An importer in CentraSite is a utility that takes in the specification file of a particular format as the input and then creates an asset of the particular metadata format in the registry. For example, the CentraSite importer for RAML reads a RAML specification and from it, creates a REST Service asset that best describes the RESTful API with RAML specification. The importer also uploads the input file to the CentraSite repository and links the file to the REST API. When you import a REST API using a RAML file, for example, the importer copies the RAML file into the repository and then links the file to the REST API.

CentraSite supports the RAML and Swagger REST metadata formats. The following table also identifies the types of files they require as input:

You can import REST APIs in CentraSite using the following two methods:

Importing REST APIs using CentraSite Business UI is explained in this chapter. Refer to the section "Importing a REST Service from the Command Line" section in the CentraSite Administrator’s Guide for details on the REST service command line tool.