Document RESTful services by combining hand-written documentation with auto-generated snippets produced with Spring MVC Test.

Introduction

The aim of Spring REST Docs is to help you to produce documentation for your RESTful services that is accurate and readable.

Writing high-quality documentation is difficult. One way to ease that difficulty is to use tools that are well-suited to the job. To this end, Spring REST Docs uses Asciidoctor by default. Asciidoctor processes plain text and produces HTML, styled and layed out to suit your needs. If you prefer, Spring REST Docs can also be configured to use Markdown.

Spring REST Docs makes use of snippets produced by tests written with Spring MVC Test or REST Assured 2 and 3. This test-driven approach helps to guarantee the accuracy of your service’s documentation. If a snippet is incorrect the test that produces it will fail.

Documenting a RESTful service is largely about describing its resources. Two key parts of each resource’s description are the details of the HTTP requests that it consumes and the HTTP responses that it produces. Spring REST Docs allows you to work with these resources and the HTTP requests and responses, shielding your documentation from the inner-details of your service’s implementation. This separation helps you to document your service’s API rather than its implementation. It also frees you to evolve the implementation without having to rework the documentation.

Getting started

This section describes how to get started with Spring REST Docs.

Sample applications

If you want to jump straight in, a number of sample applications are available:

Table 1. MockMvc
Sample Build system Description

Spring Data REST

Maven

Demonstrates the creation of a getting started guide and an API guide for a service implemented using Spring Data REST.

Spring HATEOAS

Gradle

Demonstrates the creation of a getting started guide and an API guide for a service implemented using Spring HATEOAS.

Table 2. REST Assured
Sample Build system Description

Grails

Gradle

Demonstrates the use of Spring REST docs with Grails and Spock.

REST Assured

Gradle

Demonstrates the use of Spring REST Docs with REST Assured.

Table 3. Advanced
Sample Build system Description

Slate

Gradle

Demonstrates the use of Spring REST Docs with Markdown and Slate.

TestNG

Gradle

Demonstrates the use of Spring REST Docs with TestNG.

Requirements

Spring REST Docs has the following minimum requirements:

  • Java 7

  • Spring Framework 4.3

Additionally, the spring-restdocs-restassured module has the following minimum requirements:

  • REST Assured 2.8 (com.jayway.restassured:restassured) or REST Assured 3.0 (io.rest-assured:rest-assured)

Build configuration

The first step in using Spring REST Docs is to configure your project’s build. The Spring HATEOAS and Spring Data REST samples contain a build.gradle and pom.xml respectively that you may wish to use as a reference. The key parts of the configuration are described below.

Maven
<dependency> (1)
	<groupId>org.springframework.restdocs</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-restdocs-mockmvc</artifactId>
	<version>1.2.4.RELEASE</version>
	<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

<build>
	<plugins>
		<plugin> (2)
			<groupId>org.asciidoctor</groupId>
			<artifactId>asciidoctor-maven-plugin</artifactId>
			<version>1.5.3</version>
			<executions>
				<execution>
					<id>generate-docs</id>
					<phase>prepare-package</phase> (3)
					<goals>
						<goal>process-asciidoc</goal>
					</goals>
					<configuration>
						<backend>html</backend>
						<doctype>book</doctype>
					</configuration>
				</execution>
			</executions>
			<dependencies>
				<dependency> (4)
					<groupId>org.springframework.restdocs</groupId>
					<artifactId>spring-restdocs-asciidoctor</artifactId>
					<version>1.2.4.RELEASE</version>
				</dependency>
			</dependencies>
		</plugin>
	</plugins>
</build>
1 Add a dependency on spring-restdocs-mockmvc in the test scope. If you want to use REST Assured rather than MockMvc, add a dependency on spring-restdocs-restassured and com.jayway.restassured:restassured (REST Assured 2) or io.rest-assured:rest-assured (REST Assured 3) instead.
2 Add the Asciidoctor plugin.
3 Using prepare-package allows the documentation to be included in the package.
4 Add spring-restdocs-asciidoctor as a dependency of the Asciidoctor plugin. This will automatically configure the snippets attribute for use in your .adoc files to point to target/generated-snippets. It will also allow you to use the operation block macro.
Gradle
plugins { (1)
	id "org.asciidoctor.convert" version "1.5.3"
}

dependencies {
	asciidoctor 'org.springframework.restdocs:spring-restdocs-asciidoctor:1.2.4.RELEASE' (2)
	testCompile 'org.springframework.restdocs:spring-restdocs-mockmvc:1.2.4.RELEASE' (3)
}

ext { (4)
	snippetsDir = file('build/generated-snippets')
}

test { (5)
	outputs.dir snippetsDir
}

asciidoctor { (6)
	inputs.dir snippetsDir (7)
	dependsOn test (8)
}
1 Apply the Asciidoctor plugin.
2 Add a dependency on spring-restdocs-asciidoctor in the asciidoctor configuration. This will automatically configure the snippets attribute for use in your .adoc files to point to build/generated-snippets. It will also allow you to use the operation block macro.
3 Add a dependency on spring-restdocs-mockmvc in the testCompile configuration. If you want to use REST Assured rather than MockMvc, add a dependency on spring-restdocs-restassured and com.jayway.restassured:restassured (REST Assured 2) or io.rest-assured:rest-assured (REST Assured 3) instead.
4 Configure a property to define the output location for generated snippets.
5 Configure the test task to add the snippets directory as an output.
6 Configure the asciidoctor task
7 Configure the snippets directory as an input.
8 Make the task depend on the test task so that the tests are run before the documentation is created.

