Creating and Managing API Versions in the Tyk Dashboard

In this tutorial, learn how to create and manage API versions using the Tyk Dashboard API Designer.

You can use the API Designer in the Tyk Dashboard to manage versions for your APIs.

Note

If you are using Tyk Classic APIs, please see this section.

Configure versioning

From Tyk 5.10, you can pre-configure the versioning metadata for an API before you’ve created the first child API.

1. Choose the API for which you want to create a new version (this can be an unversioned or versioned API) and go to the Versions tab

   

2. Select Edit and you can pre-fill the following metadata:

   • Version identifier location
   • Version identifier name (or pattern for URL versioning)
   • Version name for the base API
   • Stripping identifier from upstream request
   • Default fallback behaviour

3. Click Save API

Create a new child version

You can easily add a new version in the Tyk Dashboard’s API Designer by following these steps.

1. Choose the API for which you want to create a new version (this can be an unversioned or versioned API) and go to the Versions tab

2. Select Add New Version to open the version creation wizard.

   

   Choose whether to start from an existing API configuration or to start from a blank API template. If there’s already at least one child version, you can select which version (child or base) you wish to use as the template for your new API.

3. If you have not already configured the versioning for this API you will prompted to complete this information.

   

   If you’ve already done this, then you’ll just need to provide a unique identifier name for your new child API and choose whether to make the new version the default choice.

   

4. The final step is to choose whether to publish your new version straight away or to keep it in draft until you’ve completed configuring it. You can also optionally choose to make the API externally accessible, which will allow direct calls to the child API not just via the base API.

   

5. Select Create Version to complete the wizard. Your new API will be created and you can now adjust the configuration as required.

Working with versioned APIs

When you have a versioned API the base API will appear in the Created APIs list, with an expansion icon that you can select to reveal the versions.

Note that the base and default versions are highlighted with appropriate labels. You can reach the API Designer for each version in the usual way, by selecting the API name in the list (or from the Actions menu for the API).

Switch between API versions

When you are in the API Designer for a versioned API, you can switch between versions using the drop-down next to the API name.

Manage Version Metadata

You can manage all versions of your API from the Versions tab

• You can see the versioning metadata
  • enter Edit mode to make changes
  • note that the common metadata can only be edited from the base API.
• You can see a list of all versions for the API and, from the Actions menu:
  • go directly to that version
  • delete that version
  • set the default version

Change the Base API

Available in the Tyk Dashboard from Tyk 5.12.0

You can promote any child API version to become the base API. This will reassign the routing table from the existing base API, converting it into a child API. Be careful to remember to check the listen path for the new base API and that you have the correct exposure (external or internal) for each version.

You can perform this action from the Versions tab of the current base API:

• Open the three-dot menu for the child version that you want to promote
• Select Make Base API
• Be sure to check the listen path and visibility of the new and previous base API versions