Express API Documentation Generator

Generate interactive API documentation for your Express.js applications.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• API Documentation Format
• Generating Documentation
• Example Usage
• Contributing
• License

Installation

You can install this package using npm:

npm install express-api-doc-generator

API Documentation Format

Your API documentation should follow a specific format using JSDoc comments:

@route: Specifies the HTTP method and route path.
@description: Provides a description of the API endpoint.
@param: Describes parameters required by the route.
@returns: Explains what the route returns.
@throws: Specifies any errors or exceptions that might occur.

Demo express endpoints

/**
 * @route GET /api/users
 * @description Get a list of users.
 * @returns {Array<User>} List of user objects.
 * @throws {Error} If there's an error while fetching users.
 */
app.get("/api/users", (req, res) => {
  //
});

/**
 * @route POST /api/users
 * @description Create a new user.
 * @param {User} user - The user object to create.
 * @returns {User} The created user.
 * @throws {Error} If there's an error while creating the user.
 */
app.post("/api/users", (req, res) => {
  //
});

Generating Documentation

To generate documentation, use the express-api-doc-generator package. It will extract JSDoc comments from your Express application and create a PDF document with the API documentation.

Example Usage

Here's a minimal example of how to use this package:

const generateDocumentation = require("express-api-doc-generator");
const outputPath = "api-documentation.pdf";

generateDocumentation("./app.js", outputPath)
  .then(() => {
    console.log("API documentation generated successfully.");
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error("Error generating documentation:", error);
  });

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to improve this package or report issues, please open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.