Packaging the documentation

You may want to package the generated documentation in your project’s jar file, for example to have it served as static content by Spring Boot. To do so, configure your project’s build so that:

  1. The documentation is generated before the jar is built

  2. The generated documentation is included in the jar

Maven
<plugin> (1)
	<groupId>org.asciidoctor</groupId>
	<artifactId>asciidoctor-maven-plugin</artifactId>
	<!-- … -->
</plugin>
<plugin> (2)
	<artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
	<version>2.7</version>
	<executions>
		<execution>
			<id>copy-resources</id>
			<phase>prepare-package</phase>
			<goals>
				<goal>copy-resources</goal>
			</goals>
			<configuration> (3)
				<outputDirectory>
					${project.build.outputDirectory}/static/docs
				</outputDirectory>
				<resources>
					<resource>
						<directory>
							${project.build.directory}/generated-docs
						</directory>
					</resource>
				</resources>
			</configuration>
		</execution>
	</executions>
</plugin>
1 The existing declaration for the Asciidoctor plugin.
2 The resource plugin must be declared after the Asciidoctor plugin as they are bound to the same phase (prepare-package) and the resource plugin must run after the Asciidoctor plugin to ensure that the documentation is generated before it’s copied.
3 Copy the generated documentation into the build output’s static/docs directory, from where it will be included in the jar file.
Gradle
jar {
	dependsOn asciidoctor (1)
	from ("${asciidoctor.outputDir}/html5") { (2)
		into 'static/docs'
	}
}
1 Ensure that the documentation has been generated before the jar is built.
2 Copy the generated documentation into the jar’s static/docs directory.

Generating documentation snippets

Spring REST Docs uses Spring’s MVC Test framework or REST Assured to make requests to the service that you are documenting. It then produces documentation snippets for the request and the resulting response.

Setting up your tests

Exactly how you setup your tests depends on the test framework that you’re using. Spring REST Docs provides first-class support for JUnit. Other frameworks, such as TestNG, are also supported although slightly more setup is required.

Setting up your JUnit tests

When using JUnit, the first step in generating documentation snippets is to declare a public JUnitRestDocumentation field that’s annotated as a JUnit @Rule.

@Rule
public JUnitRestDocumentation restDocumentation = new JUnitRestDocumentation();

By default, the JUnitRestDocumentation rule is automatically configured with an output directory based on your project’s build tool:

Build tool Output directory

Maven

target/generated-snippets

Gradle

build/generated-snippets

The default can be overridden by providing an output directory when creating the JUnitRestDocumentation instance:

@Rule
public JUnitRestDocumentation restDocumentation = new JUnitRestDocumentation("custom");

Next, provide an @Before method to configure MockMvc or REST Assured:

MockMvc
private MockMvc mockMvc;

@Autowired
private WebApplicationContext context;

@Before
public void setUp() {
	this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(this.context)
			.apply(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation)) (1)
			.build();
}
1 The MockMvc instance is configured using a MockMvcRestDocumentationConfigurer. An instance of this class can be obtained from the static documentationConfiguration() method on org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.MockMvcRestDocumentation.
REST Assured
private RequestSpecification spec;

@Before
public void setUp() {
	this.spec = new RequestSpecBuilder().addFilter(
			documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation)) (1)
			.build();
}
1 REST Assured is configured by adding a RestAssuredRestDocumentationConfigurer as a Filter. An instance of this class can be obtained from the static documentationConfiguration() method on RestAssuredRestDocumentation in the org.springframework.restdocs.restassured or org.springframework.restdocs.restassured3 package depending on the version of REST Assured that you are using.

The configurer applies sensible defaults and also provides an API for customizing the configuration. Refer to the configuration section for more information.

Setting up your tests without JUnit

The configuration when JUnit is not being used is largely similar to when it is being used. This section describes the key differences. The TestNG sample also illustrates the approach.

The first difference is that ManualRestDocumentation should be used in place of JUnitRestDocumentation and there’s no need for the @Rule annotation:

private ManualRestDocumentation restDocumentation = new ManualRestDocumentation();

Secondly, ManualRestDocumentation.beforeTest(Class, String) must be called before each test. This can be done as part of the method that is configuring MockMVC or REST Assured:

MockMvc
private MockMvc mockMvc;

@Autowired
private WebApplicationContext context;

@BeforeMethod
public void setUp(Method method) {
	this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(this.context)
			.apply(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation))
			.build();
	this.restDocumentation.beforeTest(getClass(), method.getName());
}
REST Assured
private RequestSpecification spec;

@BeforeMethod
public void setUp(Method method) {
	this.spec = new RequestSpecBuilder().addFilter(
			documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation))
			.build();
	this.restDocumentation.beforeTest(getClass(), method.getName());
}

Lastly, ManualRestDocumentation.afterTest must be called after each test. For example, with TestNG:

@AfterMethod
public void tearDown() {
	this.restDocumentation.afterTest();
}

Invoking the RESTful service

Now that the testing framework has been configured, it can be used to invoke the RESTful service and document the request and response. For example:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)) (1)
	.andExpect(status().isOk()) (2)
	.andDo(document("index")); (3)
1 Invoke the root (/) of the service and indicate that an application/json response is required.
2 Assert that the service produced the expected response.
3 Document the call to the service, writing the snippets into a directory named index that will be located beneath the configured output directory. The snippets are written by a RestDocumentationResultHandler. An instance of this class can be obtained from the static document method on org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.MockMvcRestDocumentation.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec) (1)
		.accept("application/json") (2)
		.filter(document("index")) (3)
		.when().get("/") (4)
		.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200)); (5)
1 Apply the specification that was initialised in the @Before method.
2 Indicate that an application/json response is required.
3 Document the call to the service, writing the snippets into a directory named index that will be located beneath the configured output directory. The snippets are written by a RestDocumentationFilter. An instance of this class can be obtained from the static document method on RestAssuredRestDocumentation in the org.springframework.restdocs.restassured or org.springframework.restdocs.restassured3 package depending on the version of REST Assured that you are using.
4 Invoke the root (/) of the service.
5 Assert that the service produce the expected response.

By default, six snippets are written:

  • <output-directory>/index/curl-request.adoc

  • <output-directory>/index/http-request.adoc

  • <output-directory>/index/http-response.adoc

  • <output-directory>/index/httpie-request.adoc

  • <output-directory>/index/request-body.adoc

  • <output-directory>/index/response-body.adoc

Refer to Documenting your API for more information about these and other snippets that can be produced by Spring REST Docs.

Using the snippets

Before using the generated snippets, a .adoc source file must be created. You can name the file whatever you like as long as it has a .adoc suffix. The result HTML file will have the same name but with a .html suffix. The default location of the source files and the resulting HTML files depends on whether you are using Maven or Gradle:

Build tool Source files Generated files

Maven

src/main/asciidoc/*.adoc

target/generated-docs/*.html

Gradle

src/docs/asciidoc/*.adoc

build/asciidoc/html5/*.html

The generated snippets can then be included in the manually created Asciidoctor file from above using the include macro. The snippets attribute that is automatically set by spring-restdocs-asciidoctor configured in the build configuration can be used to reference the snippets output directory. For example:

include::{snippets}/index/curl-request.adoc[]

Documenting your API

This section provides more details about using Spring REST Docs to document your API.

