Cloud API mock deployments

Mockoon Cloud allows you to deploy your mock APIs in the cloud and share them with your team, clients, or class. This feature is available in the desktop application and is part of the Mockoon Cloud paid plans. Read on to learn how to use it and the different features it offers.

 Managing your cloud deployments

 Deploy an environment to the cloud

You can deploy an environment to the cloud using the context menu in the local or cloud environments list and selecting "Deploy to the cloud":

In the deployment dialog, you can further customize your instance:

• Subdomain: The default subdomain is generated automatically, but you can customize it to a unique value. The subdomain will be part of the instance URL (e.g. https://{subdomain}.{serverId}.mockoon.app).
• Visibility:
  • Public: The environment will be accessible to anyone with the URL.
  • Private: The environment will be accessible only to users with the URL and the API key (see Instance URL and visibility below).
• Region: The region where the instance will be deployed. You can choose from the available regions in the dropdown list. The default region is US (Iowa).

After clicking the "Deploy" button, the environment will be uploaded to the cloud and will be accessible using the provided URL. In the management dialog, you can find the URL and the API key to access the environment. You can also re-deploy the environment or delete the instance:

 Re-deploy or delete a cloud instance

In the management dialog, you can re-deploy the environment or delete the instance using the menu:

 Desktop/web apps and re-deployments

Currently, the behavior of re-deployments is different depending on whether you are using the desktop application or the web application:

• Desktop application: For historical reasons, the desktop application is still biased towards local development. Therefore, all changes made to cloud environments will only be applied to the cloud instances when you re-deploy them manually. This allows you to make changes to your environment without affecting the running instance until you are ready to update it.

• Web application: In the web application, many changes are pushed to the cloud instance automatically without requiring a manual re-deployment. This is because the web application is designed to be more collaborative and real-time, allowing you to see the changes reflected in the running instance immediately. However, some changes may still require a manual re-deployment, depending on their nature.

  The following changes are applied automatically:

  • Some environment properties (headers, proxy headers, latency, etc.).
  • Some route properties (response mode).
  • Adding and removing callbacks.
  • Route responses (headers, latency, status code, callbacks calls, rules, etc.).

  The following changes still require a manual re-deployment:

  • Route paths and methods.
  • Adding or removing routes.
  • Environment port, hostname, proxy and TLS options.
  • Adding or removing data buckets.

We plan to unify this behavior in future versions of Mockoon to provide a consistent experience across both applications.

 Instance URL and visibility

The instance will be deployed on a shared cloud infrastructure and will be accessible using a unique URL in the form of https://mock-abcd1234.{serverId}.mockoon.app. The URL will be displayed in the management dialog and can be shared with your team, clients, or class. You can also customize the subdomain part of the URL when deploying the environment.

The visibility of the environment can be set to public or private. Here are the differences between the two:

• Public: The environment is accessible to anyone with the URL. The API key is displayed in the management dialog and must be included in the request Authorization header to access the environment's admin API.
• Private: The environment is accessible only to users with the URL and the API key. The API key is displayed in the management dialog and must be included in the request Authorization header to access the environment.

 Switching regions

It is not possible to switch the region of an already deployed instance. If you want to deploy the same environment in a different region, you will need to stop the current instance and deploy it again in the desired region. The new instance will have a different URL and API key.

 Unsupported features

The cloud deployment feature does not support the following features:

• Custom TLS and hostnames are not supported and will be disabled in the cloud environment.
• External files linked to the environment are not uploaded and served (e.g. environment's certificates or files used in the "File" response body type). File serving is generally not supported in the cloud environment.
• The proxy mode will be disabled if it points to a local address or IP (e.g. localhost or 127.0.0.1).
• Callbacks pointing to a local address or IP (e.g. localhost or 127.0.0.1) will be disabled.
• WebSockets are currently not supported but will be added in a future version.

 Major versions migrations

Future major versions of Mockoon may introduce breaking changes to the data model of your environments. When this happens, instances already deployed to the cloud will continue to work with the previous version of Mockoon. However, you will need to re-deploy the environment to the cloud to benefit from the new features and improvements.

 Plans quotas and limits

Some quotas and limits apply to the cloud deployment feature depending on your plan. As these quotas and limits are subject to change over time, please refer to your account settings for the information specific to your account.

 Future improvements

The cloud deployment feature is still in its early stages. Here are some improvements we are working on:

• Support for environment variables.
• Possibility to link a custom domain to the instance.
• Possibility to renew the API key.