Integration overview

Overview of OpenAPI Explorer

Alibaba Cloud provides OpenAPI Explorer for developers to understand and use the API operations of various Alibaba Cloud services in a quick and efficient manner. OpenAPI Explorer integrates multiple features related to API operations, including intelligent search, documentation, online debugging, SDK download, sample code, error diagnostics, and call statistics. In OpenAPI Explorer, you can call API operations of Alibaba Cloud services and view API requests and responses. In addition, OpenAPI Explorer automatically generates the corresponding SDK sample code to facilitate the use of Alibaba Cloud services. For more information, see What is an API?

API versions

Alibaba Cloud OpenAPI Explorer manages the versions of Alibaba Cloud service APIs by version number. For example, Cloud Backup supports the API of the 2020-01-01 version. 2020-01-01 is an API version number rather than a date. Users are provided with the latest public information about the API. 2020-01-01 is the up-to-date version of the Cloud Backup API.

Online debugging

Anti-DDoS Proxy supports features such as API debugging in OpenAPI Explorer. Before you call API operations, take note of the following information provided by Anti-DDoS Proxy: versions, endpoints, API style, and integration methods.

Debugging page: https://next.api.alibabacloud.com/api/ddoscoo/2020-01-01.

Endpoints

You must select an endpoint based on the region where your resource resides to reduce latency. For example, the public endpoint of Anti-DDoS Proxy in the China (Hangzhou) region is ddoscoo.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com and the virtual private cloud (VPC) endpoint is ddoscoo.vpc-proxy.aliyuncs.com.

• Public endpoints can be accessed globally.

• However, VPC endpoints are only accessible from within a VPC in the corresponding Alibaba Cloud region. VPC endpoints provide the following benefits:

  • High security: VPC endpoints can be accessed only from within a VPC. This provides higher security and privacy.

  • Fast response: VPC endpoints deliver faster responses than public endpoints because VPC endpoints enable data transmission over VPCs. In addition, problems such as network latency and bandwidth limitations can be prevented.

  • Low cost: VPC endpoints are accessed over an internal network.

For more information, see Endpoints.

Supported identities

By default, after you log on to OpenAPI Explorer by using your Alibaba Cloud account, the Alibaba Cloud account is used to perform online debugging. An Alibaba Cloud account has permissions on all API operations. If you use an Alibaba Cloud account to call API operations, security risks may arise. We strongly recommend that you call API operations or perform routine O&M by using a RAM user. Before you call API operations by using a RAM user, grant the required permissions to the RAM user based on your business requirements. The RAM user must have the required permissions. For more information about the required permissions of a RAM user, see Use RAM for access control.

References

• Identity, credential, and authorization

• Throttling and quota management

Integration methods

Usage notes

• The number of queries per second (QPS) that an Alibaba Cloud account can initiate varies based on the API operation. For more information, see the "QPS limits" section in the API reference of each operation.

  Note

  The RAM users of an Alibaba Cloud account share the QPS quota of the Alibaba Cloud account.

• If an error is returned after you call an API operation, you can check whether the request parameters and their values are valid based on the error code. For more information, see Public error codes.

• You can also perform self-service diagnostics based on the returned request ID or SDK error information on the OpenAPI problem diagnosis page.