{"id":112378,"date":"2021-12-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.javacodegeeks.com\/?p=112378"},"modified":"2021-12-15T17:10:23","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T15:10:23","slug":"api-documentation-in-node-js-using-swagger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.javacodegeeks.com\/api-documentation-in-node-js-using-swagger.html","title":{"rendered":"API Documentation in Node.js Using Swagger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello. In this tutorial, we will understand how to write API documentation in Node.js using Swagger.<\/p>\n

1. Introduction<\/h2>\n

A swagger<\/strong> is a popular tool used for generating interactive API documentation. In this tutorial, we will see how to write swagger api documentation in the nodejs application.<\/p>\n

1.1 Setting up Node.js<\/h3>\n

To set up Node.js<\/strong> on windows you will need to download the installer from this<\/a> link. Click on the installer (also include the NPM package manager) for your platform and run the installer to start with the Node.js setup wizard. Follow the wizard steps and click on Finish when it is done. If everything goes well you can navigate to the command prompt to verify if the installation was successful as shown in Fig. 1.<\/p>\n

\n
\"API<\/a>
Fig. 1: Verifying node and npm installation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

2. API Documentation in Node.js Using Swagger<\/h2>\n

To set up the application, we will need to navigate to a path where our project will reside. For programming stuff, I am using Visual Studio Code<\/a> as my preferred IDE. You’re free to choose the IDE of your choice.<\/p>\n

2.1 Setting up the implementation<\/h3>\n

Let us write the different files which will be required for practical learning.<\/p>\n

2.1.1 Setting up dependencies<\/h4>\n

Navigate to the project directory and run npm init -y<\/code> to create a package.json<\/code> file. This file<\/a> holds the metadata relevant to the project and is used for managing the project dependencies, script, version, etc. Add the following code to the file wherein we will specify the required dependencies.<\/p>\n

package.json<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

{\n  \"name\": \"swagger\",\n  \"version\": \"1.0.0\",\n  \"description\": \"api documentation via swagger in nodejs application\",\n  \"main\": \"index.js\",\n  \"scripts\": {\n    \"dev\": \"nodemon index.js\",\n    \"test\": \"echo \\\"Error: no test specified\\\" && exit 1\"\n  },\n  \"keywords\": [\n    \"nodejs\",\n    \"expressjs\",\n    \"apidocumentation\",\n    \"swagger\"\n  ],\n  \"author\": \"javacodegeeks\",\n  \"license\": \"MIT\",\n  \"dependencies\": {\n    \"express\": \"^4.17.1\",\n    \"swagger-ui-express\": \"^4.2.0\"\n  },\n  \"devDependencies\": {\n    \"nodemon\": \"^2.0.15\"\n  }\n}\n<\/pre>\n
To download the dependencies navigate to the directory path containing the file and use the npm install<\/code> command. If everything goes well the dependencies will be loaded inside the node_modules<\/code> folder and you are good to go with the further steps.<\/p>\n
2.1.2 Creating swagger.json file<\/h4>\n
Creating a swagger.json file in the project\u2019s root directory that will be responsible to create the description of the entire api. For this tutorial, we will be exposing two points and the entity\/dto object which will be used in response for the client.<\/p>\n