Set up your API Center portal

This article shows you how to set up the API Center portal (preview), an Azure-managed website that developers and other stakeholders in your organization can use to discover the APIs in your API center. Signed-in users can browse and filter APIs and view API details such as API definitions and documentation. User access to API information is based on Microsoft Entra ID and Azure role-based access control.

Note

The API Center portal is currently in preview.

Tip

Both Azure API Management and Azure API Center provide API portal experiences for developers. Compare the portals

Prerequisites

• An API center in your Azure subscription. If you haven't created one already, see Quickstart: Create your API center.

• Permissions to create an app registration in a Microsoft Entra tenant associated with your Azure subscription, and permissions to grant access to data in your API center.

Create Microsoft Entra app registration

First configure an app registration in your Microsoft Entra ID tenant. The app registration enables the API Center portal to access data from your API center on behalf of a signed-in user.

1. In the Azure portal, navigate to Microsoft Entra ID > App registrations.

2. Select + New registration.

3. On the Register an application page, set the values as follows:

   1. Set Name to a meaningful name such as api-center-portal
   2. Under Supported account types, select Accounts in this organizational directory (Single tenant).
   3. In Redirect URI, select Single-page application (SPA) and set the URI. Enter the URI of your API Center portal deployment, in the following form: https://<service-name>.portal.<location>.azure-api-center.ms. Replace <service name> and <location> with the name of your API center and the location where it's deployed, Example: https://myapicenter.portal.eastus.azure-api-center.ms.
   4. Select Register.

4. On the Overview page, copy the Application (client) ID. You set this value when you publish the portal.

5. On the API permissions page, select + Add a permission.

   1. On the Request API permissions page, select the APIs my organization uses tab. Search for and select Azure API Center. You can also search for and select application ID c3ca1a77-7a87-4dba-b8f8-eea115ae4573.
   2. On the Request permissions page, select user_impersonation.
   3. Select Add permissions.

   The Azure API Center permissions appear under Configured permissions.

   

Configure and publish the API Center portal

After you create the API Center portal app registration, you need to configure and publish the API center portal. Complete the following steps in the Azure portal.

1. In the Azure portal, navigate to your API center.
2. In the left menu, under API Center portal, select Portal settings.
3. On the Identity provider tab, select Start set up. On the screen that appears, do the following:
   1. In Client ID, enter the Application (client) ID from the app registration you created in the previous section.
   2. Confirm that the Redirect URI is the value you configured in the app registration.
   3. Select Save + publish.
4. On the Site profile tab, enter a website name that you want to appear in the top bar of the API Center portal. Select Save + publish.
5. On the API visibility tab, optionally add filters for APIs that you want to make discoverable in the portal. Select Save + publish. Learn more about API visibility

You can now access the API Center portal:

• On the Portal settings page, select View API Center portal to open the portal in a new tab.
• Or, enter the following URL in your browser, replacing <service-name> and <location> with the name of your API center and the location where it's deployed:
  https://<service-name>.portal.<location>.azure-api-center.ms

API visibility

API visibility settings control which APIs are discoverable (visible) to API Center portal users. The API Center portal uses the data plane API to retrieve and display APIs, and by default retrieves all APIs in your API center.

To make only specific APIs visible, go to the API visibility tab in the API Center portal settings. Here, add filter conditions for APIs based on built-in or custom API metadata properties. For instance, you can choose to display APIs only of certain types (like REST or GraphQL) or based on certain specification formats (such as OpenAPI). Additionally, you can select values of custom metadata properties that categorize your APIs.

Enable sign-in to portal by Microsoft Entra users and groups

Users must sign in to see the APIs in your API center. To enable sign-in, assign the Azure API Center Data Reader role to users or groups in your organization, scoped to your API center.

Important

By default, you and other administrators of the API center don't have access to APIs in the API Center portal. Be sure to assign the Azure API Center Data Reader role to yourself and other administrators.

For detailed prerequisites and steps to assign a role to users and groups, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal. Brief steps follow:

1. In the Azure portal, navigate to your API center.
2. In the left menu, select Access control (IAM) > + Add role assignment.
3. In the Add role assignment pane, set the values as follows:
   1. On the Role page, search for and select Azure API Center Data Reader. Select Next.
   2. On the Members page, In Assign access to, select User, group, or service principal > + Select members.
   3. On the Select members page, search for and select the users or groups to assign the role to. Click Select and then Next.
   4. Review the role assignment, and select Review + assign.

Note

To streamline access configuration for new users, we recommend that you assign the role to a Microsoft Entra group and configure a dynamic group membership rule. To learn more, see Create or update a dynamic group in Microsoft Entra ID.

After you configure access to the portal, configured users can sign in to the portal and view the APIs in your API center.

Note

The first user to sign in to the portal is prompted to consent to the permissions requested by the API Center portal app registration. Thereafter, other configured users aren't prompted to consent.

API Management and API Center portals

The Azure API Management and Azure API Center services both provide portals for developers to discover and consume APIs:

• The API Management developer portal allows users to find managed APIs, learn how to use them, request access, and test them.
• The API Center portal (preview) is a multi-gateway portal where users can discover and filter the organization's complete API inventory.

While the two portals share some features, they also have distinct differences. The following table compares current capabilities to help determine which portal to use. Some organizations may prefer one portal, while others may need both.

Feature	API Management developer portal	API Center portal (preview)
Search and filter API inventory	API Management instance only	All APIs1
View API details and definitions	✔️	✔️
View API documentation	✔️	✔️
Customize with branding	✔️	Name only
Integrate with Microsoft Entra ID	✔️	✔️
Add custom widgets	✔️	❌
Customize with WordPress	✔️	❌
Test APIs in test console	✔️	❌
Subscribe to APIs	✔️	❌
View API usage analytics	✔️	❌

¹ The API Center portal can contain all APIs in your organization, including those managed in Azure API Management and other platforms, as well as unmanaged APIs and APIs under development.

Related content

• Enable and view Azure API Center platform API catalog