Sphinx vs Swagger UI

Overview

Sphinx

Stacks1.1K

Followers300

Votes32

Swagger UI

Stacks2.1K

Followers1.8K

Votes207

GitHub Stars28.3K

Forks9.2K

Sphinx vs Swagger UI: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Swagger UI and Sphinx are both popular documentation tools used for documenting APIs and other software projects. While they serve similar purposes, there are several key differences between them.

Integration Method: The first difference between Sphinx and Swagger UI is the way they integrate into the project. Sphinx is a documentation generator that uses reStructuredText or Markdown to create static documentation websites. It requires the project to be configured with Sphinx and generates documentation as part of the project build process. On the other hand, Swagger UI is a standalone JavaScript library that can be integrated into the project to provide interactive API documentation. It does not require any special build process or configuration changes.
Focus on Interactive Documentation: Swagger UI is primarily designed for creating interactive API documentation. It includes features like API exploration, parameter testing, and response visualization. It provides a live, sandbox-like environment for developers and allows them to try out different API endpoints and see the results in real-time. Sphinx, on the other hand, focuses more on providing static documentation with a structured layout and table of contents. It does not have the same level of interactivity as Swagger UI.
Automatic generation: Another key difference between the two tools is how the documentation is generated. Sphinx requires manual authoring of documentation using reStructuredText or Markdown, while Swagger UI can automatically generate documentation from API annotations or specifications. With Swagger UI, developers can annotate their API code or provide a Swagger/OpenAPI specification file, and the documentation is automatically generated based on these annotations or specifications. This can save a significant amount of time and effort compared to manually authoring documentation with Sphinx.
Extensibility and Customization: When it comes to extensibility and customization options, Sphinx offers more flexibility compared to Swagger UI. Sphinx provides a wide range of themes, plugins, and extensions that allow developers to customize the look and feel of the documentation website according to their needs. It also supports the integration of custom JavaScript, CSS, and HTML code. On the other hand, Swagger UI has a more limited set of customization options. While it allows some minor styling changes and configurations, it does not provide the same level of extensibility as Sphinx.
Support for Multiple Programming Languages: Sphinx is a tool that can be used to document projects in various programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, C++, and more. It has built-in support for documenting different types of projects, including APIs, libraries, and command-line tools. Swagger UI, on the other hand, is primarily focused on documenting RESTful APIs. While it can be used with projects in different programming languages, it is specifically designed for documenting the API endpoints and their associated operations.
Community and Ecosystem: In terms of community and ecosystem, both Sphinx and Swagger UI have active communities and widespread usage. However, Sphinx has been around for a longer time and has a larger user base. It has a rich ecosystem with a wide range of plugins, themes, and extensions developed by the community. Swagger UI, on the other hand, is a relatively newer tool but has gained popularity in recent years, especially in the API documentation space. It has a growing community and a number of resources available for developers.

In summary, Sphinx and Swagger UI differ in their integration method, focus on interactive documentation, generation process, extensibility and customization options, support for multiple programming languages, and the size and maturity of their respective communities and ecosystems.

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Advice on Sphinx, Swagger UI

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

Sphinx	Swagger UI
It lets you either batch index and search data stored in an SQL database, NoSQL storage, or just files quickly and easily — or index and search data on the fly, working with it pretty much as with a database server.	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
Output formats: HTML (including Windows HTML Help), LaTeX (for printable PDF versions), ePub, Texinfo, manual pages, plain text;Extensive cross-references: semantic markup and automatic links for functions, classes, citations, glossary terms and similar pieces of information;Hierarchical structure: easy definition of a document tree, with automatic links to siblings, parents and children;Automatic indices: general index as well as a language-specific module indices;Code handling: automatic highlighting using the Pygments highlighter;Extensions: automatic testing of code snippets, inclusion of docstrings from Python modules (API docs), and more	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 -	GitHub Stars 28.3K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 9.2K
Stacks 1.1K	Stacks 2.1K
Followers 300	Followers 1.8K
Votes 32	Votes 207
Pros & Cons
Pros 16 Fast 9 Simple deployment 6 Open source 1 Lots of extentions	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
Integrations
DevDocs Zapier Google Drive Google Chrome Dropbox	Node.js Git Microsoft Edge Safari Firefox Google Chrome

What are some alternatives to Sphinx, Swagger UI?

Postman

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

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.

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.

Docusaurus

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

Read the Docs

It hosts documentation, making it fully searchable and easy to find. You can import your docs using any major version control system, including Mercurial, Git, Subversion, and Bazaar.

Gelato.io

Gelato.io is a SaaS tool for creating API documentation and developer portals.

MkDocs

It builds completely static HTML sites that you can host on GitHub pages, Amazon S3, or anywhere else you choose. There's a stack of good looking themes available. The built-in dev-server allows you to preview your documentation as you're writing it. It will even auto-reload and refresh your browser whenever you save your changes.

MireDot

Generate REST documentation directly from your Java source code. This ensures always up-to-date and accurate documentation with minimal effort.

Gitbook

It is a modern documentation platform where teams can document everything from products, to APIs and internal knowledge-bases. It is a place to think and track ideas for you & your team.

Slate

Slate helps you create beautiful API documentation. Think of it as an intelligent, responsive documentation template for your API.

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