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OpenAPI Generator VS JSDoc

Compare OpenAPI Generator VS JSDoc and see what are their differences

OpenAPI Generator logo OpenAPI Generator

OpenAPI Generator enables you to generate documentation, clients, and servers from OpenAPI 2.0/3.x documents without hassle.

JSDoc logo JSDoc

An API documentation generator for JavaScript.
  • OpenAPI Generator Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-01
  • JSDoc Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-09-17

OpenAPI Generator features and specs

  • Wide Language Support
    OpenAPI Generator supports a broad range of programming languages, which allows developers to generate client libraries, server stubs, API documentation, and other code artifacts across various languages with ease.
  • Customizability
    The tool provides diverse customization options, including custom templates, configuration options, and overrides, enabling developers to tailor the generated code to meet specific project requirements.
  • Active Community
    OpenAPI Generator benefits from an active and engaged community that contributes to continuous improvements, bug fixes, and enhancements, ensuring the tool stays updated with evolving needs and standards.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    It comes with extensive documentation and a rich set of resources that help users understand how to leverage the tool effectively for their projects.
  • Time-Efficiency
    Automating the generation of API-related code significantly reduces development time and effort, allowing teams to focus on implementing business logic rather than boilerplate code.

Possible disadvantages of OpenAPI Generator

  • Complexity
    Although powerful, OpenAPI Generator can be complex to configure and use effectively, especially for newcomers unfamiliar with OpenAPI specifications and generation nuances.
  • Generated Code Quality
    While the tool generates a significant amount of code, the quality of the generated code might not always match hand-crafted solutions, potentially requiring manual refinements and adjustments.
  • Heavy Dependency
    Relying on a code generator creates a dependency on the tool, which may complicate upgrades over time, especially if custom templates or configurations are heavily used.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a learning curve associated with understanding the OpenAPI specification and how to effectively use the generator, particularly for complex APIs and integrations.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    Keeping up with new releases and ensuring compatibility with updated OpenAPI standards can introduce additional maintenance overhead for teams using the tool extensively.

JSDoc features and specs

  • Improved Documentation
    JSDoc generates detailed HTML documentation from comments, which improves the maintainability and readability of the codebase.
  • Enhanced Code Understanding
    By using JSDoc, other developers can easily understand the purpose and usage of functions, parameters, classes, etc.
  • Autocomplete and Type Checking
    When integrated with editors like Visual Studio Code, JSDoc comments can provide better autocomplete suggestions and can be used for TypeScript-like type checking.
  • Consistency
    JSDoc enforces consistent documentation across the codebase, ensuring that all parts of the code are equally documented.
  • Easy to Use
    It is relatively straightforward to incorporate JSDoc comments into existing JavaScript code with minimal effort.
  • Supports Multiple Formats
    JSDoc supports various formats and tags, making it versatile for different documentation needs.

Possible disadvantages of JSDoc

  • Learning Curve
    New users may need some time to fully understand and utilize all the features and tags available in JSDoc.
  • Manual Effort
    Writing JSDoc comments requires a manual effort from developers, which can be time-consuming especially for large codebases.
  • Not Enforced
    Without proper enforcement, developers might omit JSDoc comments, leading to inconsistent documentation.
  • Overhead
    Too many comments can make the codebase cluttered and harder to navigate in some cases.
  • Limited to JavaScript
    JSDoc is primarily designed for JavaScript, which can be limiting if the project includes multiple languages.

