apideck-express v5.0

Lightweight, beautiful, zero-config API playground and explorer for Express.js APIs.

ApiDeck automatically inspects your Express routing stack to generate a stunning UI allowing you to browse, test, and document your API without writing manual OpenAPI YAML files.

✨ What's New in v5.0

• 💻 Multi-Language Code Generator: Generate native code snippets in JavaScript (fetch, axios), PHP (Guzzle, cURL), and C# (HttpClient).
• 📜 Request History Log: View past executions with status badges (200 OK, 404), latency metrics, and 1-click execution replay.
• ⚡ Performance Load Tester: Built-in Stress Benchmarker (10, 50, 100 requests) with average latency, P95/P99 calculations, and visual latency chart.
• 📦 Postman v2.1 & OpenAPI Import/Export: 1-click Postman v2.1 Collection export + external OpenAPI / Postman spec importer.
• 🗺️ Interactive Node Visualizer: SVG canvas graph mapping API routes, feature groups, and schemas.
• 🔤 Dual Sorting: Sort collections and endpoints alphabetically (A-Z / Z-A).
• 💾 Full State Retention: Preserves parameter inputs, body text, and response results when switching endpoints.

Installation

npm install apideck-express

Quick Start

Register the middleware by passing your Express app instance:

const express = require('express');
const apideck = require('apideck-express');

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

// ... define your routes ...
app.get('/api/users', (req, res) => {
    res.json([{ id: 1, name: 'John Doe' }]);
});

// Enable ApiDeck
app.use('/apideck', apideck({
    app: app, // Pass your express instance!
    title: 'My Express API',
    version: '1.0.0',
    description: 'Explore my Node.js Express API dynamically'
}));

app.listen(3000, () => {
    console.log('Server is running on http://localhost:3000');
    console.log('Explore your API at http://localhost:3000/apideck');
});

Now open http://localhost:3000/apideck in your browser!

Advanced: Dynamic Schema Reflection (Auto-Example Generation)

Unlike strongly typed languages, standard Node.js routing doesn't provide types for request/response bodies natively. However, ApiDeck includes a powerful introspection engine.

To have ApiDeck auto-generate Example JSON payloads and schema properties in the UI, attach a Class or Object to the .schema (or .model, .DTO) property of your route handler:

Using a Class (DTO)

class CreateUserDTO {
    constructor() {
        this.name = "John Doe";
        this.email = "[email protected]";
        this.isActive = true;
        this.age = 30;
    }
}

const createUser = (req, res) => {
    res.status(201).json({ success: true });
};

// Attach the class to the handler
createUser.schema = CreateUserDTO; 

app.post('/api/users', createUser);

Using a Raw Object

const updateUser = (req, res) => res.json({ success: true });

updateUser.schema = {
    properties: {
        role: { type: 'string' },
        permissions: { type: 'array' }
    },
    example: {
        role: "admin",
        permissions: ["read", "write"]
    }
};

app.patch('/api/users/:id', updateUser);

License

MIT License