API Blueprint vs Swagger UI

Overview

Swagger UI

Stacks2.1K

Followers1.8K

Votes207

GitHub Stars28.3K

Forks9.2K

API Blueprint

Stacks99

Followers99

Votes2

GitHub Stars8.7K

Forks2.1K

API Blueprint vs Swagger UI: What are the differences?

Introduction:

In this markdown, we will discuss the key differences between API Blueprint and Swagger UI. Both API Blueprint and Swagger UI are popular tools used for designing, documenting, and testing APIs. However, they have several differences that set them apart from each other.

Syntax and Language: API Blueprint uses a Markdown-based syntax that is easy to read and write. It focuses on simplicity and readability, allowing developers to quickly define API endpoints, request formats, and response structures. On the other hand, Swagger UI uses a JSON or YAML-based syntax for defining API specifications. This syntax provides more flexibility and allows for more detailed descriptions and advanced features.
Tooling Ecosystem: API Blueprint has a smaller tooling ecosystem compared to Swagger UI. While API Blueprint offers a few command-line tools and editors for generating documentation, Swagger UI has a larger and more mature ecosystem with support for code generation, mock servers, testing frameworks, and other developer-friendly features.
Visualization and User Interface: Swagger UI provides a rich and interactive user interface that allows developers to visualize and interact with the API documentation. It automatically generates a user-friendly UI that makes it easy to explore and test API endpoints. In contrast, API Blueprint focuses more on generating static documentation that can be rendered in different formats like HTML or PDF, but it doesn't provide the same level of interactivity as Swagger UI.
Integration with Tools and Frameworks: Swagger UI is known for its seamless integration with popular development tools, frameworks, and languages. It has extensive support for languages like Java, JavaScript, Python, and frameworks like Express or Spring Boot. API Blueprint's integration options are more limited and may require additional effort to integrate with specific tools or frameworks.
Community and Adoption: Swagger UI has a larger and more vibrant community compared to API Blueprint. It is widely adopted by many organizations, developers, and API providers. This large community ensures continuous improvement, regular updates, and a wealth of community-driven resources like tutorials, plugins, and extensions. API Blueprint also has a community but is not as widely adopted as Swagger UI.
Learning Curve: API Blueprint has a relatively lower learning curve compared to Swagger UI. Its simple and intuitive syntax makes it easier for developers to quickly grasp and start using it. Swagger UI, on the other hand, has a steeper learning curve due to its more extensive features and complex syntax. It may require more time and effort for developers new to Swagger UI to become proficient.

In Summary, API Blueprint and Swagger UI differ in syntax and language, tooling ecosystem, visualization and user interface, integration with tools and frameworks, community and adoption, and learning curve. However, both tools are widely used and provide effective ways to design, document, and test APIs.

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Advice on Swagger UI, API Blueprint

StackShare

May 1, 2019

Needs advice

From a StackShare Community member: "I just started working for a start-up and we are in desperate need of better documentation for our API. Currently our API docs is in a README.md file. We are evaluating Postman and Swagger UI. Since there are many options and I was wondering what other StackSharers would recommend?"

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Detailed Comparison

Swagger UI	API Blueprint
Swagger UI is a dependency-free collection of HTML, Javascript, and CSS assets that dynamically generate beautiful documentation and sandbox from a Swagger-compliant API	API Blueprint is simple and accessible to everybody involved in the API lifecycle. Its syntax is concise yet expressive. With API Blueprint you can quickly design and prototype APIs to be created or document and test already deployed mission-critical APIs.
The UI works in any development environment, be it locally or in the web;Allow end developers to effortlessly interact and try out every single operation your API exposes for easy consumption;Quickly find and work with resources and endpoints with neatly categorized documentation;Cater to every possible scenario with Swagger UI working in all major browsers	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars 28.3K	GitHub Stars 8.7K
GitHub Forks 9.2K	GitHub Forks 2.1K
Stacks 2.1K	Stacks 99
Followers 1.8K	Followers 99
Votes 207	Votes 2
Pros & Cons
Pros 49 Open Source 34 Can execute api calls from the documentation 29 Free to use 19 Customizable 14 Easy to implement in .Net Cons 3 Need to learn YAML and RAML 2 Documentation doesn't look that good 1 You don’t actually get in-line error highlighting 1 Does not support hypermedia 1 Doesn't generate code snippets in different languages	Pros 1 Ecosystem of tools 1 Easy to use
Integrations
Node.js Git Microsoft Edge Safari Firefox Google Chrome	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Swagger UI, API Blueprint?

Postman

It is the only complete API development environment, used by nearly five million developers and more than 100,000 companies worldwide.

Paw

Paw is a full-featured and beautifully designed Mac app that makes interaction with REST services delightful. Either you are an API maker or consumer, Paw helps you build HTTP requests, inspect the server's response and even generate client code.

Apiary

It takes more than a simple HTML page to thrill your API users. The right tools take weeks of development. Weeks that apiary.io saves.

Karate DSL

Combines API test-automation, mocks and performance-testing into a single, unified framework. The BDD syntax popularized by Cucumber is language-neutral, and easy for even non-programmers. Besides powerful JSON & XML assertions, you can run tests in parallel for speed - which is critical for HTTP API testing.

ReadMe.io

It is an easy-to-use tool to help you build out documentation! Each documentation site that you publish is a project where there is space for documentation, interactive API reference guides, a changelog, and much more.

Appwrite

Appwrite's open-source platform lets you add Auth, DBs, Functions and Storage to your product and build any application at any scale, own your data, and use your preferred coding languages and tools.

Runscope

Keep tabs on all aspects of your API's performance with uptime monitoring, integration testing, logging and real-time monitoring.

Insomnia REST Client

Insomnia is a powerful REST API Client with cookie management, environment variables, code generation, and authentication for Mac, Window, and Linux.

RAML

RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML) makes it easy to manage the whole API lifecycle from design to sharing. It's concise - you only write what you need to define - and reusable. It is machine readable API design that is actually human friendly.

Docusaurus

Docusaurus is a project for easily building, deploying, and maintaining open source project websites.

Related Comparisons

API Blueprint vs Swagger UI: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Syntax and Language: API Blueprint uses a Markdown-based syntax that is easy to read and write. It focuses on simplicity and readability, allowing developers to quickly define API endpoints, request formats, and response structures. On the other hand, Swagger UI uses a JSON or YAML-based syntax for defining API specifications. This syntax provides more flexibility and allows for more detailed descriptions and advanced features.
Tooling Ecosystem: API Blueprint has a smaller tooling ecosystem compared to Swagger UI. While API Blueprint offers a few command-line tools and editors for generating documentation, Swagger UI has a larger and more mature ecosystem with support for code generation, mock servers, testing frameworks, and other developer-friendly features.
Visualization and User Interface: Swagger UI provides a rich and interactive user interface that allows developers to visualize and interact with the API documentation. It automatically generates a user-friendly UI that makes it easy to explore and test API endpoints. In contrast, API Blueprint focuses more on generating static documentation that can be rendered in different formats like HTML or PDF, but it doesn't provide the same level of interactivity as Swagger UI.
Integration with Tools and Frameworks: Swagger UI is known for its seamless integration with popular development tools, frameworks, and languages. It has extensive support for languages like Java, JavaScript, Python, and frameworks like Express or Spring Boot. API Blueprint's integration options are more limited and may require additional effort to integrate with specific tools or frameworks.
Community and Adoption: Swagger UI has a larger and more vibrant community compared to API Blueprint. It is widely adopted by many organizations, developers, and API providers. This large community ensures continuous improvement, regular updates, and a wealth of community-driven resources like tutorials, plugins, and extensions. API Blueprint also has a community but is not as widely adopted as Swagger UI.
Learning Curve: API Blueprint has a relatively lower learning curve compared to Swagger UI. Its simple and intuitive syntax makes it easier for developers to quickly grasp and start using it. Swagger UI, on the other hand, has a steeper learning curve due to its more extensive features and complex syntax. It may require more time and effort for developers new to Swagger UI to become proficient.

API Blueprint vs Swagger UI

Overview