Interactive API Documentation

Click on the API Hub for Design toolbar to view just the API documentation (or domain documentation) without the editor.

Copy the resulting documentation link and share it with your API consumers who need access to your API documentation.

API documentation pages follow the same naming format as API and domain pages, but with the -docs suffix added after /apis (or /domains) in the address:

https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis-docs/{owner}/{name}/{version}
                                 ^
https://app.swaggerhub.com/domains-docs/{owner}/{name}/{version}
                                    ^

If you omit the version number, the documentation page will show the default version:

https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis-docs/swagger-hub/registry-api

For OpenAPI files, interactive documentation lets you test API calls directly from the browser using the Try it out button. API Hub for Design will show the response headers and body, the request duration, and the cURL command that can be used to send the same request from the command line.

In order for “try it out” to work, your API definition must specify the host (in OpenAPI 2.0) or servers (in OpenAPI 3.0) so that API Hub for Design knows where to send requests:

swagger: '2.0'
host: myapi.com
schemes:
  - https
basePath: /v2

# or

openapi: 3.0.0
servers:
  - url: 'https://myapi.com/v2'

If you do not want to use a production server, or if you do not have one yet, you can use API Hub for Design’s mock server. The mock server will generate responses based on the response schemas and examples specified in your API definition.

API Hub for Design lets you send "try it out" requests directly from your browser to the target server, or proxy the requests through the API Hub for Design server. As a rule of thumb, use a browser to access local APIs, and a proxy for Internet-facing APIs.

You can change the routing mode at the bottom of the docs. The selected option is saved in the browser’s localStorage and applies to all APIs you test from this browser.

Routing requests via API Hub for Design proxy (default)

This is the preferred mode for Internet-facing APIs. "Try it out" requests from the browser are first sent to the API Hub for Design server, which forwards the requests to the target API server. Responses from the API server are sent back to the API Hub for Design server and then to your browser. This approach avoids browser restrictions for cross-domain HTTP requests.

Benefits:

• No need for CORS support on the API server.

• Supports user-defined parameters in the Cookie header.

Requirements:

• If you use API Hub for Design SaaS, the API server must be on the public Internet and allow connections from our IP addresses. API Hub for Design On-Premise supports both Internet-facing and local servers (except localhost, 127.*.*.* and 172.18.*.*).IP Addresses

Limitations:

• The request timeout is not configurable and is set to:

  • 30 seconds in API Hub for Design SaaS

  • 30 seconds in API Hub for Design On-Premise 1.21.0 and later

  • 10 seconds in earlier versions of API Hub for Design On-Premise

• When using API Hub for Design SaaS, "try it out" requests are proxied through the API Hub for Design cloud servers. If privacy or ownership of infrastructure is a concern, use routing via browser instead, or consider using API Hub for Design On-Premise hosted on your own infrastructure.

• In API Hub for Design On-Premise, requests cannot be sent to localhost, 127.*.*.* and 172.18.*.*.

Routing requests via browser

Supported in API Hub for Design SaaS and API Hub for Design On-Premise 1.18.7 and later.

In this mode, "try it out" requests are sent directly from the web page to the API server by using JavaScript.

Benefits:

• Supports both Internet-facing servers and local servers.

• Requests are sent directly from your browser to the API server, without going through any intermediate infrastructure.

• Requests are sent with browser cookies (but not with user-defined cookie parameters).

Requirements:

• The API server must support CORS and return the proper CORS headers in responses. For more information, see CORS Requirements for "Try It Out".

Limitations:

• Cannot send requests to HTTP (non-secure) servers from API Hub for Design SaaS and API Hub for Design On-Premise hosted on HTTPS, because the browsers block access to insecure content from secure web pages.

• Cannot send user-defined values in the Cookie header and other forbidden request headers.

• Response headers displayed after "try it out" are restricted by the Access-Control-Expose-Headers response header. If this header is missing, only simple response headers are displayed.

• The Set-Cookie response header is not displayed due to browser security restrictions.

TypeError: Failed to fetch

When routing requests via browser, this error happens if:

To avoid the issue, change the routing mode to Use proxy.

Some features of OpenAPI 3.0 are currently not supported in the Interactive Documentation. See here for known limitations.

For OpenAPI, API Hub for Design reduces the documentation load time by loading external references only when they are needed for rendering. See Lazy Loading to learn more.

The API and domain documentation supports permalinks to individual operations, tags, models, and domain components. To get a permalink to a specific item, expand that item, and then copy the full link from the browser address bar:

When a user navigates to a permalink, the page automatically scrolls to the target item and expands it. Try it yourself:

https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis-docs/swagger-hub/registry-api/1.0.47#/APIs/searchApisAndDomains

Permalinks have the following syntax:

Take a look at some examples below: