Introducing Swagger with Nest

Swagger with Nest is a powerful tool for creating REST APIs that are easy to document and test. It is built on top of the Nest framework, one of the most popular and well-documented Node.js frameworks for building scalable and modular applications.

What is Swagger?

Swagger is an open-source software framework for designing, building, documenting, and consuming RESTful web services. It provides a set of tools for creating and testing APIs, and also allows developers to generate client SDKs for their APIs.

One of the key features of Swagger is its ability to generate interactive API documentation. With Swagger, developers can easily see all the endpoints and methods of an API, along with any parameters and their expected responses. This can be useful for testing, debugging, and even marketing an API to potential users.

Another advantage of Swagger is that it standardizes the documentation process, making it easier for teams of developers to collaborate and stay up to date with changes in the API. Swagger provides a consistent format for documentation, which can be easily customized to suit the needs of the API.

Why use Swagger with Nest?

Nest is a popular Node.js framework for building scalable and modular applications. It provides a powerful set of tools for building REST APIs, including built-in support for decorators, validation, and authentication.

By integrating Swagger with Nest, developers can leverage the power of both tools to easily design, test, and document their APIs. Swagger provides a consistent format for API documentation, while Nest provides the powerful tools needed to build scalable and modular APIs.

How to use Swagger with Nest

Using Swagger with Nest is easy. First, install the @nestjs/swagger package:

npm install --save @nestjs/swagger

Next, import the SwaggerModule and DocumentBuilder classes into your app.module.ts file:

import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { AppController } from './app.controller';
import { AppService } from './app.service';
import { SwaggerModule, DocumentBuilder } from '@nestjs/swagger';

@Module({
  imports: [
    SwaggerModule.forRoot({
      // options
    }),
  ],
  controllers: [AppController],
  providers: [AppService],
})
export class AppModule {}

Finally, add the @Api*() decorators to your Nest controllers and methods:

import { Controller, Get } from '@nestjs/common';
import { ApiTags, ApiOperation, ApiResponse } from '@nestjs/swagger';

@Controller()
@ApiTags('app')
export class AppController {
  constructor(private readonly appService: AppService) {}

  @Get()
  @ApiOperation({ summary: 'Get Hello World' })
  @ApiResponse({ status: 200, description: 'Success' })
  getHello(): string {
    return this.appService.getHello();
  }
}

Conclusion

Swagger with Nest is a powerful tool for building and documenting REST APIs. By leveraging the strengths of both Swagger and Nest, developers can easily create scalable and modular APIs that are easy to test and maintain. If you're building a Node.js application with Nest, be sure to give Swagger a try!