Automatically create an API for WCF services

Question

If you have ever used the Flickr API , you will be familiar with their API. This is a terrific tool that allows you to view the documentation for each API method and the killer function that is the execution of this API method (with a form to fill out any request parameters). It even rises when you are logged in, and completes authentication on your behalf. Gowalla has a similar Explorer API , which is also very good.

Are there any tools for WCF that will automatically generate such an Explorer API, free or commercial?

We are currently using Fiddler to create JSON requests, but I would like to publish these service contracts and allow potential developers to play with them through a web browser.

I know the WCF Web HTTP Help page that I use (which is awesome), but it is part of the API that interests me in.

Answer 1

You might want to take a look at I / O Documents, an open-source interactive documentation system for RESTful web APIs that any API owner can use to deploy for their own documentation. It runs on Node.js and uses Redis as a data warehouse.

https://github.com/mashery/iodocs

Example: developer.klout.com/iodocs, developer.rottentomatoes.com/iodocs

It uses JSON-based files to define endpoints, methods, and API parameters. Based on these JSON files, a client interface is created that developers can use to learn and learn your API. API calls can be made directly from the documentation interface, creating formatted responses.

This is Open-sourced, so you can be sure of regular updates and improvements. In fact, last weekend Sendon's Brandon West (who uses I / O documents for documentation) created and opened the source interface for creating / editing JSON schema files for I / O documents. Therefore, you no longer need to manually create JSON files.

https://github.com/brandonmwest/iodoctor

Answer 2

Not quite what you were looking for, but .... For this purpose, WCF provides something called the WCF test client .

If you install Visual Studio, you get it. For example, for VS2008 installed in the usual place, you can find the WCF test client (WcfTestClient.exe) in the following location:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\

Answer 3

Take a look at Apigee: http://apigee.com/