What Is OpenApi
What is OpenAPI?#
The OpenAPI Specification#
It is a specification and initiative to create machine readable files to describe, produce, consume and visualize RESTful web services.
Similar to what SOAP was done for years with it’s WSDL’s
Swagger provides a toolset to generate code (clients), test cases and documention.
The swagger specification is the ancestor of the OpenAPI specification
Swagger began development in early 2010. The OpenAPI Specification 3.0 was released in 2017
Essentially it makes client and server communication easier by making it easy for client and server developers to communicate and stick to a consistent standard.
What is open API (a.k.a Open “Space” API)#
The concept that an API should be composed primarily of open source modules, open to inspection and utilisation.
Benefits of OpenAPI#
- Backed by serious players (used by VMWare)
- Implementation is stable - less likely to be abandoned
- The Swagger background - standing on the shoulders of giants
- Language Agnostic
Swagger provides:
- Swagger Editor
- Swagger UI
- Swagger Codegen
- Swagger Parser
- Swagger Core
- Swagger Inspector
- SwaggerHub
Drawbacks#
- It is a shortcut
- It stops the developer from implementing a schema centric design