Hypermedia

Spring REST Docs provides support for documenting the links in a Hypermedia-based API:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
	.andExpect(status().isOk())
	.andDo(document("index", links( (1)
			linkWithRel("alpha").description("Link to the alpha resource"), (2)
			linkWithRel("bravo").description("Link to the bravo resource")))); (3)
1 Configure Spring REST docs to produce a snippet describing the response’s links. Uses the static links method on org.springframework.restdocs.hypermedia.HypermediaDocumentation.
2 Expect a link whose rel is alpha. Uses the static linkWithRel method on org.springframework.restdocs.hypermedia.HypermediaDocumentation.
3 Expect a link whose rel is bravo.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec)
	.accept("application/json")
	.filter(document("index", links( (1)
			linkWithRel("alpha").description("Link to the alpha resource"), (2)
			linkWithRel("bravo").description("Link to the bravo resource")))) (3)
	.get("/").then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Configure Spring REST docs to produce a snippet describing the response’s links. Uses the static links method on org.springframework.restdocs.hypermedia.HypermediaDocumentation.
2 Expect a link whose rel is alpha. Uses the static linkWithRel method on org.springframework.restdocs.hypermedia.HypermediaDocumentation.
3 Expect a link whose rel is bravo.

The result is a snippet named links.adoc that contains a table describing the resource’s links.

If a link in the response has a title, the description can be omitted from its descriptor and the title will be used. If you omit the description and the link does not have a title a failure will occur.

When documenting links, the test will fail if an undocumented link is found in the response. Similarly, the test will also fail if a documented link is not found in the response and the link has not been marked as optional.

If you do not want to document a link, you can mark it as ignored. This will prevent it from appearing in the generated snippet while avoiding the failure described above.

Links can also be documented in a relaxed mode where any undocumented links will not cause a test failure. To do so, use the relaxedLinks method on org.springframework.restdocs.hypermedia.HypermediaDocumentation. This can be useful when documenting a particular scenario where you only want to focus on a subset of the links.

Two link formats are understood by default:

  • Atom – links are expected to be in an array named links. Used by default when the content type of the response is compatible with application/json.

  • HAL – links are expected to be in a map named _links. Used by default when the content type of the response is compatible with application/hal+json.

If you are using Atom or HAL-format links but with a different content type you can provide one of the built-in LinkExtractor implementations to links. For example:

MockMvc
.andDo(document("index", links(halLinks(), (1)
		linkWithRel("alpha").description("Link to the alpha resource"),
		linkWithRel("bravo").description("Link to the bravo resource"))));
1 Indicate that the links are in HAL format. Uses the static halLinks method on org.springframework.restdocs.hypermedia.HypermediaDocumentation.
REST Assured
.filter(document("index", links(halLinks(), (1)
		linkWithRel("alpha").description("Link to the alpha resource"),
		linkWithRel("bravo").description("Link to the bravo resource"))))
1 Indicate that the links are in HAL format. Uses the static halLinks method on org.springframework.restdocs.hypermedia.HypermediaDocumentation.

If your API represents its links in a format other than Atom or HAL, you can provide your own implementation of the LinkExtractor interface to extract the links from the response.

Rather than documenting links that are common to every response, such as self and curies when using HAL, you may want to document them once in an overview section and then ignore them in the rest of your API’s documentation. To do so, you can build on the support for reusing snippets to add link descriptors to a snippet that’s preconfigured to ignore certain links. For example:

public static LinksSnippet links(LinkDescriptor... descriptors) {
	return HypermediaDocumentation.links(linkWithRel("self").ignored().optional(),
			linkWithRel("curies").ignored()).and(descriptors);
}

Request and response payloads

In addition to the hypermedia-specific support described above, support for general documentation of request and response payloads is also provided.

By default, Spring REST Docs will automatically generate snippets for the body of the request and the body of the response. These snippets are named request-body.adoc and response-body.adoc respectively.

Request and response fields

To provide more detailed documentation of a request or response payload, support for documenting the payload’s fields is provided.

Consider the following payload:

{
	"contact": {
		"name": "Jane Doe",
		"email": "[email protected]"
	}
}

Its fields can be documented like this:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/user/5").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
		.andExpect(status().isOk())
		.andDo(document("index",
				responseFields( (1)
						fieldWithPath("contact.email")
								.description("The user's email address"), (2)
				fieldWithPath("contact.name").description("The user's name")))); (3)
1 Configure Spring REST docs to produce a snippet describing the fields in the response payload. To document a request requestFields can be used. Both are static methods on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation.
2 Expect a field with the path contact.email. Uses the static fieldWithPath method on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation.
3 Expect a field with the path contact.name.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec).accept("application/json")
	.filter(document("user", responseFields( (1)
			fieldWithPath("contact.name").description("The user's name"), (2)
			fieldWithPath("contact.email").description("The user's email address")))) (3)
	.when().get("/user/5")
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Configure Spring REST docs to produce a snippet describing the fields in the response payload. To document a request requestFields can be used. Both are static methods on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation.
2 Expect a field with the path contact.email. Uses the static fieldWithPath method on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation.
3 Expect a field with the path contact.name.

The result is a snippet that contains a table describing the fields. For requests this snippet is named request-fields.adoc. For responses this snippet is named response-fields.adoc.

When documenting fields, the test will fail if an undocumented field is found in the payload. Similarly, the test will also fail if a documented field is not found in the payload and the field has not been marked as optional.

If you don’t want to provide detailed documentation for all of the fields, an entire subsection of a payload can be documented. For example:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/user/5").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
		.andExpect(status().isOk())
		.andDo(document("index",
				responseFields( (1)
						subsectionWithPath("contact")
								.description("The user's contact details")))); (1)
1 Document the subsection with the path contact. contact.email and contact.name are now seen has having also been documented. Uses the static subsectionWithPath method on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec).accept("application/json")
	.filter(document("user", responseFields(
			subsectionWithPath("contact").description("The user's contact details")))) (1)
	.when().get("/user/5")
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Document the subsection with the path contact. contact.email and contact.name are now seen has having also been documented. Uses the static subsectionWithPath method on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation.

subsectionWithPath can be useful for providing a high-level overview of a particular section of a payload. Separate, more detailed documentation for a subsection can then be produced.

