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Documentation

Every great API needs a great Documentation.

Apiato make writing and generating documentations very easy with the php artisan apiato:apidoc command.

Requirements​

  • Install ApiDocJs in the project directory

    • (npm install apidoc)

  • (Recommended) read the Routes page first.

Installation​

composer require apiato/documentation-generator-container
tip

This container is installed by default with an Apiato fresh installation.

Usage​

Write PHP docblock​

Write a PHP docblock on top of your endpoint like this:

For more info about the parameters check out ApiDocJs documentation

/**
 * @apiGroup           Authentication
 * @apiName            UserLogin
 * @api                {post} /clients/web/login User Login
 * @apiDescription     Description Here....
 * @apiVersion         1.0.0
 * @apiPermission      none
 *
 * @apiHeader          Accept application/json
 *
 * @apiParam           {String}     email
 * @apiParam           {String}     password
 *
 * @apiSuccessExample  {json}       Success-Response:
 *   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
 *   {
 *     "data": {
 *       "id": "XbPW7awNkzl83LD6",
 *       "name": "Super Admin",
 *       "email": "[email protected]"
 *       ...
 *   }
 *
 * @apiErrorExample  {json}       Error-Response:
 *   {
 *      "message":"401 Credentials Incorrect.",
 *      "status_code":401
 *   }
 *
 * @apiErrorExample  {json}       Error-Response:
 *   {
 *      "message":"Invalid Input.",
 *      "errors":{
 *         "email":[
 *            "The email field is required."
 *         ]
 *      },
 *      "status_code":422
 *   }
 */

use App\Containers\AppSection\Authentication\UI\API\Controllers\Controller;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::post('clients/web/login', Controller::class);
note

All the Endpoint DocBlocks MUST be written inside Routes files, otherwise they won't be loaded.

Run Documentation Generator​

Run the documentation generator command from the root directory:


php artisan apiato:apidoc

Error: ApiDoc not found !!​

If you get an error (apidoc not found),

  1. Publish the configs

  2. Edit the executable path to $(npm bin)/apidoc or to however you access the apidoc tool on your machine.

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Executable
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | Specify how you run or access the `apidoc` tool on your machine.
    |
    */

    'executable' => 'node_modules/.bin/apidoc',
    // 'executable' => 'apidoc',

Visit Documentation URL's​

Visit documentation URL's as shown in your terminal:

note

Every time you change the DocBlock of a Route file you need to run the apiato:apidoc command, to regenerate.

Shared Response​

You can use shared responses to update the documentation faster, with less outdated responses and prevent duplicating the responses between routes.

Example: _user.v1.public.php will contain all responses (single, multiple...) of the User:

/**
 * @apiDefine UserSuccessSingleResponse
 * @apiSuccessExample {json} Success-Response:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
{
   "data":{
      "object":"User",
      "id":eqwja3vw94kzmxr0,
   },
   "meta":{
      "include":[],
      "custom":[]
   }
}
 */

Usage of the shared User response from any endpoint:

* @apiUse UserSuccessSingleResponse

Documentation Container Customization​

There are 2 ways you can customize this container: Using its configs or by modifying the source code.

Publishing configs​

php artisan vendor:publish

Config file will be copied to app/Ship/Configs/vendor-documentation.php

Modifying the source code​

  1. Copy the container from Vendor to AppSection (or any of your custom sections) of your project
  2. Fix the namespaces
  3. Remove apiato/documentation-generator-container dependency from project root composer.json
  4. Update section_name & html_files in container configs
  5. Update apidoc.private.json & apidoc.public.json files in ApiDocJs/Configs and fix the filename 
{
    "header": {
        "filename": "Containers/NEW_SECTION_NAME/Documentation/UI/WEB/Views/documentation/header.md"
    }
}

Change the Documentations URL's​

Publish the configs and change types.public.url & types.private.url.

Private Documentation Protection​

By default, this feature is disabled in local environment and enabled in production.
To change this behaviour Publish the configs and change protect-private-docs.

Private documentations route is protected with the auth:web middleware. You can grant users access to the protected docs by updating access-private-docs-roles & access-private-docs-permission values in documentation config. By default, users need access-private-docs permission to access private docs.

Edit Default Generated Values in Templates​

Apiato by defaults generates 2 API documentations, each one has its own apidoc.json file. Both can be modified from the Documentation Container in app/Containers/Vendor/Documentation/ApiDocJs and need Source code modification.

Edit the Documentation Header​

The header is usually the Overview of your API. It contains Info about authenticating users, making requests, responses, potential errors, rate limiting, pagination, query parameters and anything you want.

All this information is written in app/Containers/Vendor/Documentation/ApiDocJs/shared/header.template.en.md file, and the same file is used as header for both private and public documentations.

To edit its content you need to modify its source code and open the markdown file in any markdown editor and edit it.

You will notice some variables like {{rate-limit}} and {{token-expires}}. Those are replaced when running apiato:apidoc with real values from your application configuration files.

Feel free to extend them to include more info about your API from the app/Containers/Vendor/Documentation/Tasks/RenderTemplatesTask.php class.

Localization for Documentation Header​

Default, the documentation title is in English en localization.

See which locales are supported by going in app/Containers/Vendor/Documentation/ApiDocJs/shared

There will be some header.template.{locale}.md files in the folder.

You can change the language by adding APIDOC_LOCALE=ru to the .env file.

If you didn't find a file with your locale, you can create it. You need to modify its source code and create new file like header.template.cn.md