zhongwei/gh-secondsky-sap-skills-skills-sap-api-style
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Initial commit

Browse Source
This commit is contained in:
Zhongwei Li
2025-11-30 08:54:44 +08:00
commit f14894054f
17 changed files with 15633 additions and 0 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

664
references/deprecation-policy.md Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,664 @@
# SAP API Deprecation Policy
**Source**: [https://github.com/SAP-docs/api-style-guide/blob/main/docs/api-deprecation-policy-65a10e3.md](https://github.com/SAP-docs/api-style-guide/blob/main/docs/api-deprecation-policy-65a10e3.md)
**Last Verified**: 2025-11-21
**Attribution**: Content derived from [SAP API Style Guide](https://github.com/SAP-docs/api-style-guide) (Licensed under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/))
**Changes**: Consolidated from multiple source files, reorganized for progressive disclosure, added examples and templates.
---
## Table of Contents
1. [Overview](#overview)
2. [API Lifecycle States](#api-lifecycle-states)
3. [Timeline Requirements](#timeline-requirements)
4. [Required Metadata](#required-metadata)
5. [Stakeholder Responsibilities](#stakeholder-responsibilities)
6. [Deprecation Process](#deprecation-process)
7. [Decommission Process](#decommission-process)
8. [Best Practices](#best-practices)
9. [Examples](#examples)
---
## Overview
### Core Definition
A **deprecated API** "is no longer supported in future releases, and therefore not encouraged for use."
A **decommissioned API** has been fully retired and cannot be used in production.
### Key Principles
1. **Transparency**: Clearly communicate API lifecycle state to consumers
2. **Predictability**: Provide adequate notice before decommissioning
3. **Support**: Maintain deprecated APIs for minimum periods
4. **Documentation**: Update all documentation to reflect current state
5. **Migration Guidance**: Provide clear paths to successor APIs
---
## API Lifecycle States
SAP APIs use the `x-sap-stateInfo` attribute to define four lifecycle states:
### 1. Beta
**Definition**: Pre-production testing phase
**Characteristics**:
- Available for testing and evaluation
- May have incompatible changes without notice
- Not recommended for production use
- No support guarantees
**Use Case**: Early adopters testing new functionality
**Metadata**:
```yaml
x-sap-stateInfo:
state: beta
```
### 2. Active
**Definition**: Live production-ready APIs
**Characteristics**:
- Fully supported for production use
- Backward compatibility maintained
- Default status (can be omitted from metadata)
- Full support and SLAs apply
**Use Case**: Standard production API usage
**Metadata**:
```yaml
x-sap-stateInfo:
state: active
```
Or simply omit the attribute (active is default).
### 3. Deprecated
**Definition**: Live but replaced by an active successor
**Characteristics**:
- Still functional and supported (temporarily)
- Not recommended for new implementations
- Requires migration to successor API
- Support period defined (minimum 12 months)
- Must include deprecation date and successor information
**Use Case**: Legacy APIs being phased out
**Metadata**:
```yaml
x-sap-stateInfo:
state: deprecated
deprecationDate: "2024-01-15"
successorApi: "NewAPIName v2.0"
```
### 4. Decommissioned
**Definition**: Retired from production
**Characteristics**:
- No longer functional
- Cannot be used in any environment
- Removed from documentation
- No support available
**Use Case**: Fully retired APIs
**Implementation**: Remove from artifact or mark in changelog
---
## Timeline Requirements
### Minimum Support Period After Deprecation
**12 months minimum** support period after deprecation announcement
**Calculation**:
- Starts from deprecation announcement date
- Continues until decommission date
- Allows customers adequate migration time
**Example Timeline**:
```
Jan 15, 2024: API deprecated (announcement)
Jan 15, 2025: Earliest decommission date (12 months later)
```
### Minimum Total Lifespan
**24 months minimum** total lifespan in active or deprecated status before decommissioning
**Calculation**:
- Starts from initial active release
- Includes time in active state + time in deprecated state
- Ensures reasonable API stability
**Example Timeline**:
```
Jan 1, 2022: API released (active)
