API Extractor VS Compodoc

API Extractor

API Extractor helps you write better TypeScript libraries: It analyzes your exported type signatures and (1) produces an API documentation website, (2) generates a .d.ts "rollup" file, and (3) creates an API report to facilitate PR reviews.

Compodoc

The missing documentation tool for your Angular application

Landing page //
2023-08-28

Landing page //
2021-11-02

API Extractor

Website: api-extractor.com
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Compodoc

Website: compodoc.app
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API Extractor features and specs

Comprehensive API Report
API Extractor generates detailed reports of the API surface, which helps developers understand the changes and current state of the API, ensuring all team members are on the same page.
API Stability
By using API Extractor, developers can enforce consistent API patterns and prevent breaking changes, contributing to a more stable and reliable API over time.
TypeScript Support
API Extractor is specifically designed for TypeScript, making it highly effective for projects that rely on TypeScript's typing and interfaces.
Markdown Documentation
The tool supports generation of markdown files for documentation, which can be easily integrated with existing documentation sites, enhancing accessibility and ease of use.
Version Tracking
It allows developers to track API changes across versions, helping to manage deprecation and communicate updates effectively to users.

Possible disadvantages of API Extractor

Learning Curve
API Extractor has a steep learning curve for new users, which can be challenging for teams without prior experience or knowledge of TypeScript toolchains.
TypeScript-Only
Since API Extractor is designed for TypeScript, it cannot be used directly with JavaScript projects, limiting its applicability to TypeScript-based projects only.
Configuration Complexity
Setting up API Extractor can be complex due to its configuration options, requiring time and effort to properly integrate it into a build process.
Performance Overhead
Running API Extractor can add significant overhead to the build process, impacting the overall build time, particularly in large projects.
Maintenance
Regular updates and maintenance of the API Extractor configuration are required to keep in synchronization with updates to the TypeScript language and changes in the codebase.

Compodoc features and specs

Comprehensive Documentation
Compodoc generates a full-featured documentation for Angular applications, including interactive diagrams for modules and relationships, which help developers easily understand the project structure.
Automatic Updates
With Compodoc, the documentation stays up-to-date as it automatically regenerates every time the codebase changes, reducing manual effort in maintaining documentation.
Markdown Integration
Developers can enhance documentation by incorporating custom markdown files, allowing for extra content and examples to be added to the generated documentation.
Easy Integration
Compodoc is easy to integrate into existing Angular projects and can be run as part of a continuous integration pipeline to ensure documentation is always current.
Search Functionality
It includes a powerful search feature that allows developers to quickly find specific information within the documentation, improving efficiency when navigating large codebases.
Support for Multiple Themes
Compodoc offers support for different themes, allowing developers to customize the look and feel of the documentation to match project needs or personal preference.

Possible disadvantages of Compodoc

Angular-Specific
Compodoc is tailored specifically for Angular applications, which limits its use case to developers working with the Angular framework and not others like React or Vue.
Potential Performance Issues
For very large Angular projects, Compodoc might become slow in generating documentation, particularly if the project has extensive comments and documentation files.
Dependency Management
As with any tool that requires integration, Compodoc can add additional complexity to a project's dependency management, requiring updates and compatibility checks over time.
Limited Customization
While it supports customization through themes and markdown, some users may find the extent of customization insufficient for certain complex or highly customized documentation needs.

API Extractor videos

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Compodoc videos

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NestJS Crash Course 05 | Documenting our REST API with Swagger and Compodoc

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to API Extractor and Compodoc)

API Extractor

Compodoc

Documentation

24 24%

Documentation

76% 76

Documentation As A Service & Tools

27 27%

Documentation As A Service & Tools

73% 73

Knowledge Base

26 26%

Knowledge Base

74% 74

Search Engine

100 100%

Search Engine

0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using API Extractor and Compodoc. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Compodoc should be more popular than API Extractor. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

API Extractor mentions (5)

Deploying TypeScript Type Definitions for Umbraco v14 Packages
Thankfully we can achieve this using third party tool, API Extractor. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
In-Depth guide for TypeScript Library
There are many more tools than those listed above. You can check out discussion and comparison of bundling tools. Unfortunately, choosing the right tool among them is a process that you'll have to experiment with and decide for your own project needs. For example, dts-bundle-generator, API Extractor, and rollup-plugin-dts do not support .d.ts.map files. Also, API Extractor and dts-bundle-generator do not have... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
I created a game engine using TypeScript. Please roast it.
I use https://api-extractor.com/ at work and really like it. The problem with it is that the spec it follows doesn’t 100% match VSCode’s behavior. This causes pain when using {@link} fields in descriptions. Typedoc looks fine too, I’ve never used it. Source: about 2 years ago
[AskJS] Managing private packages and published types in a monorepo
I've tried using https://api-extractor.com/ to rollup types but it has some edge cases where it fails. Source: about 2 years ago
Do you use JSdocs with TypeScript?
I use TSDoc extensively at work, along with API Extractor to generate externally-facing documentation from the TSDoc comments. It’s great. Since I’ve gotten used to good intellisense in VSCode I don’t really like working in code that doesn’t have TSDoc comments anymore. Source: over 3 years ago

Compodoc mentions (11)

🚀 Angular 18 + Cypress, Material + Transloco + Jest, EsLint + Docker + Prettier 🚀
✅ Angular 18 ✅ Angular Material ✅ Unit Testing with Jest ✅ End-to-End Testing with Cypress ✅ Internationalization with Transloco ✅ Auto documentation with Compodoc ✅ Provide component examples with Storybook ✅ Analyse your project with source-map-explorer ✅ Docker ✅ ESLint ✅ Prettier ✅ Commit Linting ✅ AuditJS Audit this application using Sonatype OSS Index ✅ Auto-generate a CHANGELOG with... - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
Documentation culture
Properly written code, there are documentation tool like this for Angular and others. Https://compodoc.app/. Source: over 2 years ago
Are there any Angular Modules, components, services relationship Mapping tools? Apart from Angular Augury.
Compodoc is a good tool for generating docs for an angular project. The documents generated also includes visual maps of dependencies. Source: over 2 years ago
I write more documents than code, but it comes with its struggles. Do you feel the same?
App documentation, here is compodoc (https://compodoc.app/) It is generated when the dev does a git commit and build in the pipeline. Source: over 2 years ago
🚀 Angular 14 + ESLint, Material + Transloco + Jest, TestCafe + Docker + Prettier 🚀
✅ Angular 14 ✅ Angular Material ✅ Unit Testing with Jest ✅ End-to-End Testing with TestCafé ✅ Internationalization with Transloco ✅ Auto documentation with Compodoc ✅ Analyse your project with source-map-explorer ✅ Docker ✅ ESLint ✅ Prettier ✅ Commit Linting. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago