Deploy an API managed by Cloud Endpoints
This QuickStart walks you through deploying a sample API, which Endpoints manages. The sample code includes:
- A REST API that you can query to find the name of an airport from its three-letter IATA code.
- A script that uploads the API configuration to Endpoints.
- A script that deploys an App Engine flexible environment backend to host the sample API.
After you send requests to the sample API, you can view the Endpoints activity graphs and Google Cloud Observability logs in the Google Cloud console. These tools let you monitor your APIs and gain insights into their usage.
This QuickStart uses scripts to simplify the configuration steps for you to quickly see the activity graphs and logs in action. To learn how to configure and deploy a sample API, choose a tutorial for one of the API frameworks:
Before you begin
- Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.
-
In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.
-
Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.
-
In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.
-
Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.
Starting Cloud Shell
In the Google Cloud console, make sure you are in the project that you want to use for the sample API.
Open Cloud Shell.
A Cloud Shell session opens inside a new frame at the bottom of the Google Cloud console and displays a command-line prompt. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.
If you're using an existing project, make sure you have the latest version of all installed
gcloud
components:gcloud components update
Getting the sample code
In Cloud Shell, enter the following command to get the sample API and scripts:
git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/endpoints-quickstart
Change to the directory that contains the sample code:
cd endpoints-quickstart
Deploying the Endpoints configuration
To publish a REST API to Endpoints, an OpenAPI configuration file
that describes the API is required. The sample API comes with a pre-configured
OpenAPI file called openapi.yaml
.
Endpoints uses Service Management, an infrastructure service of Google Cloud to create and manage APIs and services. To use Endpoints to manage an API, you deploy the API's OpenAPI configuration file to Service Management.
To deploy the Endpoints configuration:
In Cloud Shell, in the
endpoints-quickstart
directory, enter the following:cd scripts
Run the following script, which is included in the sample:
./deploy_api.sh
Endpoints uses the host
field in the OpenAPI configuration file
to identify the service. The deploy_api.sh
script sets the ID of your
Google Cloud project as part of the name configured in the host
field.
When you prepare an OpenAPI configuration file for your own service, you need to
do this manually.
The script then deploys the OpenAPI configuration to Service Management
by using the command: gcloud endpoints services deploy openapi.yaml
As it is creating and configuring the service, Service Management outputs
information to the Google Cloud console. You can safely ignore the warnings
about the paths in openapi.yaml
not requiring an API key. On successful
completion, you see a line similar to the following that displays the service
configuration ID and the service name:
Service Configuration [2017-02-13-r2] uploaded for service [airports-api.endpoints.example-project.cloud.goog]
Enabling required services
At a minimum, Endpoints requires the following Google services to be enabled:
Name | Title |
---|---|
servicemanagement.googleapis.com |
Service Management API |
servicecontrol.googleapis.com |
Service Control API |
endpoints.googleapis.com |
Google Cloud Endpoints |
In most cases, deploying the Endpoints configuration enables these required services.
Use the following command to confirm that the required services are enabled:
gcloud services list
If you do not see the required services listed, enable them:
gcloud services enable servicemanagement.googleapis.comgcloud services enable servicecontrol.googleapis.com
gcloud services enable endpoints.googleapis.com
Also enable your Endpoints service:
gcloud services enable YOUR-PROJECT-ID.appspot.com
For more information about the gcloud
commands, see
gcloud
services.
Deploying the API backend
So far you have deployed the OpenAPI configuration to Service Management,
but you haven't yet deployed the code to serve the API backend. The
deploy_app.sh
script included in the sample creates an App Engine
flexible environment to host the API backend, and then the script deploys the
API to App Engine.
To deploy the API backend:
In Cloud Shell, in the
endpoints-quickstart/scripts
directory, run the following script:./deploy_app.sh
The script runs the following command to create an App Engine flexible
environment in the us-central
region:
gcloud app create --region="$REGION"
It takes several minutes to create the App Engine flexible environment backend. After the application is created, the output is:
Success! The app is now created.
Next, the script runs the gcloud app deploy
command to
deploy the sample API to App Engine.
