{"id":3005,"date":"2025-01-07T20:20:41","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T02:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/?p=3005"},"modified":"2025-01-07T20:20:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T02:20:42","slug":"exploring-apis-not-documentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/exploring-apis-not-documentation","title":{"rendered":"Exploring APIs, not Documentation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hi Everybody!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve been working crazy hard to smooth out the API Explorer feature in ReadMe.io. We believe the optimal way to learn about an API is to interact with it rather than read about it in a massive wall of text. It should be easy to see how an API works\u2014how the headers are sent, what a successful call looks like\u2014because using an API is the best way to understand it. So, we built the API Explorer to be incredibly easy for everybody: API providers and API consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two ways of using the API Explorer: you can manually describe your API using ReadMe\u2019s API Settings page, or you can automatically ingest your endpoints and generate maintenance free reference documentation using ReadMe Sync. For more information, check out the API Explorer Documentation site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, listen to Gabe interview Greg about the API Explorer and iterative documentation in this short audio clip:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/186892480&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;visual=true<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have loads of new features coming down the pipe for you, including SSL, OAuth, and a brand new template that blows the others away. If you\u2019re interested in testing any of these (we love feedback!), just shoot us a note at&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:support@readme.io\">support@readme.io<\/a>. We\u2019ll have you up and running in a jiffy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Everybody! We\u2019ve been working crazy hard to smooth out the API Explorer feature in ReadMe.io. We believe the optimal way to learn about an API is to interact with it rather than read about it in a massive wall of text. It should be easy to see how an API works\u2014how the headers are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[55],"class_list":["post-3005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-api-tips"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Design APIs Developers Love to Explore<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to create intuitive APIs that reduce the reliance on documentation and improve the developer experience.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/exploring-apis-not-documentation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Design APIs Developers Love to Explore\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn how to create intuitive APIs that reduce the reliance on documentation and improve the developer experience.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/exploring-apis-not-documentation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ReadMe: Resource Library\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-08T02:20:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-08T02:20:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gregory Koberger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Miche Nickolaisen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/exploring-apis-not-documentation\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/exploring-apis-not-documentation\",\"name\":\"Design APIs Developers Love to Explore\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-08T02:20:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-08T02:20:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/770bcc036178743133b5ba515195981b\"},\"description\":\"Learn how to create intuitive APIs that reduce the reliance on documentation and improve the developer experience.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/exploring-apis-not-documentation#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/exploring-apis-not-documentation\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/exploring-apis-not-documentation#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Exploring APIs, not Documentation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/\",\"name\":\"ReadMe: Resource Library\",\"description\":\"Making API documentation better for everyone\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/770bcc036178743133b5ba515195981b\",\"name\":\"Miche Nickolaisen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/a24e32f88df84934c107cef6fa8d3223\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_7151-scaled-e1718387764646.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/readme.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_7151-scaled-e1718387764646.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Miche Nickolaisen\"},\"description\":\"An Austin resident since 2009, Miche grew up in rural southwestern Missouri. 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After attending RIT he made the move to San Francisco where he worked for Mozilla and freelanced for a bunch of startups. He founded ReadMe after building docs sites for most of them. 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