Introduction to antipatterns

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This section is about common antipatterns that are observed as part of the API proxies deployed on the Apigee Edge platform.

The good news is that each of these antipatterns can be clearly identified and rectified with appropriate good practices. Consequently, the APIs deployed on Edge would serve their intended purpose and be more performant.

Summary of antipatterns

The following table lists the antipatterns in this section:

Category	Antipatterns
Policy antipatterns	Use waitForComplete() in JavaScript code Set a long expiration time for OAuth tokens Use greedy quantifiers in the RegularExpressionProtection policy Cache error responses Store data greater than 512kb size in cache Log data to third party servers using the JavaScript policy Use of non-compliant JSONPath version Invoke MessageLogging multiple times in an API proxy Configure non-distributed quota Reuse a Quota policy Use the RaiseFault policy under inappropriate conditions Access multi-value HTTP headers incorrectly in an API Proxy Use Service Callout to invoke backend service in no target proxy Use of any OAuth V1 policies, which are deprecated. See Deprecations.
Performance antipatterns	Leave unused NodeJS API Proxies deployed
Generic antipatterns	Invoke Management API calls from an API Proxy Invoke a proxy within a proxy using custom code or as a target Manage Edge resources without using source control management Define multiple virtual hosts with same host alias and port number Load Balance with a single target server with MaxFailures set to a non-zero value Access the request/response payload when streaming is enabled Define multiple ProxyEndpoints in an API Proxy
Backend antipatterns	Allow a slow backend Disable HTTP persistent (reusable keep-alive) connections
Edge for Private Cloud antipatterns	Add custom information to Apigee-owned schema in Postgres database

Download antipatterns eBook

In addition to the links above, you can also download the antipatterns in eBook format:

• The Book of Apigee Edge Antipatterns v2.0 (PDF)

What is an antipattern?

Wikipedia defines a software antipattern as:

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In software engineering, an anti-pattern is a pattern that may be commonly used but is ineffective and/or counterproductive in practice.

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Simply put, an antipattern is something that the software allows it’s "user" to do, but is something that may have adverse functional, serviceable, or performance impact.

For example, consider the omnipotent-sounding "God Class/Object".

In objected oriented parlance, a god class is a class that controls too many classes for a given application.

For example, consider an application with the following reference tree:

As the image illustrates, the god class uses and references too many classes.

The framework on which the application was developed does not prevent the creation of such a class, but it has many disadvantages, the primary ones being:

• Hard to maintain
• Single point of failure when the application runs

Consequently, creation of such a class should be avoided. It is an antipattern.

Target audience

This section best serves Apigee Edge developers as they progress through the lifecycle of designing and developing API proxies for their services. It should ideally be used as a reference guide during the API development lifecycle and during troubleshooting.