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Swagger Codegen vs Swagger UI

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Swagger Codegen
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Swagger UI
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1.8K
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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.

Advice on Swagger Codegen and Swagger UI
StackShare Editors
| 5 upvotes · 366.6K views
Needs advice
on
PostmanPostmanApiaryApiary
and
Swagger UISwagger UI

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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Replies (3)
Jagdeep Singh
Tech Lead at ucreate.it · | 8 upvotes · 395K views
Recommends
on
PostmanPostman
at

I use Postman because of the ease of team-management, using workspaces and teams, runner, collections, environment variables, test-scripts (post execution), variable management (pre and post execution), folders (inside collections, for better management of APIs), newman, easy-ci-integration (and probably a few more things that I am not able to recall right now).

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Jadenko
| 2 upvotes · 382.9K views
Recommends
on
Swagger UISwagger UI
at

I use Swagger UI because it's an easy tool for end-consumers to visualize and test our APIs. It focuses on that ! And it's directly embedded and delivered with the APIs. Postman's built-in tools aren't bad, but their main focus isn't the documentation and also, they are hosted outside the project.

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Sadik Ay
Backend Engineer · | 2 upvotes · 365.9K views
Recommends
on
PostmanPostman

I recommend Postman because it's easy to use with history option. Also, it has very great features like runner, collections, test scripts runners, defining environment variables and simple exporting and importing data.

See more
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Pros of Swagger Codegen
Pros of Swagger UI
  • 1
    SDK Generation
  • 49
    Open Source
  • 34
    Can execute api calls from the documentation
  • 29
    Free to use
  • 19
    Customizable
  • 14
    Easy to implement in .Net
  • 13
    Mature, clean spec
  • 12
    API Visualization
  • 9
    Coverage
  • 6
    Scaffolding
  • 6
    Easy to use
  • 5
    Vibrant and active community
  • 4
    Elegant
  • 3
    Adopted by tm forum api
  • 2
    Clear for React
  • 1
    Api
  • 1
    Can deploy API to AWS API Gateway and AWS Lambda

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Cons of Swagger Codegen
Cons of Swagger UI
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 3
      Need to learn YAML and RAML
    • 2
      Documentation doesn't look that good
    • 1
      Doesn't generate code snippets in different languages
    • 1
      You don’t actually get in-line error highlighting
    • 1
      Does not support hypermedia

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is Swagger Codegen?

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

    What is Swagger UI?

    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

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

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    What companies use Swagger Codegen?
    What companies use Swagger UI?
    Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
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    What tools integrate with Swagger Codegen?
    What tools integrate with Swagger UI?

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    What are some alternatives to Swagger Codegen and Swagger UI?
    Postman
    It is the only complete API development environment, used by nearly five million developers and more than 100,000 companies worldwide.
    Postman
    It is the only complete API development environment, used by nearly five million developers and more than 100,000 companies worldwide.
    Stack Overflow
    Stack Overflow is a question and answer site for professional and enthusiast programmers. It's built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With your help, we're working together to build a library of detailed answers to every question about programming.
    Google Maps
    Create rich applications and stunning visualisations of your data, leveraging the comprehensiveness, accuracy, and usability of Google Maps and a modern web platform that scales as you grow.
    Elasticsearch
    Elasticsearch is a distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine capable of storing data and searching it in near real time. Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats and Logstash are the Elastic Stack (sometimes called the ELK Stack).
    See all alternatives

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