Getting Started with Aperture

Aperture is available as a managed service, Aperture Cloud, or can be self-hosted within your infrastructure.

1. Sign up to Aperture Cloud

For signing up, head over to Aperture Cloud. For detailed instructions, please refer to our step-by-step guide.

2. Pick your Integration

These are two main modes on how to get started with Aperture.

Aperture Serverless

The Serverless mode is the quickest way to start using Aperture.

3. Get your API key

In Aperture Cloud, authentication for SDK integrations is handled using API keys. These keys can be found in the Aperture Cloud UI. For detailed instructions on locating API Keys, please refer to the API Keys section.

4. Install SDK and Define Control Points

Aperture provides SDKs for various languages. You can find the SDKs and installation instructions here.

TypeScript

npm install @fluxninja/aperture-js

Go

go get github.com/fluxninja/aperture-go/v2

Python

pip install aperture-py

Connect to Aperture Cloud by creating an Aperture Client with your organization's address and API Key.

TypeScript

import { ApertureClient, FlowStatusEnum } from "@fluxninja/aperture-js";

// Create aperture client
export const apertureClient = new ApertureClient({
  address: "ORGANIZATION.app.fluxninja.com:443",
  agentAPIKey: "API_KEY",
});

Go

// grpcOptions creates a new gRPC client that will be passed in order to initialize the Aperture client.
func grpcOptions() []grpc.DialOption {
  var grpcDialOptions []grpc.DialOption
  grpcDialOptions = append(grpcDialOptions, grpc.WithConnectParams(grpc.ConnectParams{
    Backoff:           backoff.DefaultConfig,
    MinConnectTimeout: time.Second * 10,
  }))
  grpcDialOptions = append(grpcDialOptions, grpc.WithUserAgent("aperture-go"))
  certPool, err := x509.SystemCertPool()
  if err != nil {
    return nil
  }
  grpcDialOptions = append(grpcDialOptions, grpc.WithTransportCredentials(credentials.NewClientTLSFromCert(certPool, "")))
  return grpcDialOptions
}

// Create aperture client
agentAddress := "ORGANIZATION.app.fluxninja.com:443"
apiKey := "API_KEY"

opts := aperture.Options{
    Address:     agentAddress,
    APIKey: apiKey,
    DialOptions: grpcOptions(),
}

// initialize Aperture Client with the provided options.
apertureClient, err := aperture.NewClient(ctx, opts)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("failed to create client: %v", err)
}

Python

from aperture_sdk import ApertureClient

aperture_client = ApertureClient.new_client(address="ORGANIZATION.app.fluxninja.com:443", api_key="API_KEY")

Define a Control Point

Once the SDK is connected to Aperture Cloud, you can create a feature control point anywhere within your code. For example, before executing the business logic of a specific API, you can create a feature control point that can control the execution flow of the API and can reject the request based on the policy defined in Aperture.

Let's create a feature control point in the following code snippet.

TypeScript

async function handleRequest(req, res) {
  const flow = await apertureClient.StartFlow("archimedes-service", {
    labels: {
      api_key: "some_api_key",
    },
    grpcCallOptions: {
      deadline: Date.now() + 300, // ms
    },
    rampMode: false,
    cacheKey: "cache",
  });

  if (flow.ShouldRun()) {
    // Check if the response is cached in Aperture from a previous request
    if (flow.CachedValue().GetLookupStatus() === LookupStatus.Hit) {
      res.send({ message: flow.CachedValue().GetValue()?.toString() });
    } else {
      // Do Actual Work
      // After completing the work, you can return store the response in cache and return it, for example:
      const resString = "foo";

      // create a new buffer
      const buffer = Buffer.from(resString);

      // set cache value
      const setResult = await flow.SetCachedValue(buffer, {
        seconds: 30,
        nanos: 0,
      });
      if (setResult?.error) {
        console.log(`Error setting cache value: ${setResult.error}`);
      }

      res.send({ message: resString });
    }
  } else {
    // Handle flow rejection
    flow.SetStatus(FlowStatusEnum.Error);
  }

  if (flow) {
    flow.End();
  }
}

The code snippet below shows how to wrap your Control Point within the StartFlow call while also passing labels and cacheKey to Aperture Agents.

• The function Flow.ShouldRun() checks if the flow allows the request.
• The Flow.End() function is responsible for sending telemetry, and updating the specified cache entry within Aperture.
• The flow.CachedValue().GetLookupStatus() function returns the status of the cache lookup. The status can be Hit or Miss.
• If the status is Hit, the flow.CachedValue().GetValue() function returns the cached response.
• The flow.SetCachedValue() function is responsible for setting the response in Aperture cache with the specified TTL (time to live).

Go

  // business logic produces labels
  labels := map[string]string{
      "key": "value",
  }

  rampMode := false

  // StartFlow performs a flowcontrolv1.Check call to Aperture Agent. It returns a Flow object.
  flow := apertureClient.StartFlow(ctx, "featureName", labels, rampMode, 200 * time.Millisecond)

  // See whether flow was accepted by Aperture Agent.
  if flow.ShouldRun() {
      // do actual work
  } else {
      // handle flow rejection by Aperture Agent
      flow.SetStatus(aperture.Error)
  }
  _ = flow.End()

Python

  # business logic produces labels
  labels = {
      "key": "value",
  }

  # start_flow performs a flowcontrol.v1.Check call to Aperture Agent.
  # It returns a Flow or raises an error if any.
  flow = aperture_client.start_flow(
    control_point="AwesomeFeature",
    explicit_labels=labels,
    check_timeout=timedelta(seconds=200),
  )

  # Check if flow check was successful.
  if not flow.success:
      logger.info("Flow check failed - will fail-open")

  # See whether flow was accepted by Aperture Agent.
  if flow.should_run():
      # do actual work
  else:
      # handle flow rejection by Aperture Agent
      flow.set_status(FlowStatus.Error)
  flow.end()

This is how you can create a feature control point in your code. The complete example is available here.

5. Create Your Policy

Within the Aperture UI, navigate to the policy in tab in the sidebar menu, and click on the Create Policy button in the top right corner. There you can pick the blueprint that best aligns with your needs. After a few clicks, you'll be directed to a screen where you can input the necessary parameters to generate the policy.

For more details on how to create a policy, follow our step-by-step guide.

Aperture for Infrastructure

There are two ways to integrate Aperture into your infrastructure. The first option includes a cloud-hosted controller and self-managed agents to ensure minimal performance impact. The second option involves hosting Aperture entirely within your infrastructure, making it perfect for air-gapped environments.

3. Set Up the Environment

The Aperture Agent can be installed in various modes. For installation steps, see Agent docs under Aperture For Infra section.

info

For more details on fully self-hosted installation, please refer to the Self-hosted section.

4. Integrate with Aperture

Here are various Integrations methods with Aperture

• SDKs
• Istio
• Gateways
• Consul
• Auto Scale
• Metrics

5. Map to Aperture SaaS Controller

Aperture Cloud authenticates requests from integrations using API keys, which are created for your project and can be found within the Aperture Cloud UI. Copy the API key and save it in a secure location. This key will be used during the configuration of Self-hosted Agents. For detailed instructions on locating API Keys, please refer to the API Keys section.

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Using the API key, you can map your integration to the Aperture Cloud. See FluxNinja Cloud Extension for more details.

6. Create Your Policy

For more details on how to create a policy, follow our step-by-step guide.