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Tutorial - Publish API

FastchargeAPI is an API gateway service that helps meter API usages and charge your customer.

Let's set up your API on FastchargeAPI in less than 5 minutes.

TLDR​

pip install -U fastchargeapi-cli # install cli

fastcharge login

# Create an app
fastcharge app create [APP_NAME] --make-visible 

# Create an endpoint at https://example.fastchargeapi.com pointing to https://example.com
fastcharge api add [APP_NAME] --path "/" --destination "https://example.com" 

# Create an endpoint at https://example.fastchargeapi.com/someresource/:id pointing to https://example.com/someresource/:id
fastcharge api add [APP_NAME] --path "/someresource/:id" --destination "https://example.com/someresource/:id" 

# Create a pricing plan named "Free" that gives 100 free quota to each new user
fastcharge pricing add [APP_NAME] --name Free --monthly-charge 0 --charge-per-request 0 --free-quota 100 --make-visible 

# Congrats, that's all!

Getting started​

FastchargeAPI is the right choice for you if:

  • You have an existing HTTP API service. This can be a REST API, GraphQL, or any HTTP server.
  • You want to charge API callers on a monthly or a per-request basis.
  • You can set up a Stripe account to receive payment in your region.

For the purpose of this tutorial, we will use Google https://google.com as our HTTP service, and create an app that charges the customer whenever they send a GET request to our app, which is redirected to Google.

What you'll need​

Install the FastchargeAPI cli-tools:​

Install the cli tool from pypi:

pip install -U fastchargeapi-cli

You can type this command into Command Prompt, Powershell, Terminal, or any other integrated terminal of your code editor.

The command also all necessary dependencies you need. It will install 2 command-line toos:

  • fastcharge - tool when you are publishing an app
  • fastapi - tool when you are using an app published by someone else

Create your app​

Sign in or sign up for the fist time to FastchargeAPI.com:

fastcharge login

A browser window should open. Complete the sign-in and return to the command-line.

After sign-in, create an app with the following command:

fastcharge app create [APP_NAME]

Replace the [APP_NAME] with a name you desire for the app. The name is case-insensitive, unique (not registered by someone else), and must:

  • Have a length between 2 and 63 characters.
  • Contain only lower case letters [a-z], digits [0-9], or hyphens [-].
  • Not begin or end with a hyphen.

For example, we use myapp as the app name:

fastcharge app create myapp

Add an API Endpoint​

After an app is created, you can add API endpoints to the app. An endpoint consists of a path and a destination. Any endpoint of the app becomes available at:

https://[APP_NAME].fastchargeapi.com/[PATH]

Or in our case, 

https://myapp.fastchargeapi.com/[PATH]

When a customer sends any HTTP request to the url above, the request is billed, and proxied to the destination.

For example, we add an endpoint with the path being /google and the destination being https://google.com.

fastcharge api add myapp --path "/google" --destination "https://google.com"

After that, we have a live endpoint https://myapp.fastchargeapi.com/google pointing to https://google.com.

Create a Pricing Plan​

You must provide a pricing plan that your users can subscribe to. Let's create a plan that offers 100 free quota for users, so that they can try your API without paying.

fastcharge pricing add myapp --name Free --free-quota 100 --monthly-charge 0 --charge-per-request 0 --make-visible

Here, --name Free sets the name of the pricing plan to "Free". --free-quota 100 means that each new user can make 100 request for free. --monthly-charge 0 means that there is no monthly fee for this app. --charge-per-request 0 means that there is no per-request fee for this app. --make-visible means that the pricing plan is now visible and can be subscribed by everyone.

Final words​

That's it! With 3 simple commands, you have created a live app that charges the customer whenever they make a request.

For the next step, you might be interested in learning how to use an app published by someone else.