The Importance of Keeping Your API Documentation Up-to-Date
API documentation is the set of technical content deliverables that teaches developers, clients, and end-users how to integrate with the product. But one thing many people forget is that API docs are different from the user manuals that come with other products. They are not meant to be released as one-offs right out of the box. The API is destined to evolve, widen in scale, and improve upon its original functions. The API documentation should too, in order to properly reflect all of its changes.
That’s why it’s important to keep accurate, complete, and up-to-date docs that tally all the changes the API has undergone. If you haven’t sought better ways to document your product, such as by publishing hosted API documentation, here’s why you should do so right away.
The Rationale behind Keeping Up-to-Date API Docs
A good way to emphasize the value of API documentation is to look at how different it is from the reference guides of other products. Say you buy a basic kitchen appliance like a coffee maker, which comes with its own user manual. There are few structural components that will need to be updated or switched out of the machine in order for you to keep using it. Hence, you’re likely to use that coffee maker the same way every day for as long as it lasts you. The instructions for use, which come from the user manual, will not change as time goes by. But this is definitely not the case for a complex software product like an API.
An API goes through updates, gains new features, and evolves into new versions of itself in relatively short timeframes. Some important changes can occur to the system in as little as a few months. The product your client signed up to use a year ago won’t work exactly the same way that it does today. And a sure way to frustrate your clients, your partner developers, and your API’s end users is to fail to keep your API docs up-to-date.
If what’s written on the manual doesn’t accurately reflect what the product is like, and what changes it’s undergone, several problems can occur. There could be hiccups in the API’s implementation, or developers come could across errors they weren’t prepared to deal with. All this could result in a big decrease in satisfaction for your product.
How to Improve Your Practice of Documenting Your API
Now that you know just how crucial it is to maintain up-to-date API documentation, here are some tips to help you do so.
Upgrade to a Better API Documentation Method or Platform
Your current method of documenting your API may not be enough. Maybe it’s hard to organize all the info on it, or maybe the docs are formatted in a way that’s neither easy to read nor easy to navigate through. Either way, troubles like these make it hard to keep your API docs consistent.
Consider switching from static API docs to interactive API docs. Level up from keeping your API docs on a word processor to hosting them on a web platform. The latter will help you organize your info and may even automate certain updates for you. Ultimately, this could save you a lot of time and make your documentation team more efficient—all on top of getting better-looking API docs.
Make API Improvements More Consistent with Your API Docs
If you commit to updating your docs, it will also be easier to take the following steps towards the API’s overall improvement:
- Crafting a more responsive schedule for API updates
- Cultivating a “see-it, fix-it” approach to any mistakes and addressing them in real-time
- Encouraging better and more uniform formatting practices
Eventually, making regular improvements to the API will become a habit for everyone. This is just one of the ways that API documentation can boost other phases of the API’s development.
Use the API Docs to Standardize Your Workflow and Foster Accountability in the Team
Updating your docs religiously can also help you set a certain standard of doing work among members of your API team. You can use the docs to make sure everyone is on the same page about how the API is doing and what’s happened to it within a given period. From the docs, team members will be able to see what changes have occurred in the workflow and then respond accordingly.
Well-kept and up-to-date API docs will also make it easier to hold point persons accountable for their work. They set a good precedent for team members to be conscientious about updates and to communicate their progress to all stakeholders involved. So whether it’s to be transparent to fellow designers, outside developers, or clients, updated API docs encourage that mindset.
Remember to Address Deprecated Features
Deprecated features are features of your API that you no longer recommend for use. In the rush to note your API’s upgraded features, you may have forgotten to cite the ones that are more obsolete.
Don’t overlook your deprecated features, and list them down in your docs alongside the upgrades. Developers may have qualms about incongruities in your API, but they may be able to diagnose such problems by knowing what the phased-out features are. This will contribute to their developer experience and their overall impression of your API.
Final Thoughts
It’s true that keeping API docs isn’t the easiest of jobs. It is highly technical work that’s done on a highly valued aspect of API development. Luckily, API documentation technologies have evolved, and a lot of people are taking the job of documenting APIs more seriously than ever.
There are many resources available to you so that you can keep your API docs up to the times. Update your API docs regularly—and improve the quality of your workflow—so that you can maintain a high level of trust in your product.
