Microsoft has recently released Dev Proxy v0.17.0, which brings a range of enhancements. Users can now easily verify API registration with Azure API Center, ensuring compliance, and confirming the use of production APIs. Improved mocking requests enhance testing, while simplified acquisition and setup on Windows and macOS boost accessibility
As mentioned, the significant addition is the capability to verify if the APIs utilized within an application are registered with Azure API Center. This integration aims to make easier API management processes by providing a centralized platform for tracking usage, documentation, and ownership.
This is possible by leveraging the new ApiCenterOnboardingPlugin, as reported, the users can easily connect Dev Proxy with API Center, facilitating the validation of API registration during request interception. Additionally, the plugin assists in creating new APIs when necessary, ensuring comprehensive API coverage within organizational frameworks.
(Dev Proxy lists used APIs, indicating any not registered in API Center, Source: Microsoft 365 Platform Blog)
The original blog post announcement states the following:
Using Dev Proxy to detect and onboard APIs used in your applications to API Center saves you time and helps you quickly get insights into what APIs are actually used in your organization.
Furthermore, this enables users to ensure that their applications utilize production APIs registered with Azure API Center. This functionality, as stated, empowers organizations to monitor the lifecycle stages of APIs effectively, from experimental releases to decommissioned versions, thereby promoting adherence to organizational standards and compliance requirements.
This is possible with the new ApiCenterProductionVersionPlugin, designed to ensure applications utilize the latest production versions of APIs. Integrated with Dev Proxy and API Center, the plugin detects non-production API requests, prompting users to upgrade for optimal performance.
The author highlights that by using Dev Proxy, users can easily ensure that their apps use production APIs governed by SLAs and are actively managed, making their apps more robust and reliable.
Enhancements have also been made to the mocking requests feature within Dev Proxy. This improvement simplifies the process of simulating various API scenarios for testing purposes. As stated, users can now easily create mocks to replicate different response scenarios, ranging from successful responses to error conditions, without extensive code modifications.
Users can do this with MockResponsePlugin which as reported, supports matching mock responses based on request bodies. This feature is used for mocking POST requests, for those with access tokens, that vary by request body and new bodyFragment property to create a corresponding mock response.
Moreover, the introduction of the Dev Proxy Toolkit VSCode extension signifies a significant advancement in configuration management capabilities. This extension offers users a streamlined interface for managing Dev Proxy configurations, thereby enhancing productivity and efficiency in application development workflows.
Additionally, Microsoft made some improvements regarding the setup process for Dev Proxy on Windows and macOS platforms. Dev Proxy is now ready for installation with winget for Windows and Homebrew for macOS and Linux, with a note that zip files are published with every release so that approach is also possible.
Lastly, the release also includes various other improvements. For a detailed list of changes, developers are recommended to explore the GitHub release notes regarding this new release.