Documenting REST APIs Workshop
Workshop description
Rather than present abstract concepts, this course contextualizes REST APIs with a more direct, hands-on approach. You learn about API documentation in the context of using a simple weather API to put a weather forecast on your site.
As you use the API, you learn about cURL, JSON, endpoints, parameters, data types, authentication, and other details associated with REST APIs. The point is that, rather than learning about these concepts independent of any context, you learn them by immersing yourself in a semi-real scenario.
After you use the API as a developer might, you then shift perspectives and become a technical writer tasked with documenting a new endpoint that has been added to the API.
As a technical writer, you tackle each element of a reference topic in REST API documentation:
- Resource descriptions
- Endpoint definitions and methods
- Parameters
- Sample requests
- Sample responses
- Error codes
- Code samples
By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a solid understanding of how to document REST APIs.
Prerequisites
No programming knowledge required. This courses focuses entirely on REST APIs, not platform APIs such as Java, C++, or .NET APIs.
Required software
- Text editor. (Sublime Text is a good option (both Mac and PC). On Windows, Notepad++ and Komodo Edit are also good. )
- Chrome browser. (Other browsers are fine too, but we’ll be using Chrome’s developer console.)
- Postman - REST Client (Chrome app)
- cURL. cURL is essential for making requests to endpoints from the command line.
Note that your computer needs to be able to connect to a wifi network.
Duration
The workshop lasts 3 hours.
About Tom Johnson
I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.
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