If you do not want to document a field or subsection at all, you can mark it as ignored. This will prevent it from appearing in the generated snippet while avoiding the failure described above.

Fields can also be documented in a relaxed mode where any undocumented fields will not cause a test failure. To do so, use the relaxedRequestFields and relaxedResponseFields methods on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation. This can be useful when documenting a particular scenario where you only want to focus on a subset of the payload.

By default, Spring REST Docs will assume that the payload you are documenting is JSON. If you want to document an XML payload the content type of the request or response must be compatible with application/xml.
Fields in JSON payloads
JSON field paths

JSON field paths use either dot notation or bracket notation. Dot notation uses '.' to separate each key in the path; a.b, for example. Bracket notation wraps each key in square brackets and single quotes; ['a']['b'], for example. In either case, [] is used to identify an array. Dot notation is more concise, but using bracket notation enables the use of . within a key name; ['a.b'], for example. The two different notations can be used in the same path; a['b'], for example.

With this JSON payload:

{
	"a":{
		"b":[
			{
				"c":"one"
			},
			{
				"c":"two"
			},
			{
				"d":"three"
			}
		],
		"e.dot" : "four"
	}
}

The following paths are all present:

Path Value

a

An object containing b

a.b

An array containing three objects

['a']['b']

An array containing three objects

a['b']

An array containing three objects

['a'].b

An array containing three objects

a.b[]

An array containing three objects

a.b[].c

An array containing the strings one and two

a.b[].d

The string three

a['e.dot']

The string four

['a']['e.dot']

The string four

A payload that uses an array at its root can also be documented. The path [] will refer to the entire array. You can then use bracket or dot notation to identify fields within the array’s entries. For example, [].id corresponds to the id field of every object found in the following array:

[
	{
		"id":1
	},
	{
		"id":2
	}
]

You can use * as a wildcard to match fields with different names. For example, users.*.role could be used to document the role of every user in the following JSON:

{
	"users":{
		"ab12cd34":{
			"role": "Administrator"
		},
		"12ab34cd":{
			"role": "Guest"
		}
	}
}
JSON field types

When a field is documented, Spring REST Docs will attempt to determine its type by examining the payload. Seven different types are supported:

Type Description

array

The value of each occurrence of the field is an array

boolean

The value of each occurrence of the field is a boolean (true or false)

object

The value of each occurrence of the field is an object

number

The value of each occurrence of the field is a number

null

The value of each occurrence of the field is null

string

The value of each occurrence of the field is a string

varies

The field occurs multiple times in the payload with a variety of different types

The type can also be set explicitly using the type(Object) method on FieldDescriptor. The result of the supplied Object's toString method will be used in the documentation. Typically, one of the values enumerated by JsonFieldType will be used:

MockMvc
.andDo(document("index",
		responseFields(
				fieldWithPath("contact.email").type(JsonFieldType.STRING) (1)
						.description("The user's email address"))));
1 Set the field’s type to string.
REST Assured
.filter(document("user", responseFields(
		fieldWithPath("contact.email")
				.type(JsonFieldType.STRING) (1)
				.description("The user's email address"))))
1 Set the field’s type to string.
XML payloads
XML field paths

XML field paths are described using XPath. / is used to descend into a child node.

XML field types

When documenting an XML payload, you must provide a type for the field using the type(Object) method on FieldDescriptor. The result of the supplied type’s toString method will be used in the documentation.

Reusing field descriptors

In addition to the general support for reusing snippets, the request and response snippets allow additional descriptors to be configured with a path prefix. This allows the descriptors for a repeated portion of a request or response payload to be created once and then reused.

Consider an endpoint that returns a book:

{
	"title": "Pride and Prejudice",
	"author": "Jane Austen"
}

The paths for title and author are simply title and author respectively.

Now consider an endpoint that returns an array of books:

[{
	"title": "Pride and Prejudice",
	"author": "Jane Austen"
},
{
	"title": "To Kill a Mockingbird",
	"author": "Harper Lee"
}]

The paths for title and author are [].title and [].author respectively. The only difference between the single book and the array of books is that the fields' paths now have a []. prefix.

The descriptors that document a book can be created:

FieldDescriptor[] book = new FieldDescriptor[] {
		fieldWithPath("title").description("Title of the book"),
		fieldWithPath("author").description("Author of the book") };

They can then be used to document a single book:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/books/1").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
		.andExpect(status().isOk()).andDo(document("book", responseFields(book))); (1)
1 Document title and author using existing descriptors
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec).accept("application/json")
	.filter(document("book", responseFields(book))) (1)
	.when().get("/books/1")
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Document title and author using existing descriptors

And an array of books:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/books").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
		.andExpect(status().isOk())
		.andDo(document("book",
				responseFields(
						fieldWithPath("[]").description("An array of books")) (1)
								.andWithPrefix("[].", book))); (2)
1 Document the array
2 Document [].title and [].author using the existing descriptors prefixed with [].
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec).accept("application/json")
	.filter(document("books", responseFields(
		fieldWithPath("[]").description("An array of books")) (1)
		.andWithPrefix("[].", book))) (2)
	.when().get("/books")
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Document the array
2 Document [].title and [].author using the existing descriptors prefixed with [].

Documenting a subsection of a request or response payload

If a payload is large or structurally complex, it can be useful to document individual sections of the payload. REST Docs allows you to do so by extracting a subsection of the payload and then documenting it.

Documenting a subsection of a request or response body

Consider the following JSON response body:

{
	"weather": {
		"wind": {
			"speed": 15.3,
			"direction": 287.0
		},
		"temperature": {
			"high": 21.2,
			"low": 14.8
		}
	}
}

A snippet that documents the temperature object can be produces as follows:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/locations/1").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
		.andExpect(status().isOk()).andDo(document("location",
				responseBody(beneathPath("weather.temperature")))); (1)
1 Produce a snippet containing a subsection of the response body. Uses the static responseBody and beneathPath methods on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation. To produce a snippet for the request body, requestBody can be used in place of responseBody.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec).accept("application/json")
	.filter(document("location", responseBody(beneathPath("weather.temperature")))) (1)
	.when().get("/locations/1")
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Produce a snippet containing a subsection of the response body. Uses the static responseBody and beneathPath methods on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation. To produce a snippet for the request body, requestBody can be used in place of responseBody.

