Build Better APIs Faster: How SmartBear API Hub Brings Everything Together

The development of SmartBear API Hub™, powered by Swagger, represents a significant advancement in how teams manage, test, and optimize API workflows. Our journey to create a cohesive, unified suite – API Hub – required integrating standalone products into a single, robust ecosystem, establishing a seamless user experience that bridges workflows across each product. Here’s an inside look at our engineering journey, the challenges faced, and the unique solutions that make API Hub a dynamic platform for today’s API developers.

From Standalone Products to a Unified API Hub

The vision for API Hub was clear: combine our best-in-class API development tools into a single suite that offers a shared user base, common organizational structure, and licensing system. This centralization involved the integration of key features from our products Stoplight and SwaggerHub. By leveraging the strengths of each, we redefined our suite’s look and feel, creating an interconnected workflow that empowers users to fluidly move between design, testing, and deployment.

Why API Hub is Essential:

1. Cohesive UI and User Experience: We unified disparate interfaces into a single cohesive design, making the suite feel like a natural, integrated experience across capabilities.
2. Integrated Features for Enhanced Workflow: Each API Hub capability complements the others, providing developers with a smoother, more intuitive navigation across tasks – from API design to portal management, contract testing, and exploration.
3. Centralized Administration: By moving administrative functions to a single system, users now manage roles, access, and licenses across the entire suite, drastically simplifying setup and maintenance.

Engineering Challenges and Our Solutions

Building API Hub presented several engineering challenges. Coordinating twelve global Scrum teams, designing API contracts ahead of platform development, and maintaining seamless product functionality were just a few of the complexities involved.

• Coordinated Global Development: Twelve teams, including API lifecycle and Platform Services teams, worked across time zones, requiring synchronized sprints and a shared vision. Clear API contracts – designed up-front with SwaggerHub for Design – enabled parallel development without delay.
• Independent and Reliable Deployment: Each team had to independently develop and deploy code. By utilizing proper API contract management, versioning, testing, and concepts like feature flagging, we were able to deploy each service to production safely and efficiently. 
• Mocked Responses for Testing: Teams, sometimes working ahead of platform services, used Prism to mock API responses, allowing testing without fully developed backend services. This gave us the agility to test and validate front-end workflows early in the process.

Key Capabilities Empowering API Hub Development

To overcome integration challenges, our team leveraged several SmartBear tools and strategies that have become essential components within API Hub itself:

• API Hub for Design (formerly SwaggerHub): Early agreement on API contracts enabled both API lifecycle and platform teams to build concurrently without dependency bottlenecks.
• API Hub for Explore (formerly SwaggerHub Explore): During integration, teams frequently used API Hub for Explore to test API behaviors, analyze data, and quickly validate interactions without additional coding.
• API Hub for Contract Testing (formerly PactFlow): The PactFlow team has continued to be a thought leader in the Contract Testing space, and with the new AI contract test generation feature, it is easier than ever for all our teams to set up contract testing and ensure safe deployments 
• Mock Responses via Prism: When backend services weren’t ready, Prism provided reliable mock responses, allowing the Portal team to test UI and licensing features seamlessly.

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Testing, Quality Assurance, and Monitoring

Ensuring seamless integration of each feature was essential. We developed a rigorous end-to-end testing strategy that combined UI-driven tests and API-driven validations, supported by ReadyAPI’s new smart assertions feature. Zephyr was instrumental in managing complex test plans, tracking progress, and integrating results directly within Jira. Monitoring performance post-deployment was equally critical. BugSnag, a SmarBear tool that allows real-time performance insights, empowers our team to detect and address issues swiftly.

Looking Ahead: API Hub’s Role in the Future of API Development

Our journey with API Hub is only beginning. By connecting formerly separate tools into a cohesive suite, we’re empowering developers with more visibility, reliability, and flexibility across the API lifecycle. With API Hub, developers have a powerful platform that combines best-in-class capabilities, reducing time to market, enhancing quality, and supporting the complexities of today’s API ecosystems.

SmartBear API Hub not only reflects our commitment to excellence but is a testament to the relentless drive of our team to push the boundaries of what’s possible in API development. We’re excited to continue evolving API Hub, enabling API-driven innovation for our customers and partners worldwide.

Want to see what API Hub can do for your team? Try it free today!