Create Glue API applications

Last updated:
Edit on GitHub

Spryker’s Glue API is a powerful tool for building custom front end applications, integrating with third party services, and creating unique customer experiences. This guide provides a high level overview of the process for creating a new API application.

Key concepts

Before diving into the development process, it’s important to understand a few key concepts:

  • Glue API: The core of Spryker’s API infrastructure.
  • Storefront vs. Backend API: Spryker distinguishes between two types of API applications:
    • Storefront API: Designed for customer facing applications (for example mobile apps, single page applications). It has access to services like search and key value storage.
    • Backend API: Intended for backend integrations and administrative tasks. It has more direct access to the database, broker, and other core services.
  • Decoupled Glue API: The latest version of the Glue API infrastructure, which offers improved flexibility and performance. When creating a new application, it’s recommended to use the decoupled infrastructure.
  • Modules and Resources: Your API will be organized into modules, and each module can expose one or more resources (for example “products,” “carts,” “orders”).

The development process

Creating a new API application in Spryker involves the following key steps:

  1. Define Your Application Type: The first step is to decide whether you are building a Storefront or a Backend API. This choice will determine which services your application has access to and how it’s configured.

  2. Create a New Module: You’ll need to create a new module for your API. This module will contain all the code for your new API resources, including controllers, processors, and data transfer objects (DTOs).

  3. Define Your Resources: For each resource you want to expose through your API (for example a new “wishlists” resource), you’ll need to define the corresponding routes, controllers, and business logic.

  4. Implement Business Logic: This is where you’ll write the code that handles the actual work of your API. This might involve retrieving data from the database, calling other services, or performing calculations.

  5. Data Transfer Objects (DTOs): You’ll use DTOs to define the structure of the data that your API sends and receives. This helps to ensure that your API is well documented and easy to use.

  6. Register Your Resources: Once you’ve created your resources, you’ll need to register them with the Glue application so that they can be accessed through the API.

  7. Authentication and Authorization: You’ll need to secure your API by implementing authentication and authorization checks to ensure that only authorized users can access your resources.

  8. Documentation: It’s important to document your API so that other developers can understand how to use it. Spryker provides tools to help you generate API documentation automatically.