Jan 1, 2024: API deprecated (24 months active)
Jan 1, 2025: Earliest decommission (12 months deprecated)
Alternative:
Jan 1, 2022: API released (active)
Jun 1, 2022: API deprecated (6 months active)
Jun 1, 2024: Earliest decommission (18 months deprecated, 24 total)
```
### Best Practice Timeline
SAP recommends:
- **Active period**: 18-36 months before deprecation
- **Deprecation period**: 12-24 months before decommission
- **Total lifespan**: 30+ months for production APIs
---
## Required Metadata
### OpenAPI Specification
APIs must include `x-sap-stateInfo` object in the OpenAPI specification file:
```yaml
openapi: 3.0.0
info:
title: Employee Management API
version: 1.5.0
x-sap-stateInfo:
state: deprecated
deprecationDate: "2024-01-15"
successorApi: "Employee Management API v2.0"
```
**Required Fields for Deprecated APIs**:
- `state`: Must be "deprecated"
- `deprecationDate`: ISO 8601 date format (YYYY-MM-DD)
- `successorApi`: Name and version of replacement API
### Artifact.json
APIs must include changelog entries in `artifact.json`:
```json
{
"changelog": [
{
"state": "deprecated",
"date": "2024-01-15",
"version": "1.5.0",
"notes": "Deprecated in favor of Employee Management API v2.0. Migration guide available at [https://help.sap.com/migration-guide"](https://help.sap.com/migration-guide")
},
{
"state": "active",
"date": "2022-01-01",
"version": "1.0.0",
"notes": "Initial release"
}
]
}
```
**Required Fields**:
- `state`: Current API state
- `date`: State change date (ISO 8601 format)
- `version`: API version at state change
- `notes`: Descriptive information about the change
---
## Stakeholder Responsibilities
### Product Owners
**Lifecycle Decisions**:
- Determine when to deprecate APIs
- Decide deprecation timelines
- Identify successor APIs
- Approve decommission schedules
**Metadata Configuration**:
- Ensure `x-sap-stateInfo` properly configured
- Maintain accurate `artifact.json` changelog
- Verify metadata consistency across systems
**Communication**:
- Announce deprecation through release notes
- Publish blog posts about major deprecations
- Notify affected customers directly
- Provide migration timelines
**Support Management**:
- Maintain support during deprecation period
- Allocate resources for customer migration assistance
- Track migration progress
- Coordinate decommission activities
### UA (User Assistance) Developers
**Documentation Updates**:
- Add deprecation notices to API documentation
- Update API reference pages with warnings
- Create prominent deprecation banners
- Link to successor API documentation
**Decommission Documentation**:
- Remove links to decommissioned APIs
- Archive old documentation appropriately
- Redirect old URLs to successor documentation
- Update navigation and search indices
**Source Code Tags**:
- Apply `@deprecated` tag in Javadoc/JSDoc comments
- Include deprecation reason and alternative
- Update inline documentation
- Add migration code examples
**Migration Guidance**:
- Create migration guides in release notes
- Document API differences
- Provide code migration examples
- Publish before-and-after comparisons
### Development Teams
**Code Maintenance**:
- Continue bug fixes during deprecation period
- Maintain security patches
- No new feature development
- Plan removal timeline
**Testing**:
- Maintain test coverage during deprecation
- Test successor API thoroughly
- Validate migration paths
- Monitor customer usage patterns
---
## Deprecation Process
### Step 1: Decision and Planning
1. **Assess API Usage**:
- Review usage metrics and analytics
- Identify affected customers
- Estimate migration effort
2. **Define Successor**:
- Identify replacement API
- Document migration path
- Create migration guide
3. **Set Timeline**:
- Calculate minimum support period (12 months)
- Verify total lifespan requirement (24 months)
- Set deprecation and decommission dates
### Step 2: Update Metadata
1. **OpenAPI Specification**:
```yaml
x-sap-stateInfo:
state: deprecated
deprecationDate: "2024-01-15"
successorApi: "NewAPI v2.0"
```
2. **Artifact.json**:
```json
{
"changelog": [{
"state": "deprecated",
"date": "2024-01-15",
"version": "1.5.0",
"notes": "Deprecated. Use NewAPI v2.0. Migration guide: [https://..."](https://...")
}]
}
```
3. **Source Code** (Java example):
```java
/**
* Gets customer address.
