Apidox Live Interactive Documentation and Browsing for RESTful APIs, Apidox

For more information see Apidox apidox.net.

Apidox is a small, simple and powerfull PHP application that creates a documentation from API XML structure definitions or annotations in your source code.

With Apidox, your developers spend less time toggling, cutting, and pasting—and more time coding great apps even testing API in severals envirnoments, because Apidox lets you change the base URL on-fly.

APIDox gives you:

• XML Powered: Easy generation with a simple XML structure.
• Live API: Developers execute calls right from the API documentation.
• Documentation: One place for docs and testing.
• Easy Playing: Pre-populated testing values over APIs.
• Switch Servers: Change server environment before testing.
• Share API: Share it with your teammates or customers.

• Any Web Server/PHP 5.4+ with CURL enabled.
• A Web Browser ;)

Apidox automatically generate your API documentation on fly. Apidox has two ways to generate the API documentation: XML file and folders structure and inline Annotations on sorce code.

The API definition is automatically generated using a tree on /api/ directory. Each subdirectory on api/ folder is a ENDPOINT and each XML file in ENDPOINT directories is a METHOD of this ENDPOINT. The server supports full API versioning.

APIDox definition structure starts from API folder in apidox homefolder.

apidox/api
    ├── config.xml
    ├── errors.xml
    ├── index.xml    
    ├── endpoint1/
    │   ├── method_a.xml
    │   ├── method_b.xml
    │   ├── method_c.xml
    │   └── index.xml
    ├── endpoint2/
    │   ├── method_d.xml
    │   └── method_e.xml
    └── endpoint(n)/
        ├── method_f.xml
        ├── method_g.xml
        └── index.xml

This file defines basic API's information:

<!DOCTYPE config SYSTEM "config.dtd">
<config title="OMDb API The Open Movie Database" version="1.0" uri="www.omdbapi.com/" scheme="http://" />

config node may contain the following attributes:

• title: main title for the API.
• version: indicates the api version.
• uri: URI to test the API.
• scheme: scheme used on main server URI.

The index.xml files define the listing order of endpoints and methods. The root folder (of each version) may contain an index.xml file for endpoints, whereas each endpoint may contain (in its folder) an index.xml file for methods. The xml syntax is:

<!DOCTYPE index SYSTEM "index.dtd">
<index>
	<order name="search" />
	<order name="movie" />
</index>

An errors.xml file can be placed on each version root folder to define different error codes returned by API calls. These error codes can be categorized according to this file structure:

<!DOCTYPE errors SYSTEM "errors.dtd">
<errors>
	<category name="General">
		<error code="100" description="Something went wrong." />
		<error code="101" description="Movie not found!" />
	</category>
	<category name="Search">
		<error code="200" description="Series or season not found!" />
	</category>
</errors>

This is the most important file in api definition. Each method has its own XML file named with the name of the contained method. Every API method information is defined by a xml file with the following structure:

<!DOCTYPE method SYSTEM "method.dtd">
<method hidden="N" type="GET" uri="/" description="Obtain movie information, all content and images on the site are contributed and maintained by our users.">

	<param name="i" type="string" required="N" description="A valid IMDb ID (e.g. tt1285016)." />
	<param name="t" type="string" required="N" value="Game of Thrones" description="Movie title to search for." />
	<param name="type" type="enumerated" required="Y" value="series" description="Type of result to return.">
		<option value="movie" description="Movie data type." />
		<option value="series" description="Series data type." />
		<option value="episode" description="Episode data type." />
	</param>
	<param name="y" type="string" required="N" description="Year of release." />
	<param name="season" type="string" required="N" value="1" description="Season to return." />
	<param name="episode" type="string" required="N" value="1" description="Selected episode." />

	<errors>
		<error code="100" />
		<error code="200" />
	</errors>
	<example><![CDATA[
{

    "Title": "Interstellar",
    "Year": "2014",
    "Rated": "PG-13",
    "Released": "07 Nov 2014",
    "Runtime": "169 min",
    "Genre": "Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi",
    "Director": "Christopher Nolan",
    "Writer": "Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan",
    "Actors": "Ellen Burstyn, Matthew McConaughey, Mackenzie Foy, John Lithgow",
    "Plot": "A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity's survival.",
    "Language": "English",
    "Country": "USA, UK",
    "Awards": "Won 1 Oscar. Another 36 wins & 122 nominations.",
    "Poster": "http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjIxNTU4MzY4MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzM4ODI3MjE@._V1_SX300.jpg",
    "Metascore": "74",
    "imdbRating": "8.6",
    "imdbVotes": "845,024",
    "imdbID": "tt0816692",
    "Type": "movie",
    "Response": "True"

}	
	]]></example>
	<information><![CDATA[
Please note while both "i" and "t" are optional at least one argument is required.	
	]]></information>
</method>

method node may contain the following attributes:

• hidden (optional): hides the method (hidden="Y"). If an endpoint has no methods or all methods are hidden, then the endpoint doesn't appear in the API documentation.
• type (required): http method (type="GET" or type="POST").
• • uri (required): URI to test the method.
• description (required): synopsis.

method node may contain a set of param nodes. Each param node may contain the following attributes:

• name (required): the parameter's name.
• type (required): parameter data type represented as a string, e.g. "int". If type="enumerated", you can define a set of option nodes inside param node specifying the available options for the param. Each option may contain the following attributes:
  • value (required): the parameter's value.
  • description (required): description of the value for the parameter.
• required (required): indicates if the parameter is required (required="Y") for the method.
• value (optional): indicates the default value for the parameter.

errors links every error codes returned by the method on the errors node. This node may contains error nodes defining the error code. This error code has to be defined on errors.xml file (see documentation errors.xml).

example node contains a CDATA with the info to show, e.g. a static JSON sample. This is useful when someone doesn't have the information or ability to test the method, the user can have an idea about the response data.

information nodes contains a CDATA with some other information about the method. Here it is possible to use basic HTML fromatting to make the information looks clear for users.

TODO!

• Jose Antonio Lopez | github.com/jalopezsuarez
• Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez | github.com/segarci
• Eduardo Estrella Rosario | github.com/eduestrella

If you need any help with Apidox, you can reach out to us via the GitHub Issues page at: https://github.com/jalopezsuarez/apidox/issues

Keep track of development and community updates. Pull requests are welcome!

Code and documentation copyright 2015-2016 Apidox. Code released under the MIT license.