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Creating Your Application from a Template

In this section, we will create a Variant API application, deploy it as an Azure Isolated Function App, and validate it through initial testing.

🚀 Step 1: Create the Application​

  1. In the Variant dashboard, click Services from the main menu.

  2. Click Create New Service.

  3. In the creation dialog:

    • Select Package Manager: Lokisoft Repository
    • Select Service Template: Variant.Simple.Service
    • Short name: bankholidays
    • Name: BankHolidays
    • Description: My bank holiday api app
    • Deployment template: Workflow. This is the deployment template for the dev environment only and can be changed in the site-config.json file at any time.

  4. Click Create.

🚀 Step 2: Deploy the Application​

  1. Find the service you just created in the Services list.
  2. Click on the service name to open it.
  3. Click the Deploy button at the top of the page.

  1. After deployment finishes, click the Refresh button.
  2. Confirm that your service is now showing as Deployed:

🧪 Step 3: Smoke Test the Application​

  1. Open the Test Runner from the service’s submenu.
  2. Click Run Tests.
  3. Variant will automatically execute:
    • Unit tests defined in !Tools/Tests/!Main.yaml
    • Example API tests from Apis.yaml
  4. Press refresh and the test results will appear.

✅ If all tests pass, your application development environment is now successfully set up and ready for extension!

🎁 Bonus: Verify Your API Using Swagger UI​

After deploying and smoke testing your service, you can also validate the OpenAPI definition using an external tool like Swagger UI.

This gives you a graphical view of your API and its endpoints, without needing any custom tooling.

🔗 Instructions​

  1. Open your browser and navigate to:
    👉 https://petstore.swagger.io

  2. In the Explore bar at the top of the page, enter the URL of your service’s OpenAPI endpoint.
    For example:

    https://[Your serviceUrl/openapi.json

  3. Click the Explore button.

  4. Swagger UI will load and display your API’s endpoints, allowing you to:

    • View available operations

    • See expected request/response structures

    • Manually invoke endpoints for testing (Don;lt forget to use your access keys or simply remove the checks in the Startup.yaml file)

📸 Example​

✅ Using Swagger UI is a fast, lightweight way to double-check your service's OpenAPI specification without deploying any extra tools.