Technical Writing: How To Write Api Software Documentation

A framework to follow when you write software documentation about an API as a technical writer

What you'll learn
What is API?
What is API documentation?
Which steps to follow to create API documentation?
How to use Swagger UI to write API documentation?
Requirements
No programming knowledge is required
Description
Are you a technical writer who must write API software documentation? Do you wonder what you need to prepare and deliver to have high-quality API documentation and do not know where to start? If yes, then this course is for you!At JPDocu School of Technical Writing, we believe that technical writing is and should stay a simple task. Simple like in "easy to do"! That's why we do our best to explain API and API documentation in simple terms, making it simple and easy for you to follow!API stands for Application Programming Interface. An interface is a software abstraction, which allows two software applications to communicate with each other seamlessly. There are two roles you need to consider when you write documentation about an API:The role of the developer who created the API. This developer needs to provide information about the way the API is supposed to work; what requests can it receive and what responses does is provide. The role of the developer who uses the API. This developer needs to read through the API documentation to understand the ways to connect to the API, the requests that he or she can send to the API, and the responses that the API shall return for these requests. In this course, you will learn:What is API and API documentation - explained in a way so that you can understand. No special programming knowledge is required! Which are the steps you need to follow to prepare and provide documentation about your API - a small framework to make sure you have steps to follow while preparing the API documentation.How to use Swagger UI to write and generate API documentation automatically. Try it now, and see how easy it is to write API documentation, once you know which are the basic steps to follow!

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 Slides Used in This Section

Lecture 3 What will you learn?

Lecture 4 What is an API?

Lecture 5 Benefits from using an API

Lecture 6 How does an API work?

Lecture 7 Who creates API and API documentation?

Lecture 8 What is an API documentation?

Lecture 9 Types of APIs

Lecture 10 Who reads API documentation?

Lecture 11 API documentation - examples

Lecture 12 API documentation framework

Lecture 13 API documentation - structure

Lecture 14 Step 1

Lecture 15 Step 2

Lecture 16 Step 3

Lecture 17 Testing an API call

Section 2: Writing API Documentation Using Swagger UI

Lecture 18 Writing API documentation using Swagger UI

Lecture 19 Slides Used in This Section

Lecture 20 Agenda

Lecture 21 What is Swagger?

Lecture 22 Benefits from using Swagger for writing API documentation

Lecture 23 Step 1: create new API

Lecture 24 Demo

Lecture 25 Step 2: create the API introductory page

Lecture 26 Step 2.1: edit the API info

Lecture 27 Sample introductory info

Lecture 28 Demo

Lecture 29 Step 2.2: edit the API contacts and links to further documentation

Lecture 30 Sample contacts and documentation link

Lecture 31 Step 3: define the tags of your API

Lecture 32 Step 4: define the API operations and paths

Lecture 33 Sample API operation and path

Lecture 34 Demo

Lecture 35 Step 5: document the API parameters

Lecture 36 Sample parameters

Lecture 37 Step 6: document the API responses

Lecture 38 Sample response

Lecture 39 Step 7: export the API documentation

Section 3: Bonus Section

Lecture 40 A Recap

Technical Writers,Information Developers,Software Developers,UX Writers