomies define values that have special meaning in API hub, and may be presented in a special way in the UI or dictate behavior. System taxonomies are predefined by the system and are more restricted in how they can be changed or extended; however, their list of values can be modified to some extent.

Custom taxonomies define any custom information that you would like to attach to APIs. If you have administrator permissions, you can create and modify this list any way you wish.

Most taxonomies are exclusive; labels group items into non overlapping (single-selection) collections. But where needed, taxonomies can be configured to allow multiple labels to be assigned to a single object. These multiple-selection taxonomies are marked as such in their configuration.

Predefined System taxonomies

The following predefined System taxonomies cannot be deleted and have specific portions of the configuration that are not editable. Some of these predefined system taxonomies also specify predefined elements:

• Target users: The intended users (consumers) of an API (multiple selections allowed)
• Style (primary): The primary architectural style of the API (single-selection only)
• Team: The producing team responsible for an API (single-selection only)
• Business unit: The business unit responsible for an API (single-selection only)
• Gateway: The proxy used to serve and protect the API (single-selection only)

Custom taxonomies

Custom taxonomies provide a method for attaching custom information to an API. For example:

• Approvals: Review status, such as Compliant or Regulated
• Topics: A categorization of an API by subject matter, such as Finance or HR
• Attributes: A feature of an API such as Contains PII
• Product: The consumer product an API was designed to support

Add taxonomy

To add a taxonomy:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the API hub, Settings, Taxonomies page.

   Go to API hub taxonomies

2. Click Add custom taxonomy.
3. Specify the following:
   • ID: An identifier for an API resource. The ID can contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. The ID must be unique in the project. IDs must be between 4 and 63 characters long. IDs cannot be changed once a taxonomy has been created. For example, for the API resource name: projects/my-project/locations/global/apis/my-api, the resource ID is my-api.
   • Name: The display name for the taxonomy
   • Description: A short description for the taxonomy
   • Options:
     • Limit to one selection: If selected, only one value of the taxonomy can be applied to an API at any given time. If multiple values are already applied to APIs and this option is enabled, the multiples remain.
     • Exclude from search filters: If selected, this taxonomy is not visible on the Filter pane.
   • Taxonomy elements: A list of Name and Description or URL pairs that define the values that are available for the taxonomy.
     • Name: The name is automatically generated based on the taxonomy display name. This name is displayed when you rest the mouse over the info icon on the Overview page.
     • URL: If a URL is entered, the taxonomy element is displayed as the URL.
     • Click Add element to add another element.
4. Click Save (or Cancel).

Note: Anytime a System taxonomy is unset on a resource, the value Not specified is displayed in the UI. Taxonomy selection components also display Not specified as an option if applicable. A taxonomy can become unset if a custom taxonomy is deleted, for example.

Edit taxonomy

To edit a taxonomy:

1. In the Cloud console, go to the API hub, Settings, Taxonomies page.

   Go to API hub taxonomies

2. Click Edit next to a system taxonomy, or More > Edit next to a custom taxonomy.

3. Make modifications as necessary. Not all fields for System taxonomies can be modified. See Predefined System taxonomies for more information.

   Note: If you delete a Taxonomy element from any taxonomy, you are presented with a confirmation dialog indicating that the values for that taxonomy will be removed from all APIs that currently have that element assigned.
4. Click Save (or Cancel).

Delete taxonomy

Caution: Deleting a taxonomy removes it from any API that used the taxonomy.

To delete a taxonomy:

1. In the Cloud console, go to the API hub, Settings, Taxonomies page.

   Go to API hub taxonomies

2. Click More > Delete next to the desired taxonomy.

   Note: You can delete only custom taxonomies.
3. Click Delete (or Cancel) at the confirmation prompt.

Reorder taxonomy list

Taxonomies can be reordered to determine the order they appear in the API Filter pane and the API Overview page.

To reorder the taxonomy list:

1. In the Cloud console, go to the API hub, Settings, Taxonomies page.

   Go to API hub taxonomies

2. Click an up or down arrow until the lifecycle is at the desired position.