What Are the Relationships Between an API, Environment, and Credential?

An API can be published in different environments, such as RELEASE (online environment) and BETA (test environment).

A credential refers to the identity of an API caller. After you create a credential, the system automatically generates an AppKey and AppSecret for authenticating the credential. After an API is published and assigned to a credential, the owner of the credential can call the API.

After publishing an API in different environments, you can define different request throttling policies and authorize different credentials to call the API. For example, during the test process, API v2 is published in the BETA environment and authorized to test credentials. API v1 is stable and can be authorized to all users or credentials in the RELEASE environment.