*
* @deprecated As of version 1.5.0, replaced by
* {@link com.sap.newapi.Customer#getAddress()}
* Use the new API which provides enhanced address validation.
*/
@Deprecated
public Address getCustomerAddress() {
// implementation
}
```
### Step 3: Documentation Updates
1. **API Reference**:
- Add deprecation banner at top of page
- Include deprecation date and successor
- Link to migration guide
2. **Release Notes**:
- Announce deprecation
- Explain reason for deprecation
- Provide migration timeline
- Link to migration guide
3. **Migration Guide**:
- Document API differences
- Provide code examples
- Explain migration steps
- List breaking changes
### Step 4: Communication
1. **Announcement Channels**:
- Release notes
- Blog posts
- Email to affected customers
- In-app notifications (if applicable)
2. **Announcement Content**:
- What is being deprecated
- Why it's being deprecated
- When it will be decommissioned
- What to use instead
- Where to find migration guidance
### Step 5: Support Period
1. **Maintain Support**:
- Continue bug fixes
- Provide security patches
- Answer customer questions
- Monitor migration progress
2. **Track Migration**:
- Monitor API usage metrics
- Identify customers still using deprecated API
- Proactively contact stragglers
- Offer migration assistance
---
## Decommission Process
### Prerequisites
Before decommissioning, verify:
- [ ] Minimum 12 months since deprecation announcement
- [ ] Minimum 24 months total lifespan
- [ ] All customers notified
- [ ] Migration guidance published
- [ ] Successor API available and stable
- [ ] Remaining usage is minimal
### Decommission Methods
#### Method 1: Remove Entire API Package
**For complete API removal**:
1. Delete artifact folder from repository
2. Commit and push changes
3. Republish to SAP API Business Hub (API will be removed)
**Example**:
```bash
# Remove the API directory
rm -rf apis/EmployeeManagement/1.0
# Commit removal
git add -A
git commit -m "Decommission EmployeeManagement API v1.0"
git push
```
#### Method 2: Remove Specific Endpoints
**For partial API removal**:
1. Edit `artifact.json`
2. Remove specific endpoint definitions
3. Update changelog with decommission notice
4. Commit and push changes
**Example** (`artifact.json`):
```json
{
"changelog": [
{
"state": "decommissioned",
"date": "2025-01-15",
"version": "1.5.0",
"notes": "Endpoint /legacy/customers decommissioned. Use /v2/customers instead."
}
],
"paths": {
"/v2/customers": { ... }
// Removed: "/legacy/customers"
}
}
```
### Post-Decommission Actions
1. **Documentation Cleanup**:
- Remove API from documentation site
- Archive old documentation
- Set up redirects to successor API
- Update navigation menus
2. **URL Management**:
- Configure HTTP 410 (Gone) responses for old endpoints
- Include message pointing to successor API
- Maintain redirects for reasonable period
3. **Communication**:
- Publish decommission announcement
- Send final notification to any remaining users
- Update status pages
---
## Best Practices
### Planning
1. **Early Assessment**: Evaluate deprecation candidates during product planning
2. **Customer Impact**: Always consider customer migration effort
3. **Batch Deprecations**: Group related API deprecations together
4. **Version Strategy**: Use semantic versioning to signal breaking changes
### Communication
1. **Multiple Channels**: Announce through all available channels
2. **Advance Notice**: Provide notice well before minimum period
3. **Clear Messaging**: Explain what, why, when, and how
4. **Regular Reminders**: Send periodic reminders during deprecation period
### Documentation
1. **Prominent Warnings**: Make deprecation notices highly visible
2. **Complete Migration Guides**: Don't just say "use X instead" - explain how
3. **Code Examples**: Provide before/after code comparisons
4. **FAQs**: Answer common migration questions
### Technical
1. **Graceful Degradation**: Consider warning headers before hard removal
2. **Usage Tracking**: Monitor deprecated API usage
3. **Migration Tools**: Provide automated migration tools when feasible
4. **Backward Compatibility**: Maintain during deprecation period
---
## Examples
### Example 1: REST API Endpoint Deprecation
**OpenAPI Specification**:
```yaml
openapi: 3.0.0
info:
title: Order Management API
version: 2.1.0
paths:
/orders/{orderId}:
get:
summary: Get order details
deprecated: true
description: |
**DEPRECATED**: This endpoint is deprecated as of January 15, 2024.
Use /v2/orders/{orderId} instead.