The result is a snippet with the following contents:

{
	"temperature": {
		"high": 21.2,
		"low": 14.8
	}
}

To make the snippet’s name distinct, an identifier for the subsection is included. By default, this identifier is beneath-${path}. For example, the code above will result in a snippet named response-body-beneath-weather.temperature.adoc. The identifier can be customized using the withSubsectionId(String) method:

responseBody(beneathPath("weather.temperature").withSubsectionId("temp"));

This example will result in a snippet named request-body-temp.adoc.

Documenting the fields of a subsection of a request or response

As well as documenting a subsection of a request or response body, it’s also possible to document the fields in a particular subsection. A snippet that documents the fields of the temperature object (high and low) can be produced as follows:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/locations/1").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
		.andExpect(status().isOk())
		.andDo(document("location",
				responseFields(beneathPath("weather.temperature"), (1)
						fieldWithPath("high").description(
								"The forecast high in degrees celcius"), (2)
				fieldWithPath("low")
						.description("The forecast low in degrees celcius"))));
1 Produce a snippet describing the fields in the subsection of the response payload beneath the path weather.temperature. Uses the static beneathPath method on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation.
2 Document the high and low fields.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec).accept("application/json")
	.filter(document("location", responseFields(beneathPath("weather.temperature"), (1)
		fieldWithPath("high").description("The forecast high in degrees celcius"), (2)
		fieldWithPath("low").description("The forecast low in degrees celcius"))))
	.when().get("/locations/1")
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Produce a snippet describing the fields in the subsection of the response payload beneath the path weather.temperature. Uses the static beneathPath method on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation.
2 Document the high and low fields.

The result is a snippet that contains a table describing the high and low fields of weather.temperature. To make the snippet’s name distinct, an identifier for the subsection is included. By default, this identifier is beneath-${path}. For example, the code above will result in a snippet named response-fields-beneath-weather.temperature.adoc.

Request parameters

A request’s parameters can be documented using requestParameters. Request parameters can be included in a GET request’s query string. For example:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/users?page=2&per_page=100")) (1)
	.andExpect(status().isOk())
	.andDo(document("users", requestParameters( (2)
			parameterWithName("page").description("The page to retrieve"), (3)
			parameterWithName("per_page").description("Entries per page") (4)
	)));
1 Perform a GET request with two parameters, page and per_page in the query string.
2 Configure Spring REST Docs to produce a snippet describing the request’s parameters. Uses the static requestParameters method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
3 Document the page parameter. Uses the static parameterWithName method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
4 Document the per_page parameter.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec)
	.filter(document("users", requestParameters( (1)
			parameterWithName("page").description("The page to retrieve"), (2)
			parameterWithName("per_page").description("Entries per page")))) (3)
	.when().get("/users?page=2&per_page=100") (4)
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Configure Spring REST Docs to produce a snippet describing the request’s parameters. Uses the static requestParameters method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
2 Document the page parameter. Uses the static parameterWithName method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
3 Document the per_page parameter.
4 Perform a GET request with two parameters, page and per_page in the query string.

Request parameters can also be included as form data in the body of a POST request:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(post("/users").param("username", "Tester")) (1)
	.andExpect(status().isCreated())
	.andDo(document("create-user", requestParameters(
			parameterWithName("username").description("The user's username")
	)));
1 Perform a POST request with a single parameter, username.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec)
	.filter(document("create-user", requestParameters(
			parameterWithName("username").description("The user's username"))))
	.formParam("username", "Tester") (1)
	.when().post("/users") (2)
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Configure the username parameter.
2 Perform the POST request.

In both cases, the result is a snippet named request-parameters.adoc that contains a table describing the parameters that are supported by the resource.

When documenting request parameters, the test will fail if an undocumented request parameter is used in the request. Similarly, the test will also fail if a documented request parameter is not found in the request and the request parameter has not been marked as optional.

If you do not want to document a request parameter, you can mark it as ignored. This will prevent it from appearing in the generated snippet while avoiding the failure described above.

Request parameters can also be documented in a relaxed mode where any undocumented parameters will not cause a test failure. To do so, use the relaxedRequestParameters method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation. This can be useful when documenting a particular scenario where you only want to focus on a subset of the request parameters.

Path parameters

A request’s path parameters can be documented using pathParameters. For example:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/locations/{latitude}/{longitude}", 51.5072, 0.1275)) (1)
	.andExpect(status().isOk())
	.andDo(document("locations", pathParameters( (2)
			parameterWithName("latitude").description("The location's latitude"), (3)
			parameterWithName("longitude").description("The location's longitude") (4)
	)));
1 Perform a GET request with two path parameters, latitude and longitude.
2 Configure Spring REST Docs to produce a snippet describing the request’s path parameters. Uses the static pathParameters method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
3 Document the parameter named latitude. Uses the static parameterWithName method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
4 Document the parameter named longitude.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec)
	.filter(document("locations", pathParameters( (1)
			parameterWithName("latitude").description("The location's latitude"), (2)
			parameterWithName("longitude").description("The location's longitude")))) (3)
	.when().get("/locations/{latitude}/{longitude}", 51.5072, 0.1275) (4)
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Configure Spring REST Docs to produce a snippet describing the request’s path parameters. Uses the static pathParameters method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
2 Document the parameter named latitude. Uses the static parameterWithName method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
3 Document the parameter named longitude.
4 Perform a GET request with two path parameters, latitude and longitude.

The result is a snippet named path-parameters.adoc that contains a table describing the path parameters that are supported by the resource.

To make the path parameters available for documentation, the request must be built using one of the methods on RestDocumentationRequestBuilders rather than MockMvcRequestBuilders.

When documenting path parameters, the test will fail if an undocumented path parameter is used in the request. Similarly, the test will also fail if a documented path parameter is not found in the request and the path parameter has not been marked as optional.

Path parameters can also be documented in a relaxed mode where any undocumented parameters will not cause a test failure. To do so, use the relaxedPathParameters method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation. This can be useful when documenting a particular scenario where you only want to focus on a subset of the path parameters.

