Create a high-level overview of how the API is expected to work.ĭocumentation describes expected returned data structures for different operations.Identify issues before the development begins.This makes the API adaptable to future needs and less painful to maintain. This means developers create an API specification before writing any code. Maintainable APIsĪPI documentation advocates for a design-first approach when building applications. Lee Byron, Co-creator of GraphQL at GraphQL Foundation Why document APIs?Īn adequately documented API accrues the following benefits: 1. Failing to keep documentation up-to-date creates a point of failure for others who depend on it. Manual updates to documentation are a common problem that exists because they are prone to error. An API lacking documentation would lead to friction between different teams building products. The documentation outlines the data structures, functions, arguments, return types, classes, etc., developers can refer to.īuilding an API is half the job. What is API Documentation?ĪPI documentation is a manual describing instructions on how to use an API - REST, gRPC or GraphQL. This article will discuss why you should document web APIs, the benefits, tools available, and bonus tools to improve web API development. The web API documentation provides these details for a developer to effectively use the API in their application. The server replies with a response - data or an error - back to the client.īefore the client sends a request, it requires a number of details - the protocol, the URL/IP address where it's sending the request to, the structure of the request, route params and request queries, HTTP method and headers. This means a frontend application or web API (the client) sends a request to another web API (the server). Web APIs (REST, GraphQL, gRPC) can send and receive data from other web APIs and frontend applications - from the web browser and mobile apps - over the HTTP protocol using the client-server model. ![]() Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are intermediaries that allow applications to communicate with each other.Īn example of this would be a frontend app retrieving data via the GitHub API to find out the number of stars a project has.
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