9 Connector Lifecycle
The lifecycle stages of all connectors are the same. Each type of connector goes through a design-time phase where each is created, tested, edited, and then published.
For all connectors, there are the creation phase, the testing and editing phase, and the publishing phase. When you create a new connector, its version is automatically set to 1.0 and it’s considered to be in a Draft state. In the Draft phase, you can test and edit your API as often as needed. When you’re satisfied with your connector configuration, publish it with the understanding that a published connector can’t be changed.
As you develop your connector, you can change the version's major and minor values as you see fit, that is, creating a new version of your API or updating an existing version. After you've implemented and tested your connector, you can publish it. Eventually, a connector may become obsolete, and you can move it to the trash.
If you want a general introduction to how artifacts interrelate in the overall lifecycle before exploring the lifecycle of connectors, see Understanding Lifecycles.
Publishing a Connector
Before you can use a connector, you need to publish it:
Updating the Version Number of a Connector
If you created a new version of a connector using the New Version dialog, you can update the version number of the connector if it’s still in a Draft state. This is particularly useful if you want to create an alternate version of the current connector or need to designate a different version number before you publish the connector.
Creating a New Version of a Connector
You can make a new version of a connector regardless of whether it’s in a Draft or Published state. When you create a new version of a connector, you’re basically cloning the connector configuration and making changes to it. You can make minor changes or expand upon already defined functionality. A major update can result in a disruption of mobile services to your customers due to invalid values being requested or returned, an inability to read the same file formats as the previous version, and so on.
Moving a Connector to the Trash
Remove a connector by moving it to the trash. If the connector is needed later, you can restore it from the trash.
To find out how dependencies can affect moving an artifact to the trash, see Moving an Artifact to the Trash.
To restore a connector that’s in the trash, see Restoring a Connector.
Restoring a Connector
- Click and select Mobile Apps > Connectors from the side menu.
- Click Trash ().
- In the list of items in Trash, click by the connector you want and select Restore from Trash.
- Click Restore in the confirmation dialog if there are no conflicts.
Managing a Connector
After you create a connector, you’ll want to edit it, publish it, see what artifacts are associated with it, in short, you want to be able to manage the connector and examine details of the connectors created by other service developers. The Connectors page gives you access to all these features.
When at least one connector exists, you’ll be taken to the Connectors page every time you click and select Mobile Apps > Connectors from the side menu. On the left side of the page, you see a list of all the connectors except for those in the trash. You can see which connectors are in the Draft or Published state. Every connector is listed by its name and version number.
The right side of the Connectors page is where you can open, test, publish, or examine data about the connector:
On the right side of the page, you can perform the following actions:
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Click Open to see details about the selected connector.
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Click More to create a new version, update an existing version, or move an connector to the trash.
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Expand Used By to see the list of the implementations that call on the connector.
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Expand History to quickly see the latest activity for the connector.