If you do not want to document a path parameter, you can mark it as ignored. This will prevent it from appearing in the generated snippet while avoiding the failure described above.

Request parts

The parts of a multipart request can be documenting using requestParts. For example:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(fileUpload("/upload").file("file", "example".getBytes())) (1)
	.andExpect(status().isOk())
	.andDo(document("upload", requestParts( (2)
			partWithName("file").description("The file to upload")) (3)
));
1 Perform a POST request with a single part named file.
2 Configure Spring REST Docs to produce a snippet describing the request’s parts. Uses the static requestParts method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
3 Document the part named file. Uses the static partWithName method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec)
	.filter(document("users", requestParts( (1)
			partWithName("file").description("The file to upload")))) (2)
	.multiPart("file", "example") (3)
	.when().post("/upload") (4)
	.then().statusCode(is(200));
1 Configure Spring REST Docs to produce a snippet describing the request’s parts. Uses the static requestParts method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
2 Document the part named file. Uses the static partWithName method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.
3 Configure the request with the part named file.
4 Perform the POST request to /upload.

The result is a snippet named request-parts.adoc that contains a table describing the request parts that are supported by the resource.

When documenting request parts, the test will fail if an undocumented part is used in the request. Similarly, the test will also fail if a documented part is not found in the request and the part has not been marked as optional.

Request parts can also be documented in a relaxed mode where any undocumented parts will not cause a test failure. To do so, use the relaxedRequestParts method on org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation. This can be useful when documenting a particular scenario where you only want to focus on a subset of the request parts.

If you do not want to document a request part, you can mark it as ignored. This will prevent it from appearing in the generated snippet while avoiding the failure described above.

Request part payloads

The payload of a request part can be documented in much the same way as the payload of a request with support for documenting a request part’s body and its fields.

Documenting a request part’s body

A snippet containing the body of a request part can be generated:

MockMvc
MockMultipartFile image = new MockMultipartFile("image", "image.png", "image/png",
		"<<png data>>".getBytes());
MockMultipartFile metadata = new MockMultipartFile("metadata", "",
		"application/json", "{ \"version\": \"1.0\"}".getBytes());

this.mockMvc.perform(fileUpload("/images").file(image).file(metadata)
			.accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
	.andExpect(status().isOk())
	.andDo(document("image-upload", requestPartBody("metadata"))); (1)
1 Configure Spring REST docs to produce a snippet containing the body of the of the request part named metadata. Uses the static requestPartBody method on PayloadDocumentation. payload.
REST Assured
Map<String, String> metadata = new HashMap<>();
metadata.put("version", "1.0");
RestAssured.given(this.spec).accept("application/json")
	.filter(document("image-upload", requestPartBody("metadata"))) (1)
	.when().multiPart("image", new File("image.png"), "image/png")
			.multiPart("metadata", metadata).post("images")
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Configure Spring REST docs to produce a snippet containing the body of the request part named metadata. Uses the static requestPartBody method on PayloadDocumentation.

The result is a snippet request-part-${part-name}-body.adoc that contains the part’s body. For example, documenting a part named metadata will produce a snippet named request-part-metadata-body.adoc.

Documenting a request part’s fields

A request part’s fields can be documented in much the same way as the fields of a request or response:

MockMvc
MockMultipartFile image = new MockMultipartFile("image", "image.png", "image/png",
		"<<png data>>".getBytes());
MockMultipartFile metadata = new MockMultipartFile("metadata", "",
		"application/json", "{ \"version\": \"1.0\"}".getBytes());

this.mockMvc.perform(fileUpload("/images").file(image).file(metadata)
			.accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
	.andExpect(status().isOk())
	.andDo(document("image-upload", requestPartFields("metadata", (1)
			fieldWithPath("version").description("The version of the image")))); (2)
1 Configure Spring REST docs to produce a snippet describing the fields in the payload of the request part named metadata. Uses the static requestPartFields method on PayloadDocumentation. payload.
2 Expect a field with the path version. Uses the static fieldWithPath method on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation.
REST Assured
Map<String, String> metadata = new HashMap<>();
metadata.put("version", "1.0");
RestAssured.given(this.spec).accept("application/json")
	.filter(document("image-upload", requestPartFields("metadata", (1)
			fieldWithPath("version").description("The version of the image")))) (2)
	.when().multiPart("image", new File("image.png"), "image/png")
			.multiPart("metadata", metadata).post("images")
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Configure Spring REST docs to produce a snippet describing the fields in the payload of the request part named metadata. Uses the static requestPartFields method on PayloadDocumentation.
2 Expect a field with the path version. Uses the static fieldWithPath method on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation.

The result is a snippet that contains a table describing the part’s fields. This snippet is named request-part-${part-name}-fields.adoc. For example, documenting a part named metadata will produce a snippet named request-part-metadata-fields.adoc.

When documenting fields, the test will fail if an undocumented field is found in the payload of the part. Similarly, the test will also fail if a documented field is not found in the payload of the part and the field has not been marked as optional. For payloads with a hierarchical structure, documenting a field is sufficient for all of its descendants to also be treated as having been documented.

If you do not want to document a field, you can mark it as ignored. This will prevent it from appearing in the generated snippet while avoiding the failure described above.

Fields can also be documented in a relaxed mode where any undocumented fields will not cause a test failure. To do so, use the relaxedRequestPartFields method on org.springframework.restdocs.payload.PayloadDocumentation. This can be useful when documenting a particular scenario where you only want to focus on a subset of the payload of the part.

For further information on describing fields, documenting payloads that use XML, and more please refer to the section on documenting request and response payloads.