The output is:
Deploying ../app/app_template.yaml...You are about to deploy the following services:
It takes several minutes to deploy the API to App Engine. When the API is successfully deployed to App Engine, the output is:
Deployed service [default] to [https://example-project.appspot.com]
Sending requests to the API
In Cloud Shell, after deploying the sample API, you can send requests to it by running the following script:
./query_api.sh
The script echoes the curl
command that it uses to send a request to the API,
and then displays the result. The output is:
curl "https://example-project.appspot.com/airportName?iataCode=SFO" San Francisco International Airport
The API expects one query parameter, iataCode
, that is set to a valid IATA
airport code such as SEA
or JFK
. For example:
./query_api.sh JFK
Note: App Engine may take a few minutes to respond successfully to requests. If you send a request and get an HTTP 502, 503, or some other server error, wait a minute and try the request again.
You just deployed and tested an API in Endpoints!
Tracking API activity
With APIs deployed with Endpoints, you can monitor critical operations metrics in the Google Cloud console, and gain insight into your users and usage with Cloud Logging.
In Cloud Shell, run the traffic generation script to populate the graphs and logs:
./generate_traffic.sh
In the Google Cloud console, look at the activity graphs for your API.
Go to the Endpoints Services page
It might take a few moments for the requests to be reflected in the graphs. While you wait for data to be displayed:
If the Permissions side panel isn't open, click +Permissions. The Permissions panel lets you control who has access to your API and the level of access.
Click Deployment history. This tab displays a history of your API deployments, including the deployment time and who deployed the change.
Click Overview. You see the traffic coming in. After the traffic generation script has been running for a minute, you see three lines on the Total latency graph (50th, 95th, and 98th percentiles). This data provides an estimate of response times.
Scroll down to the table below the graphs, and under Links, click View Logs for GET/airportName. The Logs Explorer page displays the request logs for the API.
Open Cloud Shell.
To stop the script, enter
Control+C
.
Adding a quota to the API
Endpoints lets you set quotas that let you control the rate at which applications can call your API. You can use quotas to protect your API from excessive usage by a single client.
In Cloud Shell, deploy the Endpoints configuration that has a quota.
./deploy_api.sh ../openapi_with_ratelimit.yaml
After you deploy an updated Endpoints configuration, it becomes active within a minute.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Credentials page.
Click Create credentials, and then click API key. A new API key is displayed on the screen.
Click Copy file_copy.
In Cloud Shell, type the following. Replace
YOUR_API_KEY
with the API key you just created.export API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY
Send your API a request using the API key you just generated.
./query_api_with_key.sh $API_KEY
The output is similar to the following:
curl -H 'x-api-key: AIzeSyDbdQdaSdhPMdiAuddd_FALbY7JevoMzAB' "https://example-project.appspot.com/airportName?iataCode=SFO" San Francisco International Airport
The API now has a limit of 5 requests per minute. Run the following command to send traffic to the API and trigger the quota limit.
./generate_traffic_with_key.sh $API_KEY
After running the script for 5-10 seconds, enter
Control+C
to stop the script.Send another authenticated request to the API.
./query_api_with_key.sh $API_KEY
The output is similar to the following:
{ "code": 8, "message": "Insufficient tokens for quota 'airport_requests' and limit 'limit-on-airport-requests' of service 'example-project.appspot.com' for consumer 'api_key:AIzeSyDbdQdaSdhPMdiAuddd_FALbY7JevoMzAB'.", "details": [ { "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.DebugInfo", "stackEntries": [], "detail": "internal" } ] }
If you get a different response, try running the generate_traffic_with_key.sh
script again and then retry.
Congratulations! You've successfully rate-limited your API. You can also set varying limits on different API methods, create multiple kinds of quotas, and keep track of which consumers use which APIs.
For more information, see About quotas.
Creating a developer portal for the API
You can use Cloud Endpoints Portal to create a developer portal, a website that you can use to interact with the sample API. To learn more, see Cloud Endpoints Portal overview.
Clean up
To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used on this page, follow these steps.
To avoid incurring charges, you can delete your Google Cloud project to stop billing for all the resources used within that project.
- In the Google Cloud console, go to the Manage resources page.
- In the project list, select the project that you want to delete, and then click Delete.
- In the dialog, type the project ID, and then click Shut down to delete the project.
What's next
For on overview of Endpoints:
To learn about the different API frameworks that Endpoints supports:
To learn how to configure and deploy a sample API, choose a tutorial for one of the API frameworks: