Improving access to API documentation for developers with Docs-as-Code-as-a-service

Web Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) provide the connective tissue that developers need to integrate Internet services and create “software-as-a-service” (SaaS) applications. To learn an API's usage, developers often turn to their web browsers to access documentation and try out APIs. However, traditional approaches to documentation present obstacles that can hamper API comprehension and developer productivity. To overcome these obstacles, practitioners are adopting a new approach called Docs-as-Code, in which documents are published with many of the same tools and practices used to deploy source code. In this paper, we present Dev Center, a system based in part on the Docs-as-Code framework and designed to provide ubiquitous access to a broad set of API documentation resources. Preliminary findings suggest that Dev Center could potentially improve API comprehension and developer productivity, while Docs-as-Code could benefit related research efforts. Copyright © 2018 by Association for Information Science and Technology