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  5. Swagger Codegen vs Swagger UI

Swagger Codegen vs Swagger UI

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Swagger UI
Swagger UI
Stacks2.1K
Followers1.8K
Votes207
GitHub Stars28.3K
Forks9.2K
Swagger Codegen
Swagger Codegen
Stacks194
Followers163
Votes1
GitHub Stars17.6K
Forks6.0K

Swagger Codegen vs Swagger UI: What are the differences?

Introduction: In the world of API development, Swagger Codegen and Swagger UI are two popular tools that serve different purposes. Understanding the key differences between these tools can help developers choose the right tool for their specific needs.

  1. Generation vs. Visualization: Swagger Codegen is primarily used for generating server stubs and client SDKs from OpenAPI specifications, while Swagger UI is a tool for visualizing and interacting with APIs. Codegen focuses on automating the process of generating code based on API definitions, while UI provides a user-friendly interface for exploring and testing APIs.

  2. Development vs. Documentation: Swagger Codegen is more geared towards developers who need to quickly generate code to interact with APIs, saving time and effort in the development process. On the other hand, Swagger UI is commonly used for documenting APIs, making it easier for developers to understand and consume the available endpoints and parameters.

  3. Code Generation Options: Swagger Codegen offers a wide range of options for generating code in different programming languages and frameworks, allowing developers to customize the output based on their preferences. In contrast, Swagger UI is more focused on providing a consistent and interactive documentation experience for APIs, without the need for code generation.

  4. Server vs. Client Side: While Swagger Codegen can be used to generate both server-side code (server stubs) and client-side code (client SDKs), Swagger UI is mainly used on the client side for exploring and interacting with APIs. Codegen helps in setting up the backend infrastructure, while UI enhances the frontend experience for developers consuming the API.

  5. Automation vs. Visualization: Swagger Codegen emphasizes automation and efficiency in generating code based on API specifications, reducing manual work and potential errors in the development process. On the other hand, Swagger UI focuses on providing a visual representation of APIs, making it easier for developers to understand the API structure and parameters.

  6. Integration with Development Workflow: Swagger Codegen can be seamlessly integrated into the development workflow, allowing developers to automatically generate code based on changes in API specifications. In contrast, Swagger UI serves as a standalone tool for visualizing APIs and testing endpoints, without directly impacting the development process.

In Summary, understanding the key differences between Swagger Codegen and Swagger UI can help developers choose the right tool for their specific API development and documentation needs.

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Advice on Swagger UI, Swagger Codegen

StackShare
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
Swagger UI
Swagger Codegen
Swagger Codegen

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

It is an open source project which allows generation of API client libraries (SDK generation), server stubs, and documentation automatically from an OpenAPI Specification.

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
Generate client SDKs in over 40 different languages for end developers to easily integrate with your API; Always updated with the latest and greatest changes in the programming world; Remove tedious plumbing and configuration by generating boilerplate server code in over 20 different languages
Statistics
GitHub Stars
28.3K
GitHub Stars
17.6K
GitHub Forks
9.2K
GitHub Forks
6.0K
Stacks
2.1K
Stacks
194
Followers
1.8K
Followers
163
Votes
207
Votes
1
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
    Doesn't generate code snippets in different languages
  • 1
    Does not support hypermedia
Pros
  • 1
    SDK Generation
Integrations
Node.js
Node.js
Git
Git
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge
Safari
Safari
Firefox
Firefox
Google Chrome
Google Chrome
Objective-C
Objective-C
Swift
Swift
JavaScript
JavaScript
Linux
Linux
C++
C++
Perl
Perl
Java
Java
Golang
Golang
TypeScript
TypeScript
Ruby
Ruby

What are some alternatives to Swagger UI, Swagger Codegen?

Postman

Postman

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

Paw

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

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

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

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

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

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 REST Client

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

RAML

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

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

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