OpenAPI Generator videos

Introducing OpenAPI Generator

More videos:

  • Review - Scaling the Test Coverage of OpenAPI Generator for 30+ Programming Languages - William Cheng

JSDoc videos

ep1 - Documenting your javascript code like a pro, setting up JSdoc

More videos:

  • Review - How JSDoc Support was Added to TypeScript pt1 - TypeScript PR Reviews
  • Review - How JSDoc Support was Added to TypeScript pt2 - TypeScript PR Reviews

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to OpenAPI Generator and JSDoc)
Development
68 68%
32% 32
Documentation
25 25%
75% 75
Tool
100 100%
0% 0
Documentation As A Service & Tools

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare OpenAPI Generator and JSDoc

OpenAPI Generator Reviews

We have no reviews of OpenAPI Generator yet.
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JSDoc Reviews

20 Best Web Project Documentation Tools
It is to Sass what JSDoc is to JavaScript: a documentation system to build pretty and powerful docs in the blink of an eye.
Source: bashooka.com

Social recommendations and mentions

JSDoc might be a bit more popular than OpenAPI Generator. We know about 54 links to it since March 2021 and only 42 links to OpenAPI Generator. 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.

OpenAPI Generator mentions (42)

  • Using OpenAPI to Automate API Integration With Rapyd's Payment Gateway
    Manually writing API clients can be time-consuming and result in errors. This is where the OpenAPI specification and tools like OpenAPI Generator are helpful. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Define, Generate, and Implement: An API-First Approach with OpenAPI Generator and FlightPHP
    With your API defined, use the OpenAPI Generator to generate your code automatically. The PHP Flight generator — documented here — was provided by the author and, although its status is still marked as "experimental", it has been my production workhorse for over a year. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Next-generation web framework Teo, supports Node.js, Python and Rust
    You would use OpenAPI (formerly Swagger) [1] for that, which includes JSONSchema for data types but also adds specs for defining REST apis. There are plenty of generators and other tools that work with OpenAPI [2] [1] https://www.openapis.org/ [2] https://openapi-generator.tech/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • FastAPI Got Me an OpenAPI Spec Really... Fast
    As a result, the following specification can be used to generate clients in a number of different languages via OpenAPI Generator. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • How to Automatically Consume RESTful APIs in Your Frontend
    As an alternative, you can also use the official OpenAPI Generator, which is a more generic tool supporting a wide range of languages and frameworks. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

JSDoc mentions (54)

  • Documenting Web Components With Storybook
    One of the best tools available in Web Component development is the Custom Elements Manifest. It's a JSON representation of all your available components, covering all the attributes, methods, slots and events they support, powered by your JSDoc comments and TypeScript types. You can customize the manifest generation through plugins to support custom JSDoc comments, allowing you to power more pieces of your... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Just Say No to JavaScript
    I've seen several ways of annotating Javascript that IDEs seem to understand. They usually involve using comments before fields, classes, or functions. The most compliant one seems to be using [JSDoc](https://jsdoc.app/). JSDoc is mostly intended for generating documentation. However, the Typescript compiler can validate types (and can even interoperate with Typescript definitions), if you configure it as such. In... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • TypeScript (and JSDoc) vs JavaScript
    If you choose to use JSDoc instead of TypeScript, this only con that TypeScript has is gone, but a new one appears: JSDoc doesnt work very well with more complex types if you dont use classes to represent them. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • How to document your JavaScript package
    Thanks to JSDoc it's easy to write documentation that is coupled with your code and can be consumed by users in a variety of formats. When combined with a modern publishing flow like JSR, you can easily create comprehensive documentation for your package that not only fits within your workflow, but also integrates directly in the tools your users consume your package with. This blog post aims to cover best... - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Deep Dive: Google Apps Script - Testing APIs and Automating Sheets
    Note: For simplicity, I will omit the JavaScript documentation, but for a production grade code you may want to add the documentation (see jsdoc.app website for more). - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing OpenAPI Generator and JSDoc, you can also consider the following products

swagger.io - Swagger is an open source RESTapi Documentation Tool.

JSOLint - Format, verify, and lint JSON effortlessly with our powerful Validator Tool. Generate pretty JSON and validate online for free. Simplify your JSON tasks

API Transformer - API Transformer is a powerful solution that enables you to Transform API specifications to any format.

Doxygen - Generate documentation from source code

Swagger Codegen - Swagger Codegen can reduce the complexities that arise in your build process by providing client SDKs and server stubs for any API you want.

DocFX - A documentation generation tool for API reference and Markdown files!