Tips for writing API documentation

In software development, it is crucial to make a product robust. It is essential that the software you create can be integrated with other applications. For this functionality, you have to create an API or Application Programming Interface. But to let other developers use your application quickly, you must provide them with the comprehensive API documentation. 

Writing excellent API documentation is not where most backend developers shine. If you lack the same skill, remember that your API might never be used to its full potential. It is simply because an API is only as good as its API documentation.

This article will explore some of the best ways to write excellent API documentation. Before that, it is essential to understand what an API document is. 

What is API documentation?

API documentation is a type of technical writing that details an API’s features and how to use them within an application. The API documentation includes everything from how to request the API to the different response codes it returns. Compared to other technical documentation, it is tricky to write API documentation as it needs to be consistent with existing developer docs. You must know what developers want from your API and create documentation accordingly. 

Proper documentation is as essential as quality API development because it decides how easy it will be to use. 

To help you succeed, we are listing the best API documentation strategies to create a resource that will help developers make the best use of your API. 

Include all the necessary elements 

The excellent API documentation provides not only an overview but much more information.

The overview must summarize the API and tell developers what problem it is solving. You should also include your API’s benefits over other similar APIs. But most importantly, it provides tutorials to help developers understand the API concept and its implementation in different scenarios. Tutorials must also explain how to integrate and configure API in a step-by-step approach to function properly.

To further make it easy for developers to understand the scope of your API, you can include examples of calls, responses, outputs, error handling, and other operations. If your API documentation has too many call functions, you can also include a glossary to make navigating the content more accessible.

Pro Tip: Don’t make API documentation boring for the user with long paragraphs and too much text. It’s a technical document, but it should contain data in schemas, images, and code snippets to give a straightforward explanation of features. If the definitions are too lengthy, you can include them in the glossary and use references in the documentation wherever required.

Use relatable content 

The above-listed tip doesn’t mean your API documentation must be restricted to only written guides and glossary. You can also include PowerPoint slides and short videos within the content to illustrate how your API integrates with other applications.

It gets easier for developers to quickly access and decide your API’s applicability if they can find use cases that relate to their requirements. Depending on the programming languages your API supports, you can create code snippets for each to help developers understand how to use the API in their code.

Create simple, easy-to-understand technical content 

API documentation is pretty technical, but it doesn’t have to be ambiguous. While it is impossible to avoid all technical terms, you can keep the language of the documentation simple by avoiding complex grammatical constructions. Keep the content simple, relatable, and straightforward. Developers should understand the API documentation without scratching their heads.

You have to ensure that you are not overly complicating the documentation while not leaving out any critical details. You have to strike a balance. To make it easier for developers to understand any acronyms or technical terms, explain them in the glossary section giving a link for the reference.

Use API documentation tools 

A good documentation tool can make it a lot easier to write well-prepared API documentation. As in API development, several tools are available for the purpose. You can save much time if you use API documentation tools as they provide standard templates to start with rather than creating everything from scratch. Here are two tools to use:

1. Postman– Postman is one of the largest platforms for building and maintaining APIs, but it is also an excellent tool for API documentation. It uses a machine-readable documentation tool to help backend developers write better API documentation faster.
2. DapperDox– An open-source API documentation tool, DapperDox offers several themes to create documentation combining diagrams, specifications, and other types of content. It also allows authors to write GitHub-flavored markdowns.

Check for errors 

API documentation can have typos and other errors like any other writing assignment. It is essential to proofread the document for errors and formatting issues before publishing it. You should refine the content to ensure it is easy to understand, error-free, and well-organized.

Conclusion 

API documentation is as essential as API development as it lays out how the API works. Without well-prepared API documentation, your API might never see the success it deserves. We hope these tips will help you write excellent documentation for your APIs.

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