This is applicable only to API projects, which include Swagger by default. Web projects may add Swagger if they wanted, but it’s of minimal value.

If you’re building an API, proper documentation is just as important as performance. Unfortunately, maintaining docs is time consuming and they frequently become outdated.

In order to encourage full documentation of endpoints in APIs built with Grind, Grind has a Swagger provider that provides first class Swagger integration into Grind routes via a /swagger.json endpoint.

By building Swagger docs directly into routes, it reduces time and effort involved in creating and maintaining API documentation.

First, add the grind-swagger package via your preferred package manager:

yarn add grind-swagger

Next, you’ll need to add SwaggerProvider to your app providers in app/Boostrap.js:

import Grind from 'grind-framework'
import { SwaggerProvider } from 'grind-swagger'
 
const app = new Grind()
app.providers.push(SwaggerProvider)

Grind will only expose routes that are explicitly documented for Swagger.

You can document your routes for Swagger by passing a swagger object to third param when registering a route:

app.routes.get('states', 'index', {
  swagger: {
    description: 'Gets a list of states',
    parameters: [
      {
        name: 'limit',
        in: 'query',
        required: false,
        description: 'Limit the number of records',
        type: 'integer'
      }, {
        name: 'offset',
        in: 'query',
        required: false,
        description: 'Skip records before querying',
        type: 'integer'
      }
    ]
  }
})

The previous example uses the Swagger spec directly, which is a bit verbose and repetitive. Fortunately, Grind’s implementation of Swagger can infer quite a bit for you for you:

app.routes.get(':state/cities/:letter?', 'index', {
  swagger: {
    description: 'Gets a list of cities in a state',
    parameters: {
      state: 'State abbreviation',
      letter: 'Letter to filter cities by',
      limit: {
        description: 'Limit the number of records',
        type: 'integer'
      },
      offset: {
        description: 'Skip records before querying',
        type: 'integer'
      }
    }
  }
})

Based on this, the following can be inferred:

  • state is a required string parameter that appears in the URL
  • letter is an optional string parameter that may appear in the URL
  • limit and offset are optional query string parameters

  • letter is inferred as optional due to the route param’s trailing ?. state is a non-optional parameter, making it required.
  • If no type is provided, the following rules are used (in order):
    1. If the name starts with has_ or is_, the type is inferred as boolean
    2. If the name is id or ends with _id, the type is inferred as integer
    3. All other parameters types are inferred as string
  • limit and offset are inferred as optional query parameters because they don’t appear in the route path and this is a GET request.
  • For non-GET requests, parameters that don’t appear in the route path are inferred as required body parameters.
  • All rules that are explicitly defined will take precedence over any inferred rules.

You can help inference by ‘teaching’ it. This is useful for common keywords that have the same type, but will differ in their descriptions.

import Swagger from 'grind-swagger'
 
Swagger.learn('featured', { type: 'boolean') })
Swagger.learn('limit', { type: 'integer') })
Swagger.learn('offset', { type: 'integer') })
 
app.routes.get('states', 'index', {
  swagger: {
    description: 'Gets a list of states',
    parameters: {
      featured: 'Filter states by whether or not they’re featured',
      limit: 'Limit the number of states returned',
      offset: 'Number of states to skip before querying'
    }
  }
})
 
app.routes.get(':state/cities', 'index', {
  swagger: {
    description: 'Gets a list of cities in a state',
    parameters: {
      state: 'State abbreviation',
      featured: 'Filter cities by whether or not they’re featured',
      limit: 'Limit the number of cities returned',
      offset: 'Number of cities to skip before querying'
    }
  }
})

Without teaching, featured, limit and offset would have had their type inferred as string. By teaching, their type is correctly inferred as boolean, integer and integer respectively.

No one wants to clutter their code with a bunch of repetitive documentation. To avoid this, you can define shared parameters (and groups of parameters) to use within your routes:

import Swagger from 'grind-swagger'
 
// Register a single parameter 
Swagger.parameter('state', {
  name: 'state',
  in: 'url',
  required: true,
  description: 'State abbreviation',
  type: 'string'
})
 
// Register a group of parameters 
Swagger.parameters('pagination', [
  {
    name: 'limit',
    in: 'query',
    required: false,
    description: 'Limit the number of records',
    type: 'integer'
  }, {
    name: 'offset',
    in: 'query',
    required: false,
    description: 'Skip records before querying',
    type: 'integer'
  }
])
 
// Now you can reuse these quickly: 
app.routes.get(':state/cities/:letter?', 'index', {
  swagger: {
    description: 'Gets a list of cities in a state',
    use: [ 'state', 'pagination' ]
  }
})

Shared parameters can also take advantage of inference, allowing for far more concise and readable code:

import Swagger from 'grind-swagger'
 
Swagger.parameter('state', 'State abbreviation')
Swagger.parameters('pagination', {
  limit: {
    description: 'Limit the number of records',
    type: 'integer'
  },
  offset: {
    description: 'Skip records before querying',
    type: 'integer'
  }
})
 
app.routes.get(':state/cities/:letter?', 'index', {
  swagger: {
    description: 'Gets a list of cities in a state',
    use: [ 'state', 'pagination' ]
  }
})

Swagger.parameter and Swagger.learn have a bit in common in that they can share common documentation between multiple routes, however they differ in how they should be used:

  • Shared parameters should be used when you’re looking to include documentation for a parameter that is shared between different routes ‘as-is’.
  • Teaching should be used when you’re just trying to improve inferring and you’re still planning to describe your parameters.

Here’s an example of shared parameters working together with teaching:

import Swagger from 'grind-swagger'
 
// Documentation of what “featured” is will change 
// from route to route, so we just teach the type 
Swagger.learn('featured', { type: 'boolean' })
 
// Documentation for pagination is shared, so we 
// define the group of params and reuse as-is. 
Swagger.parameters('pagination', {
  limit: {
    description: 'Limit the number of records',
    type: 'integer'
  },
  offset: {
    description: 'Skip records before querying',
    type: 'integer'
  }
})
 
app.routes.get('states', 'index', {
  swagger: {
    description: 'Gets a list of states',
    use: [ 'pagination' ],
    parameters: {
      featured: 'Filter states by featured'
    }
  }
})
 
app.routes.get(':state/cities', 'index', {
  swagger: {
    description: 'Gets a list of cities in a state',
    use: [ 'pagination' ],
    parameters: {
      state: 'Abbreviation of a state'
      featured: 'Filter cities by featured'
    }
  }
})
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