HTTP headers

The headers in a request or response can be documented using requestHeaders and responseHeaders respectively. For example:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc
	.perform(get("/people").header("Authorization", "Basic dXNlcjpzZWNyZXQ=")) (1)
	.andExpect(status().isOk())
	.andDo(document("headers",
			requestHeaders( (2)
					headerWithName("Authorization").description(
							"Basic auth credentials")), (3)
			responseHeaders( (4)
					headerWithName("X-RateLimit-Limit").description(
							"The total number of requests permitted per period"),
					headerWithName("X-RateLimit-Remaining").description(
							"Remaining requests permitted in current period"),
					headerWithName("X-RateLimit-Reset").description(
							"Time at which the rate limit period will reset"))));
1 Perform a GET request with an Authorization header that uses basic authentication
2 Configure Spring REST Docs to produce a snippet describing the request’s headers. Uses the static requestHeaders method on org.springframework.restdocs.headers.HeaderDocumentation.
3 Document the Authorization header. Uses the static headerWithName method on org.springframework.restdocs.headers.HeaderDocumentation.
4 Produce a snippet describing the response’s headers. Uses the static responseHeaders method on org.springframework.restdocs.headers.HeaderDocumentation.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec)
	.filter(document("headers",
			requestHeaders( (1)
					headerWithName("Authorization").description(
							"Basic auth credentials")), (2)
			responseHeaders( (3)
					headerWithName("X-RateLimit-Limit").description(
							"The total number of requests permitted per period"),
					headerWithName("X-RateLimit-Remaining").description(
							"Remaining requests permitted in current period"),
					headerWithName("X-RateLimit-Reset").description(
							"Time at which the rate limit period will reset"))))
	.header("Authroization", "Basic dXNlcjpzZWNyZXQ=") (4)
	.when().get("/people")
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Configure Spring REST Docs to produce a snippet describing the request’s headers. Uses the static requestHeaders method on org.springframework.restdocs.headers.HeaderDocumentation.
2 Document the Authorization header. Uses the static headerWithName method on `org.springframework.restdocs.headers.HeaderDocumentation.
3 Produce a snippet describing the response’s headers. Uses the static responseHeaders method on org.springframework.restdocs.headers.HeaderDocumentation.
4 Configure the request with an Authorization header that uses basic authentication

The result is a snippet named request-headers.adoc and a snippet named response-headers.adoc. Each contains a table describing the headers.

When documenting HTTP Headers, the test will fail if a documented header is not found in the request or response.

Reusing snippets

It’s common for an API that’s being documented to have some features that are common across several of its resources. To avoid repetition when documenting such resources a Snippet configured with the common elements can be reused.

First, create the Snippet that describes the common elements. For example:

protected final LinksSnippet pagingLinks = links(
		linkWithRel("first").optional().description("The first page of results"),
		linkWithRel("last").optional().description("The last page of results"),
		linkWithRel("next").optional().description("The next page of results"),
		linkWithRel("prev").optional().description("The previous page of results"));

Second, use this snippet and add further descriptors that are resource-specific. For example:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
	.andExpect(status().isOk())
	.andDo(document("example", this.pagingLinks.and( (1)
			linkWithRel("alpha").description("Link to the alpha resource"),
			linkWithRel("bravo").description("Link to the bravo resource"))));
1 Reuse the pagingLinks Snippet calling and to add descriptors that are specific to the resource that is being documented.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec)
	.accept("application/json")
	.filter(document("example", this.pagingLinks.and( (1)
			linkWithRel("alpha").description("Link to the alpha resource"),
			linkWithRel("bravo").description("Link to the bravo resource"))))
	.get("/").then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Reuse the pagingLinks Snippet calling and to add descriptors that are specific to the resource that is being documented.

The result of the example is that links with the rels first, last, next, previous, alpha, and bravo are all documented.

Documenting constraints

Spring REST Docs provides a number of classes that can help you to document constraints. An instance of ConstraintDescriptions can be used to access descriptions of a class’s constraints. For example:

public void example() {
	ConstraintDescriptions userConstraints = new ConstraintDescriptions(UserInput.class); (1)
	List<String> descriptions = userConstraints.descriptionsForProperty("name"); (2)
}

static class UserInput {

	@NotNull
	@Size(min = 1)
	String name;

	@NotNull
	@Size(min = 8)
	String password;

}
1 Create an instance of ConstraintDescriptions for the UserInput class
2 Get the descriptions of the name property’s constraints. This list will contain two descriptions; one for the NotNull constraint and one for the Size constraint.

The ApiDocumentation class in the Spring HATEOAS sample shows this functionality in action.

Finding constraints

By default, constraints are found using a Bean Validation Validator. Currently, only property constraints are supported. You can customize the Validator that’s used by creating ConstraintDescriptions with a custom ValidatorConstraintResolver instance. To take complete control of constraint resolution, your own implementation of ConstraintResolver can be used.

Describing constraints

Default descriptions are provided for all of the Bean Validation 1.1’s constraints:

  • AssertFalse

  • AssertTrue

  • DecimalMax

  • DecimalMin

  • Digits

  • Future

  • Max

  • Min

  • NotNull

  • Null

  • Past

  • Pattern

  • Size

Default descriptions are also provided for constraints from Hibernate Validator:

  • CreditCardNumber

  • EAN

  • Email

  • Length

  • LuhnCheck

  • Mod10Check

  • Mod11Check

  • NotBlank

  • NotEmpty

  • Range

  • SafeHtml

  • URL

To override the default descriptions, or to provide a new description, create a resource bundle with the base name org.springframework.restdocs.constraints.ConstraintDescriptions. The Spring HATEOAS-based sample contains an example of such a resource bundle.

Each key in the resource bundle is the fully-qualified name of a constraint plus .description. For example, the key for the standard @NotNull constraint is javax.validation.constraints.NotNull.description.

Property placeholder’s referring to a constraint’s attributes can be used in its description. For example, the default description of the @Min constraint, Must be at least ${value}, refers to the constraint’s value attribute.

To take more control of constraint description resolution, create ConstraintDescriptions with a custom ResourceBundleConstraintDescriptionResolver. To take complete control, create ConstraintDescriptions with a custom ConstraintDescriptionResolver implementation.

Using constraint descriptions in generated snippets

Once you have a constraint’s descriptions, you’re free to use them however you like in the generated snippets. For example, you may want to include the constraint descriptions as part of a field’s description. Alternatively, you could include the constraints as extra information in the request fields snippet. The ApiDocumentation class in the Spring HATEOAS-based sample illustrates the latter approach.

Default snippets

A number of snippets are produced automatically when you document a request and response.

Snippet Description

curl-request.adoc

Contains the curl command that is equivalent to the MockMvc call that is being documented

httpie-request.adoc

Contains the HTTPie command that is equivalent to the MockMvc call that is being documented

http-request.adoc

Contains the HTTP request that is equivalent to the MockMvc call that is being documented

http-response.adoc

Contains the HTTP response that was returned

request-body.adoc

Contains the body of the request that was sent

response-body.adoc

Contains the body of the response that was returned

You can configure which snippets are produced by default. Please refer to the configuration section for more information.

