StarlingX/Developer Guide/API Documentation

Intro
StarlingX/Docs_and_Infra is working in collaboration with Tech Writers team to document StarlingX APIs, this page reflects the research on what it means for StarlingX.
 * Storyboard Doc Provide StarlingX API documentation

Analysis
Adding information from Greg Waines who has done some research related to this:

Tracking
Provide upstream API Documentation for the individual StarlingX sub-projects:

The existing API documentation for SYSINV is managed in a very very old mechanism, using maven and wadl files, circa Grizzly.
 * Configuration Management (stx-config)
 * Storyboard Task 26515 Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review stx-config: API ref doc content added
 * Gerrit Review Add api-ref and relnotes publish jobs
 * Gerrit Review Another test of api-ref and releasenotes publish jobs
 * Software Management (stx-distcloud)
 * Storyboard Task 26621 Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review stx-distcloud: API ref doc content added
 * Fault Management (stx-fault)
 * Storyboard Task 26697 Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review stx-fault: API ref doc content added
 * Service Management (stx-ha)
 * Storyboard Task 25749 Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review stx-ha: API ref doc content added
 * Host Management (stx-metal)
 * Storyboard Task 24451 Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review stx-metal: API ref doc content added
 * Infrastructure Orchestration (stx-nfv)
 * Storyboard Task 26671 Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review stx-nfv: API ref doc content added
 * Software Management (stx-update)
 * Storyboard Task 26659 Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review Doc: OpenStack API Reference Guide
 * Gerrit Review stx-update: API ref doc content added
 * StarlingX Documentation (stx-docs)
 * Gerrit Review stx-docs: API ref doc content added for remaining 4 docs

This API Documentation needs to be converted into the current approach for writing upstream OpenStack API Documentation. i.e. see https://docs.openstack.org/doc-contrib-guide/api-guides.html ( ... see also any current OpenStack Project's rest api documentation, e.g. for glance, https://github.com/openstack/glance/tree/master/api-ref/source )

We will also move the different sections of the big blob of SYSINV API Documentation under the appropriate StarlingX sub-projects:

There are no Extensions to Identity REST API (Keystone) and Orchestration REST API (Heat).
 * Dcmanager API v1 (Tbd)
 * Move to starlingx-staging/stx-distcloud
 * NFV VIM API v1 (NFV VIM Service REST API)
 * Move to stx-nfv
 * Patching API v1 (Patching REST API)
 * Move to stx-update
 * System Inventory API v1 (System Inventory (SysInv) REST API)
 * Map to stx-metal
 * 6.4. Hosts
 * 6.5. Ports
 * 6.7. CPUs
 * 6.8. Memory
 * 6.11. Disks
 * 6.9. SensorGroup
 * 6.10. Sensor
 * 6.26. LLDP Agents
 * 6.27. LLDP Neighbors
 * Map to stx-config
 * 6.2. System
 * 6.3. Clusters
 * 6.6 Interfaces
 * 6.12. Partitions
 * 6.14. Volume Groups
 * 6.15. Physical Volumes
 * 6.13. Ceph Storage Functions
 * 6.16. Profiles
 * 6.17. DNS
 * 6.18. NTP
 * 6.19. External OAM
 * 6.20. Infrastructure Subnet
 * 6.21. DRBD Configuration
 * 6.22. SNMP Communities
 * 6.23. SNMP Trap Destinations
 * 6.24. Devices
 * 6.25. Service Parameter
 * 6.31. SDN Controllers
 * 6.32. Remote Logging
 * 6.33. Networks
 * 6.34. Address Pools
 * 6.35. Addresses
 * 6.36. Routes
 * 6.37. Storage Backends
 * 6.38. Storage Tiers
 * 6.39. Controller Filesystem
 * 6.40. Ceph Monitors
 * 6.44. System Certificate Configuration
 * 6.45. Custom Firewall Rules
 * Map to stx-fault
 * 11.2 Alarms
 * 11.3 Event Log
 * 11.4 Event Suppression
 * Map to stx-ha
 * 10.2 Services
 * 10.3 Service Nodes
 * 10.4 Service Groups
 * Map to stx-update
 * 6.41. System Health
 * 6.42. Software Loads
 * 6.43. Software Upgrade
 * DELETE
 * 6.46. License
 * Block Storage V2 Extensions API (Extensions to Block Storage REST API)
 * Move to starlingx-staging/stx-python-cinderclient
 * Compute V2 Extensions API (Extensions to Compute REST API)
 * Move to starlingx-staging/stx-nova
 * Image V2 Extensions API (Extensions to Image REST API)
 * Move to starlingx-staging/stx-glance
 * Networking V2 Extensions API (Extensions to Networking REST API)
 * Move to starlingx-staging/stx-neutron
 * Telemetry V2 Extensions API (Extensions to Telemetry REST API)
 * No longer exists ... we've removed these changes in last couple of months.