This endpoint will be decommissioned on January 15, 2025.
Migration guide: [https://help.sap.com/order-api-migration](https://help.sap.com/order-api-migration)
x-sap-stateInfo:
state: deprecated
deprecationDate: "2024-01-15"
successorApi: "/v2/orders/{orderId}"
responses:
'200':
description: Order details (deprecated)
headers:
Warning:
schema:
type: string
description: '299 - "Deprecated API. Use /v2/orders/{orderId}"'
```
### Example 2: Java Method Deprecation
```java
/**
* Service for managing customer data.
*/
public class CustomerService {
/**
* Retrieves customer by ID.
*
* @param customerId the customer identifier
* @return customer object
* @throws NotFoundException if customer not found
* @deprecated As of version 2.0.0 (deprecated January 15, 2024),
* replaced by {@link #getCustomerById(String)}
* The new method provides enhanced validation and
* supports additional customer types.
* This method will be removed in version 3.0.0
* (scheduled for January 15, 2025).
* Migration guide: [https://help.sap.com/customer-api-migration](https://help.sap.com/customer-api-migration)
*/
@Deprecated(since = "2.0.0", forRemoval = true)
public Customer getCustomer(int customerId) throws NotFoundException {
// Legacy implementation
return legacyCustomerRetrieval(customerId);
}
/**
* Retrieves customer by ID with enhanced validation.
*
* @param customerId the customer identifier (supports all formats)
* @return customer object
* @throws NotFoundException if customer not found
* @throws ValidationException if customerId format invalid
* @since 2.0.0
*/
public Customer getCustomerById(String customerId)
throws NotFoundException, ValidationException {
// New implementation
return enhancedCustomerRetrieval(customerId);
}
}
```
### Example 3: Complete API Deprecation Timeline
**Timeline**: Document Management API
```
2022-01-01: API v1.0.0 released (active)
├─ State: active
├─ Full support and SLAs
└─ Production-ready
2023-06-15: API v2.0.0 released
├─ Enhanced features
├─ Better performance
└─ v1.0.0 remains active
2024-01-15: API v1.0.0 deprecated
├─ State: deprecated
├─ Deprecation announcement published
├─ Migration guide released
├─ Support continues
└─ x-sap-stateInfo updated
2024-07-15: 6-month reminder
├─ Email to remaining v1.0.0 users
├─ 6 months until decommission
└─ Migration assistance offered
2024-10-15: 3-month reminder
├─ Final migration push
├─ Direct contact to high-usage customers
└─ Migration tools provided
2025-01-15: API v1.0.0 decommissioned
├─ State: decommissioned
├─ Endpoints return HTTP 410 Gone
├─ Documentation removed
├─ Redirects to v2.0.0 documentation
└─ Final announcement published
Total Timeline:
- Active period: 24 months (Jan 2022 - Jan 2024)
- Deprecated period: 12 months (Jan 2024 - Jan 2025)
- Total lifespan: 36 months ✓ (exceeds 24-month minimum)
- Support after deprecation: 12 months ✓ (meets minimum)
```
---
## Reference
### External Standards
- **OpenAPI Specification**: [https://spec.openapis.org/oas/latest.html](https://spec.openapis.org/oas/latest.html)
- **Semantic Versioning**: [https://semver.org/](https://semver.org/)
- **HTTP Status Codes**: [https://httpstatuses.com/](https://httpstatuses.com/)
### SAP Resources
- **SAP API Business Hub**: [https://api.sap.com/](https://api.sap.com/)
- **SAP Help Portal**: [https://help.sap.com/](https://help.sap.com/)
### Related Documentation
- API Naming Guidelines
- API Quality Checklist
- API Review Process
- Developer Guide Standards
---
**Document Version**: 1.0.0
**Last Updated**: 2025-11-21
**Maintainer**: SAP Skills Team | [https://github.com/secondsky/sap-skills](https://github.com/secondsky/sap-skills)