AUTOMATED CONSOLIDATION OF API SPECIFICATIONS

• US 20200133751A1
• Filed: 10/31/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: BAHRAMI, Mehdi, UGAONKAR, Abhilash, CHEN, Wei-Peng
• Granted Patent: US 11,042,427 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/437 Type checking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/74 Reverse engineering; Extracting design information from source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/76 Adapting program code to run in a different environment; Porting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449

Abstract

A method may include receiving first and second application programming interface (API) specifications. The method may include comparing first and second API Specification according to a set of criteria. Responsive to the first and second criteria being identical, the method may include identifying first and second objects. Responsive to the first and second criteria being identical, the method may include classifying a type of the first and second objects and associating one or more parameters in the first and second objects with a consolidated object. The one or more parameters in the first and second objects may be associated with the consolidated object based on the type of the first and second object. The method may include generating a consolidated specification that includes the consolidated object and a description of the one or more parameters of the first and second objects that are associated with the consolidated object in a single API specification.

Claims

1. A method of consolidated machine-readable API specification generation, the method comprising:

receiving a first API specification and a second API specification, the first API specification and the second API specification being machine-readable;

comparing a first edited API criteria of the first API specification to a second edited API criteria of the second API specification;

responsive to the first edited API criteria being identical to the second edited API criteria;

identifying a first object in the first API specification, the first object including one or more parameters;

identifying a second object in the second API specification, the second object including one or more parameters;

classifying a type of the first object and a type of the second object; and

associating, based on the type of the first object and the type of the second object, the one or more parameters included in the first object and the one or more parameters included in the second object with a consolidated object; and

generating a consolidated API specification that includes the consolidated object, the consolidated API specification being machine-readable and includes a description of the one or more parameters of the first object and the one or more parameters of the second object that are associated with the consolidated object in a single API specification.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a third object in the second API specification, the third object including one or more parameters;

classifying a type of the third object; and

associating, based on the type of the first object and the type of the third object, one or more parameters of the first object and the third object with the consolidated object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first API specification is received from a first API repository and the second API specification is received from a second API repository.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating comprises:

determining, based at least partially on a difference in description of two or more parameters of the consolidated object, whether an inconsistency is included in the consolidated object; and

responsive to the inconsistency being included in the consolidated object, resolving the inconsistency in the consolidated object, the resolving including;

comparing the consolidated object to each object in a received crowd-source API specification, the received crowd-source API specification being a machine-readable API specification; and

updating the consolidated object based on related objects in the received crowd-source API specification.

5. The method of claim 4, the resolving further including:

validating the consolidated object, the validating including;

extracting response information from the related objects in the received crowd-source API specification;

communicating, to a native API system, a request using the consolidated object;

comparing a response from the native API system with the response information to determine a validity of the consolidated object; and

responsive to the consolidated object being valid, generating a validation model that includes the inconsistency in the consolidated object, the related objects in the received crowd-source API specification, and the consolidated object.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the first edited API criteria, wherein the generating the first edited API criteria includes:

extracting an API criteria of the first API specification;

removing encoding from the API criteria of the first API specification;

replacing alphanumeric characters in the API criteria of the first API specification with blank spaces;

removing instances of character sequence “

api”

from a start and an end of the API criteria of the first API specification; and

removing blank spaces from the API criteria of the first API specification.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to the first object and the second object being classified as dictionary objects:

identifying a first key parameter and a first value parameter of the first object;

identifying a second key parameter and a second value parameter of the second object;

comparing the first key parameter to the second key parameter;

responsive to the first key parameter being identical to the second key parameter, comparing the first value parameter with the second value parameter;

responsive to the first value parameter being identical to the second value parameter the associating includes adding the first key parameter and the first value parameter to the consolidated object; and

responsive to the first value parameter being different than the second value parameter, the associating includes adding the first key parameter, the first value parameter, and the second value parameter to the consolidated object; and

responsive to the first key parameter being different than the second key parameter, the associating includes adding the first key parameter, the first value parameter, the second key parameter, and the second value parameter with the consolidated object.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to the first object and the second object being classified as list objects:

identifying each item in a list parameter of the first object;

identifying each item in a list parameter of the second object;

comparing each item in the list parameter of the second object to the items in the list parameter of the first object;

responsive to one or more items in the list parameter of the second object being different than each item in the list parameter of the first object, the associating includes adding each item in the list parameter of the first object and the one or more items in the list parameter of the second object that are different than each item in the list parameter of the first object to the consolidated object; and

responsive to each of the items in the list parameter of the second object being identical to one or more items in the list parameter of the first object, the associating includes adding each item in the list parameter of the first object to the consolidated object.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to the first object and the second object being classified as string objects:

comparing a string parameter in the first object to a string parameter in the second object;

responsive to the string parameter in the first object being identical to the string parameter in the second object, the associating includes adding the string parameter in the first object to the consolidated object; and

responsive to the string parameter in the first object being different than the string parameter in the second object, the associating includes adding the string parameter in the first object and the string parameter in the second object to the consolidated object.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to the first object being classified as a dictionary object and the second object being classified as a list object:

identifying each item in a list parameter of the second object;

determining whether each item in the list parameter of the second object is a dictionary item;

responsive to each item in the list parameter of the second object being the dictionary item;

identifying a first key parameter of the first object;

comparing the first key parameter to the items in the list parameter of the second object;

