What Is Azure API Policy?

Azure API Policy is a set of plugin rules to be executed between Azure API and the backend service. Those plugin rules are written in Azure API policy statements in XML format.

An Azure API policy contains two major blocks:

1. Inbound Policy - Policy statements to be executed after Azure receiving the client request (the HTTP request generated from the client system) and before generating the Azure request (the HTTP request to be delivered to the backend service).

The purpose of the Inbound Policy is to build the Azure request based on the client request. Without the Inbound Policy, Azure will just clone the client request and use it as the Azure request.

2. Outbound Policy - Policy statements to be executed after Azure receiving the backend response (the HTTP response received from the backend service) and before generating the Azure response (the HTTP response to be delivered to the client system).

The purpose of the Outbound Policy is to build the Azure response based on the backend response. Without the Outbound Policy, Azure will just clone the backend response and use it as the Azure response.

The picture below shows you where Azure API inbound policy and outbound policy are used:

For more information on Azure API Policy, see API Management policies Website.

⇒Using Azure API Policy

⇒⇒Microsoft Azure API Management Tutorials