IDL: Inter-parameter Dependency Language

Inter-Parameter Dependency Language (IDL) is a textual domain-specific language for the specification of dependencies among input parameters in web APIs.

          
IF videoDimension THEN type=='video';          // Requires
Or(title, description);                        // Or
OnlyOne(From, MessagingServiceSid);            // OnlyOne
AllOrNone(subject_id, subject_type);           // AllOrNone
ZeroOrOne(radius, rankby=='distance');         // ZeroOrOne
max_id >= since_id;                            // Relational
offset + limit <= 1000;                        // Arithmetic
IF type=='video' THEN OnlyOne(embed, data);    // Complex

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IDL4OAS: An OAS Extension

"Extend your Open API Specification (OAS) documents with IDL dependencies and take automation to the next level: consistency checking, automated testing, code generation and more!".

IDL dependencies can be straightforwardly specified in OAS specifications using IDL4OAS, an OAS extension. You just need to include the keyword x-dependencies at the operation level, and include the list of dependencies as an array.

            
  paths:
    /example/route:
      get:
        operationId: exampleOperation
        parameters:
          - in: query
            type: boolean
            required: false
            name: p1
          - in: query
            type: integer
            required: false
            name: p2
          - in: query
            type: string
            required: false
            name: p3
        x-dependencies:
          - Or(p1, p2, p3);
          - IF p1==true THEN p2;

Automated Analysis

Check the consistency of IDL specification and identify bugs automatically by using IDLReasoner, a Java tool for the automated analysis of IDL specifications using constraint programming."

Are you interested in integrating these analyses in your own product? Have a look to the IDLReasoner web API.

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Automated Testing

Dependency-aware test case generation is supported by RESTest, a Java framework for the automated testing of REST APIs. Check how we found hundreds of bugs in industrial APIs leveraging our tools for the automated analysis of IDL dependencies.

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Code Generation

IDLGen is an extension of OpenAPI Generator. It relies on IDL4OAS to generate IDL code validation.

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API Gateways

IDLFilter is a custom filter of Spring Cloud Gateway. It relies on IDLReasoner and IDL4OAS to detect and explain IDL violations.

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