Quick-WebServer-Docs

After searching high and low for a simplistic, fast, reliable way to create JSDoc Style Markdown documentation I was disappointed by the myriad of solutions I found.

While there is absolutely no shortage of solutions, and granted many of them are bound to be fantastic, extensible, pluggable, and flexible. This wasn't what I needed. Sometimes all thats needed is a quick and dirty way to write down documentation for your JavaScript API endpoints. Without YAML in JSDoc Comments, or installing Java on your machine.

For this now there is Quick-WebServer-Docs.

Exactly how it sounds, it has some simple syntax that lives in JSDoc Style Comments in your JavaScript code, with a single CLI app to extract, parse, and create a Markdown file where you see fit.

If at any point some more complex declarations are giving you issues you can refer to the Regex statements explained to give insight into what exactly is expected.

Installation

npm install @confused-techie/quick-webserver-docs

Usage

To add this as an NPM script for your project:

npm install @confused-techie/quick-webserver-docs --save-dev

Then add the following into your package.json file.

"scripts": {
  "doc": "quick-webserver-docs -i ./input/file.js -o ./output/file.md"
}

And to create your new Documentation file:

npm run doc

Syntax

The syntax has recently been rewritten with many breaking changes.

• @web: Specifies that the following Block Comment is intended for Quick-WebServer-Docs.
• @path: The path this block comment documents.
• @desc: The description for the endpoint. Any special notes for the endpoint should be put here.
• @method: The Method for this endpoint.
• @todo: Any notes about what is left todo for this endpoint.
• @auth: A boolean (true|TRUE false|FALSE) to indicate if authentication is required.
• @param: This is the header to start defining a single parameter. Each new parameter needs a new @param header.
  • @location: The location of the parameter. Recommended values: query, header, path, cookie.
  • @Ptype: Since type is duplicated for different fields, a parameter type is Ptype. Being the type of data this is expected to receive. Such as string, integer and so on.
  • @default: The default value for this specific parameter, if there is none, this field can be left out entirely.
  • @name: The name of this parameter.
  • @valid: A list of valid values for this parameter.
  • @Pdesc: A description for this parameter.
  • @Pexample: A short one lined example for the parameter.
  • @required: A boolean (true|TRUE false|FALSE) to indicate if this parameter is required.
• @response: Header to define a single response. Each new response needs a new @response header.
  • @status: The status code returned by this response. A lookup of the numeric code will be done automatically to include the text representation as well.
  • @Rtype: The type of data returned by the response. eg. application/json
  • @Rdesc: A short description of the returned data.
  • @Rexample: A single line example of the data returned.

Examples

/**
* @web
* @desc Hello world
* @path /api/packages
* @method GET
* @auth true
* @param
*   @location query
*   @Ptype application/json
*   @name page
*   @valid 1,2,3,4
*   @required true
*   @Pdesc Hello world from a query parameter.
* @response
*   @status 418
*   @Rtype application/json
*   @Rdesc Hello world response
*   @Rexample {[ "name": "hello-world"]}
*/

Creates:

[GET] /api/packages

Hello world

Auth: true Parameters:

• page (required) [application/json] | Valid: [1,2,3,4]
  • Hello world from a query parameter.

Responses:

HTTP Status Code: 418 I'm a teapot

Type: [application/json]

Hello world response

{[ "name": "hello-world" ]}