Skip to main content
Version: Laravel: 4.x (current)

General API info

You can add basics such as the title, introductory text, base URL and authentication information in your scribe.php config file.

Title​

To set the HTML <title> for the generated docs, use the title key. This title will also be used in the Postman collection and OpenAPI spec.

config/scribe.php
  'title' => 'The SideProject API',

If you leave title empty, Scribe will infer it from the value of config('app.name').

Description and introductory text​

You can add a description of your API using the description key. This description will be displayed in the docs' "Introduction" section, and in the Postman collection and OpenAPI spec.

The intro_text key is where you'll set the text shown in the "Introduction" section of your docs (after the description).

Markdown and HTML are also supported (see HTML helpers)

config/scribe.php
  'description' => 'Start (and never finish) side projects with this API.',
  'intro_text' => <<<INTRO
This documentation will provide all the information you need to work with our API.

<aside>
As you scroll, you'll see code examples for working with the API in different programming languages in the dark area to the right (or as part of the content on mobile).
You can switch the language used with the tabs at the top right (or from the nav menu at the top left on mobile).
</aside>
INTRO

Base URL​

note

The base URL is the URL displayed in your docs (so you can also call it the display url). It is separate from the URL used in the API tester (Try It Out), which you can set with the try_it_out.base_url config key.

By default, Scribe will use the current app URL (config('app.url')) as the display URL. However, you can customise this with the base_url key. For example, setting the base_url to this:

config/scribe.php
  'base_url' => 'http://sideprojects.knuckles.wtf',

...means that http://sideprojects.knuckles.wtf will be shown in the generated docs, even if you ran the generate command on localhost or in CI.

Maybe you've got a pretty logo for your API or company, and you'd like to display that on your documentation page. No worries! To add a logo, set the logo key in scribe.php to the path of the logo. Here are your options:

  • To point to an image on an external public URL, set logo to that URL.

    'logo' => 'http://your-company/logo.png',

  • To point to an image in your codebase:

    • if you're using laravel type docs, set logo to the public_path() of the image
    • if you're using static type, pass in the path to the image relative to the public/docs directory.

    For example, if your logo is in public/images:

    // static type
    'logo' => '../img/logo.png',
    // laravel type
    'logo' => 'img/logo.png',

  • If you don't want a logo, set logo to false.

Authentication​

You can add authentication information for your API using the auth section in scribe.php.

important

Scribe uses the auth information you specify for four things:

  • Generating an "Authentication" section in your docs
  • Adding auth information to the Postman collection and OpenAPI spec
  • Adding authentication parameters to your example requests for endpoints that use authentication
  • Adding the necessary auth parameters with the specified value to response calls for endpoints that use authentication

To configure auth, first you need to specify the auth.in and auth.name values for your API. They state the type of the auth parameter and its name, respectively. You also need to set auth.enabled to true. Some examples:

For an API which uses a bearer token in an Authorization header (for instance, Authorization: Bearer i0d7jow867tR09Zx).

config/scribe.php
return [
  'auth' => [
    // ...
    'enabled' => true,
    'in' => 'bearer',
    'name' => 'Authorization', // <-- This value is ignored, as the header name is always "Authorization"
  ],
];
tip

Scribe will automatically turn your auth information into text in the docs. To customise the generated text (or change to a different language), use Laravel's translation system. You can publish Scribe's default translations using php artisan vendor:publish --tag=scribe-translations.

There are some other settings that you have to set in the auth array. Here'sa full example and explanation:

config/scribe.php
return [
  // ...
  'auth' => [
    'enabled' => true,
    'default' => false,
    'in' => 'bearer',
    'name' => 'Authorization',
    'use_value' => env('SCRIBE_AUTH_KEY'),
    'placeholder' => '{ACCESS_TOKEN}',
    'extra_info' => 'You can retrieve your token by visiting your dashboard and clicking <b>Generate API token</b>.',
  ],
];
  • The default field describes the most common behaviour of your API. If most of your endpoints are authenticated, set this to true, then use @unauthenticated on the method docblock if you need to turn off auth for specific endpoints. If your endpoints are open by default, leave this as false, then use @authenticated on the method doc block to turn on auth for specific endpoints.
  • The use_value field is only used by Scribe for response calls. During generation, if an endpoint requires auth, Scribe will pass this value. It won't be included in the generated output or examples.
    tip

    If you need to dynamically generate the auth value for response calls, use the beforeResponseCall() method instead.

  • The placeholder is the opposite of use_value. It will be used only as a placeholder in the generated example requests.
  • The extra_info text is appended to the auth description Scribe generates. A good idea would be to tell your users where to get their auth key.

For more information, see the reference documentation on the auth section.