API: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:23, 15 December 2017

Revision as of 19:03, 4 January 2018

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API documentation describes what services an API offers and how to use those services, aiming to cover everything a client would need to know to use the API.

Documentation is crucial for the development and maintenance of applications that use the API.<ref name="DekelHerbsleb9">{{cite journal|last1=Dekel|first1=Uri|last2=Herbsleb|first2=James D.|title=Improving API Documentation Usability with Knowledge Pushing|journal=Institute for Software Research, School of Computer Science|date=May 2009|url=http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.446.4214&rep=rep1&type=pdf|accessdate=22 July 2016|publisher=Carnegie Mellon University}}</ref>

API documentation is traditionally found in documentation files, but can also be found in social media such as blogs, forums, and Q&A websites.<ref name="ParninTreude11">{{cite journal|last1=Parnin |first1=Chris |last2=Treude |first2=Cristoph |title=Measuring API Documentation on the Web |journal=Web2SE |date=May 2011 |url=httphttps://chrisparninwww.me/pdfxmedo.com/parninmeasuring-webapi.pdfapi-documentation-web/ |accessdate=22 July 2016 }}{{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Traditional documentation files are often presented via a documentation system, such as [[Javadoc]] or [[Pydoc]], that has a consistent appearance and structure.

However, the types of content included in the documentation differs from API to API.<ref name="MaalejRobillard12">{{cite journal|last1=Maalej|first1=Waleed|last2=Robillard|first2=Martin P.|title=Patterns of Knowledge in API Reference Documentation|journal=IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING|date=April 2012|url=https://mobis.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/TSE-2012-04-0081.R2_Maalej.pdf|accessdate=22 July 2016}}</ref>