Creating and Consuming Liferay's Headless APIs

Liferay's headless framework empowers developers to build applications and integrations that leverage services through existing or custom APIs. You can consume Liferay's default APIs for standard data operations (create, retrieve, modify, delete), enabling efficient interaction with the platform's core functionalities. For specialized scenarios, Liferay provides tools to produce custom API endpoints, extending the platform's capabilities and facilitating integration with external systems. External reference codes (ERCs) further streamline interactions by uniquely identifying entries across environments.

This article introduces some considerations when consuming or producing Liferay headless APIs.

Consuming APIs

Consuming APIs refers to the process of using APIs to interact with systems or services. Foundational methods for consuming APIs include requests to retrieve data (GET), create new data (POST), update existing data (PUT), or delete data (DELETE). You can further refine your API requests by employing query parameters to filter, search, and sort data efficiently. This flexible consumption enables seamless integration with legacy systems, development of modern applications, and automation of backend processes.

To effectively consume Liferay’s headless APIs, it’s critical to

• Understand the API through documentation.
• Craft requests using correct methods, endpoints, parameters, and headers.
• Implement appropriate authentication or authorization methods.
• Ensure efficient data handling by adhering to API rate limits and data restrictions.
• Interpret API responses, including HTTP status codes, extracted data, and errors.

You can gain hands-on experience querying, creating, and modifying data for Clarity using REST and GraphQL endpoints in the Mastering Consuming Liferay’s Headless API (Coming Soon) course.

Producing APIs

Creating and customizing APIs is essential for integrating custom solutions with Liferay. Beyond interacting with default APIs, Liferay empowers defining your own API endpoints. Producing APIs involves specifying endpoints (URLs), handling requests, processing data, and structuring responses in formats like JSON or XML.

To effectively produce Liferay’s headless APIs, it’s crucial to

• Define data entities exposed by the API (e.g. users, products, orders).
• Create clear and logical endpoints for each resource and action.
• Define how HTTP methods will interact with your resources.
• Choose data representation formatting in requests and responses.
• Implement authentication and authorization methods to control access to the API.
• Provide clear documentation to understand API consumption.

Liferay offers a range of tools expediting endpoint creation, including no-code options through Liferay Objects and advanced customization via REST Builder or microservices that leverage bridging APIs. You can learn more and gain hands-on experience building custom APIs for Clarity in the Mastering Producing Headless APIs (Coming Soon) course.

Ensuring Consistency with ERCs

Whether you're building integrations, migrating content, or simplifying API interactions, ERCs enhance data management by providing stable, unique identifiers for data. Supported by many of Liferay's API endpoints, this reliable mechanism ensures consistency and clarity across systems with human-readable attributes. Aligning ERCs with external system IDs, you can seamlessly map and synchronize data during fetching, updating, and deleting. This flexibility empowers you to adapt data management to your specific requirements. Leveraging ERCs effectively is essential both for consuming and producing headless APIs to facilitate automation, integrations, and tailored workflows.

You can learn more about ERCs in the Mastering Consuming Headless APIs (Coming Soon) and Mastering Producing Headless APIs (Coming Soon) courses.

Conclusion

Consuming and producing APIs are essential towards creating applications that integrate seamlessly and extend Liferay DXP's headless capabilities. Consuming headless APIs with standard HTTP methods and query parameters enables data synchronization and seamless interactions with external systems. Producing APIs with Liferay’s available tools enables leveraging your own custom API endpoints. Leveraging ERCs effectively ensures data consistency, reduces migration complexities, and creates scalable solutions when consuming and producing APIs.

Next, you’ll conclude this Foundations of Liferay’s Headless API course before taking the badge exam!