Team collaboration

Multi-User collaboration & real-time sync

The real-time collaboration capability of the API documentation helps improve work efficiency for R&D teams and reduces the cost of repeated communication. The HTTP API and data model modules in the API management support multi-user online real-time collaboration. When others save data, the current page will automatically update changes made by other team members.

Applicable scenarios

In the following scenarios, the new API documentation will be automatically synced to team members without the need for manual global refresh:

Modifying and saving an API within the App
After periodically importing Swagger/OpenAPI files

Hightlights

Compared to other similar products, Apidog's multi-user collaboration features have the following significant advantages:

Real-time display of editor avatars, clearly showing who is editing the same API
Field-level collaboration, effectively avoiding content conflicts
If there is a conflict, you'll know during editing so you can resolve it beforehand and continue editing
Fine-grained conflict resolution, allowing preservation of partial content from both sides
API documentation has version history and recycle bin, supporting rollback to old versions, no need to worry about accidental modifications
Automatic import and the IDEA plugin are also part of real-time collaboration, data is automatically updated after import

Collaboration links

The "Collaboration Link" feature allows members of the team to quickly locate APIs and collaborate.

:::tip[]
Collaboration links are only used for sharing within the team, and non-team members can't open the collaboration link.
:::

Copy the collaboration link

Tap the "Copy Collaboration Link" button in the menu bar on the right side of the API to create a collaboration link. Send it to other team members, open the link, and you can directly locate the corresponding API in the web terminal.

Link URL Specification

Apidog links are composed of several key components:

Project ID
- Example: https://apidog.com/web/project/{Project-ID}
Specified Endpoint within the Project
- Example: https://apidog.com/web/project/{Project-ID}/apis/api-{API-ID}
Specified Tab within an Endpoint
- Example: https://apidog.com/web/project/{Project-ID}/apis/api-{API-ID}-run

This URL structure allows users to access specific projects, APIs, and views within the Apidog platform.

Embedding Parameter Values in URLs

When sharing Apidog endpoints, the default behavior is to only include the API specification without any parameter values. However, if you need to share the document with specific parameter or variable values included, you can embed them directly in the document URL.

Passing Parameter Values

There are two approaches to embedding parameter values in the URL - the simple mode and the complex mode. The simple mode is more straightforward and does not require URL encoding, but it does not support bracket characters. The complex mode supports all characters but requires encoding the parameter data.

Simple Mode

In the simple mode, you can use the format query[xxx]=yyy to assign the value yyy to the parameter named xxx.

Example:
https://apidog.com/web/project/406014/apis/api-10061199-run?query[aaa]=yyy&query[bbb]=yyy&path[aaa]=yyy&body[aaa]=yyy&header[aaa]=yyy&cookie[aaa]=yyy&environment[aaa]=yyy

Parameter Type	Parameter Value	Description
Query Parameters	`query[xxx]=yyy`
Path Parameters	`path[xxx]=yyy`
Body Parameters	`body[xxx]=yyy`	For form-data or x-www-urlencoded body types
Body Parameters	`body=yyy`	For other body types
Header Parameters	`header[xxx]=yyy`
Cookie Parameters	`cookie[xxx]=yyy`
Environment Variables	`environment[xxx]=yyy`	These will be saved to the default environment variables

Complex Mode

The complex mode allows for more advanced parameter embedding by encoding a JSON object. The value of the params parameter is obtained by calling encodeURIComponent on the following JSON data:

{
    "query": [
        ["id", "value1"], 
        ["id", "value2"], 
        ["key2", "value3"]
    ],
    "path": [
        ["key1", "value1"], 
        ["key2", "value2"]
    ],
    "body": [
        ["aaa", "value1"], 
        ["key2", "value2"]
    ],
    "header": [
        ["testHeader", "value1"], 
        ["key2", "value2"]
    ], 
    "cookie": [
        ["testCookie", "value1"], 
        ["key2", "value2"]
    ], 
    "environment": [
        ["key1", "value1"], 
        ["key2", "value2"]
    ]
}

The encoded URL would look like:

https://apidog.com/web/project/406014/apis/api-10061199-run?params={ "query"%3A{ "aaa"%3A"xxx"%2C "bbb"%3A"yyy" }%2C "body"%3A{ "aaa"%3A"xxx"%2C "bbb"%3A"yyy" }%2C "cookie"%3A{ "aaa"%3A"xxx"%2C "bbb"%3A"yyy" }%2C "environment"%3A{ "aaa"%3A"xxx"%2C "bbb"%3A"yyy" } }

Parameters Type	Parameters Value	Description
Query Parameters	`query`
Path Parameters	`path`
Body Parameters	`body`	If the body type is form-data or x-www-urlencoded, the value of body is JSON; otherwise the value of body is a string
Header Parameters	`header`
Cookie Parameters	`cookie`
Environment Variables	`environment`	These will be saved to the default environment variables

Passing Environment Variables

You can also use the URL to automatically set the user's "environment variables" by passing parameters. To do this, add URL parameters in the format environment[variable name]=variable value.

For example:

Change the opening method

Collaboration links support opening in both the client and the web side. If you want to locate the API through the client, go to Apidog Web, tap the "Settings"⚙, and turn on the "Always open collaboration links on desktop" option in "General".

:::tip[]
This option is only available on Apidog Web but not Apidog Client.
:::

The client will be automatically evoked when the collaboration link is accessed.

Last modified: 2 months ago