Add API Documentation

API documentation helps API subscribers to understand the functionality of the API and API publishers to market their APIs better and sustain competition. Using the API Publisher, you can add different types of documentation from various sources. All documents created in the API Publisher have unique URLs to help improve SEO support.

The documentation types supported in the API Publisher are as follows:

• In-line: Hosts documentation (How-tos, Samples, SDK, forums etc.) in WSO2 API Publisher itself and allows it to be edited directly via the UI.
• URL: Links of public or support forums or file references (URLs) of an external configuration management system.
• File: Allows to upload the documentation directly to the server.
• Markdown: Allows to add markdown (.md) docs via a Markdown editor.

Follow the instructions below to add documentation to an API:

1. Sign in to the WSO2 API Publisher.

   https://<hostname>:9443/publisher

2. Click on the API (e.g., PizzaShackAPI 1.0.0 ) for which you want to add the documentation.

   

3. Add the specific documentation.

   Follow the steps below for each type.

   • Add in-line documentation
   • Add documentation using a URL
   • Add documentation using a file
   • Add Markdown documentation

   Add in-line documentation

   1. Click Documents and click Add New Document.

      

   2. Enter the following details to create an in-line document.

      Name	PizzaShack
      Summary	This is the official documentation for the PizzaShack API
      Type	How To
      Source	In-line

      

   3. Click Add Document.

   4. Click Add Content to open an embedded editor.

      

      Note

      You can edit the content later by clicking Edit Content. It will open up the embedded editor to proceed.

      

   5. Edit the document content in-line using the embedded editor and click Update Content.

      

      The API's Documents tab opens.

   Add documentation using a URL

   You can use either Public Forum, Support Forum or Other types to add documentation using a URL.

   Add a document using a URL based on a Public Forum/Support Forum

   1. Click Add New Document to add another documentation type.

   2. Enter the following information to create another doc using a URL of a Public or Support forum.

      Name	APIForum
      Summary	Forum to discuss about APIs
      Type	Public Forum/Support Forum
      Source	URL <http://www.dummyforum.com

      

   Add an other type URL based document

   You can use this if you want to add a document using the Other type that points to a link that has a file reference of an external source.

   1. Enter the following information to create another doc using a URL.

      Name	PizzaShackWiki
      Summary	Sample PizzaShack API
      Type	Other
      Other Document Type	Other (Provide a type as required)
      Source	URL http://www.dummy.com/PizzaShackAPIDoc.pdf

      

   2. Click Add Document.

      The API's Documents tab opens.

   Add documentation using a file

   1. Click Add New Document to add yet another document using a file.

   2. Enter the following information.

      Name	APIManagerSamples
      Summary	API Manager Samples
      Type	Samples & SDK
      Source	You can provide only these file formats.(.pdf, .doc, .txt ) of any size. For example, use the sample PDF file here.

      

   3. Click Add Document.

   Add Markdown documentation

   1. Click Documents and click Add New Document.

      

   2. Enter the following details to create Markdown documentation and click Add Document.

      Name	PizzaShackAPIDocumentation
      Summary	This is the official documentation for the PizzaShack API
      Type	How To
      Source	Markdown

      

   3. Click Add Content to open an embedded editor.

      

   4. Edit the document content using the embedded markdown editor and click Update Content.

      

      The API's Documents tab opens.

      

   You have now added four type of documents to the API: in-line, URL, file, and markdown.

   

4. Sign in to the WSO2 Developer Portal and click on the PizzaShackAPI version 1.0.0 API.

   https://<hostname>:9443/devportal

   

5. Click Documents.

   The documents that you added, which are listed by type, appears.

6. Use the dropdown and select the document that you want to view.

   As a subscriber, you can read the documentation and learn about the API.

   Note

   For REST APIs, generated document will be listed as Default

   

You have created documentation using the API Publisher and viewed the documentation as a subscriber in the Developer Portal.

Control API Document Visibility in Developer Portal

By default, any document associated with an API has the same visibility level of the API. That is, if the API is public, its documentation is also visible to all users (registered and anonymous).

Note

This feature has been disabled in the default setup.

Enabling document visibility in Developer Portal

To enable other visibility levels to the documentation, go to the <API-M_HOME>/repository/conf/deployment.toml, add the following configuration.

[apim.publisher]
enable_api_doc_visibility = "true"

Document visibility levels can be one of the following options: - Same as API visibility: visible to the same user roles who can see the API. For example, if the API's visibility is public, its documentation is visible to all users. - Visible to My Domain: visible to all registered users in the API's tenant domain. - Publishers Only: visible only to the users who have permission to log in to the API Publisher web interface and create and/or publish APIs to the Developer Portal.

Control API document visibility using the API Publisher

1. Sign in to the API Publisher as an API creator using the following URL: https://<localhost>:9443/publisher

2. Create a new API or edit an existing API.

3. In the Documents tab, Click Add New Document, to see a new drop-down list added to select visibility from.

4. Select the desired visibility level for the document.

5. Add the Document.