Creating a service

Appear will automatically document your APIs from your network traffic, however, if you wish to start spec first, or fill a gap with an existing spec then follow our simple guide below.

Automatic discovery/creation

Once you've deployed Appear's package and snippet into your environment(s), your end-user's interaction with your service and subsequent network activity will generate your documentation for you.

These services will be created for you and be visible in your dashboard for you to explore and read.

When no services are detected or your branch/environment is empty, you are able to add a service manually.

If no services are found, either due to no package installation and integration or an empty branch or environment, you are able to manually upload OpenAPI specs.

Creating a service manually

Another method for Appear to document your APIs is to create a service and upload the associated json or yaml OpenAPI v3 - 3.1 or Swagger v2 file.

An empty service state with a guide on what information can be added.

To do this, log into your Appear account

1. On your dashboard page, click the Create Service button in the top right

2. In the presented panel, enter a name for the service

3. The slug will be automatically created, but can be edited, this will be used for the associated URL

4. Drag and drop, or use your system's file explorer to upload the associated API specification

5. Click Create Service and Appear will generate your documentation

When you add a new service you're able to upload an OpenAPI spec.

The spec upload facility allows you to upload multiple spec files associated to the one specification. It does not support the upload of multiple individual specs at once.

You may need to refresh the page if the service doesn't appear in your service list after a successful upload.

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If you have any queries or require support with the above instructions, please get in touch with us.