What is RAML?
RAML stands for RESTful API Modeling Language. RAML is not a tool to generate code, but a formal language for describing APIs. It’s meant to be used by developers and designers, who are already familiar with the finer points of RESTful design. The goal of RAML is to help expose the design process. And also make it easy to create API documentation with a simple markdown.
When designing an API in RAML, the designer defines the resources and their associated functions, and then endpoints are automatically generated for each function. While RAML isn’t a replacement for Swagger or API Blueprint, it does provide another option for documenting and organizing your API.
What is an API?
API is the initialism for application programming interface, a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Moreover, APIs are an accessible way to extract and share data within and across organizations.
What is the use of Tags in RAML?
RAML uses “tags”, keywords that can be placed anywhere in a RAML file (the name of your API) or at the beginning of any piece of payload data, to convey information about what each tag means. Tags are used for things like title, description, version number (including patch version numbers), etc., but also include metadata about fields such as path or type, these tags can be further categorized by relationships between entities within the document such as parent-child relationships between different resources within an organization’s infrastructure.
What are the Benefits of RAML?
When designing an API in RAML, the designer defines the resources and their associated functions and then endpoints are automatically generated for each function. RAML is a language for describing APIs. That can be used to describe both web services and cloud-based applications. It has two main advantages:
- Easy to read and write.
RAML makes it straightforward to document your API using YAML syntax, it’s not just about writing code. This makes it easier for others who work with you on your project. Because they don’t need to learn new languages or frameworks just yet. Instead, they’ll be able to focus on what matters most, building great software.
- Provides structure.
Using RAML guarantees consistency across all stakeholders involved in building an API-based solution such as developers who must follow industry best practices whenever possible while also being mindful of security concerns when necessary.”
YAML-Based Language
RAML is a YAML-based language. It uses convention over configuration, meaning that the more you adhere to standard development practices and standards, the less you need to say in your configuration files. RAML is an open-source framework. It is implemented in Ruby on Rails and AngularJS.
Convention over configuration is a software design principle that refers to the idea that instead of writing explicit code to specify how something should work, we use common practices or standards and let the system figure out how to achieve that.
A simple example: If you want your application’s user interface (UI) to display a list of products from your store and then add them to a shopping cart, you could write some custom logic in XML (XML stands for Extensible Markup Language). Or if you’re using an open-source library such as AngularJS, it will automatically handle all this for you.
Easily Define Rest APIs and Reuse their Components.
RAML is a language for describing RESTful APIs. It focuses on the description of your API and its components. The idea behind RAML is that you can easily reuse the same definitions across multiple projects in different environments (like Windows or Linux), or even within the same project if you need to support future versions of your system or frameworks.
Conclusion
RAML is a great way to define APIs in a simple format that allows for easy reuse and modification. It also makes it easier for developers who want to work on your API project by automating the documentation process and providing some tools for testing.
TCI has a team of experienced and certified Mulesoft and Salesforce developers. TCI has the capability to protect your data from unauthorized persons. Mulesoft developers are experts in building such APIs. MuleSoft provides such critical tools that protect your APIs. Moreover, including built-in authorization and authentication, it has the capability to provide protection against common DoS attacks with rate limiting. And a seamless way to govern inline security policies for sensitive data protection, input validation, and other protections.