responsive to the first key parameter being identical to one or more items in the list parameter of the second object, the associating includes adding the first key parameter to the consolidated object; and

responsive to the first key parameter being different than each of the items in the list parameter of the second object, the associating includes adding each parameter in the first object and each parameter in the second object to the consolidated object; and

responsive to one or more items in the list parameter of the second object being different than a dictionary item, the associating includes adding each parameter in the first object and each parameter in the second object to the consolidated object.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having encoded therein programming code executable by one or more processors to perform or control performance of operations comprising:

receiving a first API specification and a second API specification, the first API specification and the second API specification being machine-readable;

comparing a first edited API criteria of the first API specification to a second edited API criteria of the second API specification;

responsive to the first edited API criteria being identical to the second edited API criteria;

identifying a first object in the first API specification, the first object including one or more parameters;

identifying a second object in the second API specification, the second object including one or more parameters;

classifying a type of the first object and a type of the second object; and

associating, based on the type of the first object and the type of the second object, the one or more parameters included in the first object and the one or more parameters included in the second object with a consolidated object; and

generating a consolidated API specification that includes the consolidated object, the consolidated API specification being machine-readable and includes a description of the one or more parameters of the first object and the one or more parameters of the second object that are associated with the consolidated object in a single API specification.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a third object in the second API specification, the third object including one or more parameters;

classifying a type of the third object; and

associating, based on the type of the first object and the type of the third object, one or more parameters of the first object and the third object with the consolidated object.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first API specification is received from a first API repository and the second API specification is received from a second API repository.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the associating comprises:

determining, based at least partially on a difference in description of two or more parameters of the consolidated object, whether an inconsistency is included in the consolidated object; and

responsive to the inconsistency being included in the consolidated object, resolving the inconsistency in the consolidated object, the resolving including;

comparing the consolidated object to each object in a received crowd-source API specification, the received crowd-source API specification being a machine-readable API specification; and

updating the consolidated object based on related objects in the received crowd-source API specification.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, the resolving further including:

validating the consolidated object, the validating including;

extracting response information from the related objects in the received crowd-source API specification;

communicating, to a native API system, a request using the consolidated object;

comparing a response from the native API system with the response information to determine a validity of the consolidated object; and

responsive to the consolidated object being valid, generating a validation model that includes the inconsistency in the consolidated object, the related objects in the received crowd-source API specification, and the consolidated object.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise generating the first edited API criteria, wherein the generating the first edited API criteria includes:

extracting an API criteria of the first API specification;

removing encoding from the API criteria of the first API specification;

replacing alphanumeric characters in the API criteria of the first API specification with blank spaces;

removing instances of character sequence “

api”

from a start and an end of the API criteria of the first API specification; and

removing blank spaces from the API criteria of the first API specification.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise, responsive to the first object and the second object being classified as dictionary objects:

identifying a first key parameter and a first value parameter of the first object;

identifying a second key parameter and a second value parameter of the second object;

comparing the first key parameter to the second key parameter;

responsive to the first key parameter being identical to the second key parameter, comparing the first value parameter with the second value parameter;

responsive to the first value parameter being identical to the second value parameter the associating includes adding the first key parameter and the first value parameter to the consolidated object; and

responsive to the first value parameter being different than the second value parameter, the associating includes adding the first key parameter, the first value parameter, and the second value parameter to the consolidated object; and

responsive to the first key parameter being different than the second key parameter, the associating includes adding the first key parameter, the first value parameter, the second key parameter, and the second value parameter with the consolidated object.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise, responsive to the first object and the second object being classified as list objects:

identifying each item in a list parameter of the first object;

identifying each item in a list parameter of the second object;

comparing each item in the list parameter of the second object to the items in the list parameter of the first object;

responsive to one or more items in the list parameter of the second object being different than each item in the list parameter of the first object, the associating includes adding each item in the list parameter of the first object and the one or more items in the list parameter of the second object that are different than each item in the list parameter of the first object to the consolidated object; and

responsive to each of the items in the list parameter of the second object being identical to one or more items in the list parameter of the first object, the associating includes adding each item in the list parameter of the first object to the consolidated object.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise, responsive to the first object and the second object being classified as string objects:

comparing a string parameter in the first object to a string parameter in the second object;

responsive to the string parameter in the first object being identical to the string parameter in the second object, the associating includes adding the string parameter in the first object to the consolidated object; and

responsive to the string parameter in the first object being different than the string parameter in the second object, the associating includes adding the string parameter in the first object and the string parameter in the second object to the consolidated object.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise, responsive to the first object being classified as a dictionary object and the second object being classified as a list object:

identifying each item in a list parameter of the second object;

determining whether each item in the list parameter of the second object is a dictionary item;

responsive to each item in the list parameter of the second object being the dictionary item;

identifying a first key parameter of the first object;

comparing the first key parameter to the items in the list parameter of the second object;

responsive to the first key parameter being identical to one or more items in the list parameter of the second object, the associating includes adding the first key parameter to the consolidated object; and

responsive to the first key parameter being different than each of the items in the list parameter of the second object, the associating includes adding each parameter in the first object and each parameter in the second object to the consolidated object; and

responsive to one or more item in the list parameter of the second object being different than a dictionary item, the associating includes adding each parameter in the first object and each parameter in the second object to the consolidated object.