Work Items

 * Storyboard Task 24440: OpenStack API Service Implementation
 * Create ./api-ref/source directory under each StarlingX sub-project for containing API Documentation
 * Update the sub-project's (or StarlingX's) tox.ini file to include a configuration for building the API reference locally
 * Storyboard Task 24441: StarlingX API Documentation Migration
 * Convert the appropriate sections of existing SYSINV API Documentation from maven/wadl to .rst/.yaml format
 * Storyboard Task 24443: OpenStack API Reference Pages Creation
 * Add the api-ref-jobs template to StarlingX project, patch the zuul.d/projects.yaml file stored in openstack-infra/project-config repository.
 * Storyboard Task: To Be Defined
 * Add links to StarlingX sub-project's API DOCs from the API landing page and the OpenStack Governance reference document, projects.yaml.
 * To add a link to the StarlingX sub-project’s API docs to the API landing page, patch the index.rst file stored in the openstack/api-site repository.
 * To ensure the openstack/governance repository has the correct link to your API documentation, patch the reference/projects.yaml file in the openstack/governance repository.

Acceptance Criteria

 * StarlingX API Documentation is converted to current upstream OpenStack API Documentation approach,
 * StarlingX API Documentation are built and available on upstream OpenStack API Documentation sites.

Community Discussion
Starlingx-discuss: StarlingX API Documentation For this activity we are initially be considering from API Documentation 2 separate efforts for each project:

Both concepts (API Guide) and the ref (API Ref) need to be be written at the same time. The new OpenStack approach allows for tags to go in the code. The concepts in our APIs are pretty standard and if prioritization is required the API Reference work higher.
 * API Guide .. the concepts in the API
 * API Ref .. a reference for the API

StarlingX API
We categorize the StarlingX APIs in 2:

StarlingX should not document other OpenStack API's.
 * Brand New APIs from StarlingX projects
 * Existing APIs from OpenStack projects

StarlingX API Brand New
The projects falling into this category are the following:

All projects in the Flock should be included. I think there is a dependency on some of the code restructuring activities that are underway, we need to make sure these activities don't collide.
 * NFVI Orchestration
 * High Availability/Process Monitoring/Service Management
 * StarlingX System Configuration Management
 * Horizon plugins for new StarlingX services
 * Installation/Update/Patching/Backup/Restore

StarlingX API SysInv
(You may know this already) The StarlingX APIs (especially for sysinv) are currently documented at: https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/stx-integ/tree/restapi-doc/restapi-doc You can use the content as a starting point. However, the mechanism used is outdated using maven and wadl files. So you need to use the more current approach.

Greg Waines did some research on this [Here]

StarlingX API Existing
We have not gone through a deeper review if we are modifying/adding new calls into the OpenStack projects however if we are and we need to document them:


 * There is official OpenStack  API documentation, we can make references to them for the existing calls
 * What about the modifications/additions? Should we document them? What is the best place for this? We were talking in our weekly call about stx-docs is a good place for things without a repo, is this a good example?
 * Any easy way besides "find + grep" to get where those API modifications are happening?

StarlingX API Unit Tests
OpenStack projects includes Unit Tests. To be considered if this is required.

OpenStack Learning Corner

 * https://developer.openstack.org/api-guide/quick-start/
 * https://docs.openstack.org/api/
 * https://docs.openstack.org/queens/api/
 * https://github.com/sphinx-contrib/apidoc

Migration

 * https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Documentation/Migrate
 * https://justwriteclick.com/2015/02/23/state-of-the-migration-to-sphinxrst/

Infrastructure
Components


 * api-guide-jobs
 * api-ref-jobs
 * Sphinx extension to support OpenStack API reference pages creation
 * https://github.com/openstack/os-api-ref

Structure
We saw 2 ways to host API Reference documention: The second one is the correct one. See the below Nova Gerrit Patch:
 * under doc/source/api
 * under api-ref/source/
 * https://review.openstack.org/#/c/230186

Nova Project
This is a good project to work with since it has the 2 projects related to APIs, the Guide and Ref, I have also included Specs to see if that applies.

API Guide
''This guide covers the concepts in the OpenStack Compute API. For a full reference listing, please see: Compute API Reference.''
 * https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/nova/tree/api-guide/source/index.rst
 * https://developer.openstack.org/api-guide/compute/

API Ref
''This is a reference for the OpenStack Compute API which is provided by the Nova project. To learn more about the OpenStack Compute API concepts, please refer to the API guide.''
 * https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/nova/tree/api-ref/source/index.rst
 * https://developer.openstack.org/api-ref/compute/

Specs

 * http://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/nova-specs/
 * https://specs.openstack.org/openstack/nova-specs/

Zuul
Zuul (continuous integration, delivery, and deployment) allows us to enable that automatic publishing based on templates:
 * Search for Nova
 * https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack-infra/project-config/tree/zuul.d/projects.yaml

Git

 * http://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/masakari/

Masakari Git API Ref

 * http://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/masakari/tree/api-ref/source

Masakari API Ref

 * https://developer.openstack.org/api-ref/instance-ha/

Masakari Zuul

 * Search for Masakari
 * https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack-infra/project-config/tree/zuul.d/projects.yaml