Using parameterized output directories

The output directory used by document can be parameterized. The following parameters are supported:

Parameter Description

{methodName}

The unmodified name of the test method

{method-name}

The name of the test method, formatted using kebab-case

{method_name}

The name of the test method, formatted using snake_case

{ClassName}

The unmodified simple name of the test class

{class-name}

The simple name of the test class, formatted using kebab-case

{class_name}

The simple name of the test class, formatted using snake_case

{step}

The count of calls made to the service in the current test

For example, document("{class-name}/{method-name}") in a test method named creatingANote on the test class GettingStartedDocumentation, will write snippets into a directory named getting-started-documentation/creating-a-note.

A parameterized output directory is particularly useful in combination with an @Before method. It allows documentation to be configured once in a setup method and then reused in every test in the class:

MockMvc
@Before
public void setUp() {
	this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(this.context)
			.apply(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation))
			.alwaysDo(document("{method-name}/{step}/")).build();
}
REST Assured
@Before
public void setUp() {
	this.spec = new RequestSpecBuilder()
			.addFilter(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation))
			.addFilter(document("{method-name}/{step}")).build();
}

With this configuration in place, every call to the service you are testing will produce the default snippets without any further configuration. Take a look at the GettingStartedDocumentation classes in each of the sample applications to see this functionality in action.

Customizing the output

Customizing the generated snippets

Spring REST Docs uses Mustache templates to produce the generated snippets. Default templates are provided for each of the snippets that Spring REST Docs can produce. To customize a snippet’s content, you can provide your own template.

Templates are loaded from the classpath from an org.springframework.restdocs.templates subpackage. The name of the subpackage is determined by the ID of the template format that is in use. The default template format, Asciidoctor, has the ID asciidoctor so snippets are loaded from org.springframework.restdocs.templates.asciidoctor. Each template is named after the snippet that it will produce. For example, to override the template for the curl-request.adoc snippet, create a template named curl-request.snippet in src/test/resources/org/springframework/restdocs/templates/asciidoctor.

Including extra information

There are two ways to provide extra information for inclusion in a generated snippet:

  1. Use the attributes method on a descriptor to add one or more attributes to it.

  2. Pass in some attributes when calling curlRequest, httpRequest, httpResponse, etc. Such attributes will be associated with the snippet as a whole.

Any additional attributes are made available during the template rendering process. Coupled with a custom snippet template, this makes it possible to include extra information in a generated snippet.

A concrete example of the above is the addition of a constraints column and a title when documenting request fields. The first step is to provide a constraints attribute for each field that you are documenting and to provide a title attribute:

MockMvc
.andDo(document("create-user", requestFields(
		attributes(key("title").value("Fields for user creation")), (1)
		fieldWithPath("name").description("The user's name")
				.attributes(key("constraints")
						.value("Must not be null. Must not be empty")), (2)
		fieldWithPath("email").description("The user's email address")
				.attributes(key("constraints")
						.value("Must be a valid email address"))))); (3)
1 Configure the title attribute for the request fields snippet
2 Set the constraints attribute for the name field
3 Set the constraints attribute for the email field
REST Assured
.filter(document("create-user", requestFields(
		attributes(key("title").value("Fields for user creation")), (1)
		fieldWithPath("name").description("The user's name")
				.attributes(key("constraints")
						.value("Must not be null. Must not be empty")), (2)
		fieldWithPath("email").description("The user's email address")
				.attributes(key("constraints")
						.value("Must be a valid email address"))))) (3)
1 Configure the title attribute for the request fields snippet
2 Set the constraints attribute for the name field
3 Set the constraints attribute for the email field

The second step is to provide a custom template named request-fields.snippet that includes the information about the fields' constraints in the generated snippet’s table and adds a title:

.{{title}} (1)
|===
|Path|Type|Description|Constraints (2)

{{#fields}}
|{{path}}
|{{type}}
|{{description}}
|{{constraints}} (3)

{{/fields}}
|===
1 Add a title to the table
2 Add a new column named "Constraints"
3 Include the descriptors' constraints attribute in each row of the table

Customizing requests and responses

There may be situations where you do not want to document a request exactly as it was sent or a response exactly as it was received. Spring REST Docs provides a number of preprocessors that can be used to modify a request or response before it’s documented.

Preprocessing is configured by calling document with an OperationRequestPreprocessor, and/or an OperationResponsePreprocessor. Instances can be obtained using the static preprocessRequest and preprocessResponse methods on Preprocessors. For example:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/")).andExpect(status().isOk())
	.andDo(document("index", preprocessRequest(removeHeaders("Foo")), (1)
			preprocessResponse(prettyPrint()))); (2)
1 Apply a request preprocessor that will remove the header named Foo.
2 Apply a response preprocessor that will pretty print its content.
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec)
	.filter(document("index", preprocessRequest(removeHeaders("Foo")), (1)
			preprocessResponse(prettyPrint()))) (2)
.when().get("/")
.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 Apply a request preprocessor that will remove the header named Foo.
2 Apply a response preprocessor that will pretty print its content.

Alternatively, you may want to apply the same preprocessors to every test. You can do so by configuring the preprocessors in your @Before method and using the support for parameterized output directories:

MockMvc
private MockMvc mockMvc;

private RestDocumentationResultHandler documentationHandler;

@Before
public void setup() {
	this.documentationHandler = document("{method-name}", (1)
			preprocessRequest(removeHeaders("Foo")),
			preprocessResponse(prettyPrint()));
	this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(this.context)
			.apply(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation))
			.alwaysDo(this.documentationHandler) (2)
			.build();
}
1 Create a RestDocumentationResultHandler, configured to preprocess the request and response.
2 Create a MockMvc instance, configured to always call the documentation result handler.
REST Assured
private RequestSpecification spec;

private RestDocumentationFilter documentationFilter;

@Before
public void setup() {
	this.documentationFilter = document("{method-name}",
			preprocessRequest(removeHeaders("Foo")),
			preprocessResponse(prettyPrint())); (1)
	this.spec = new RequestSpecBuilder()
			.addFilter(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation))
			.addFilter(this.documentationFilter)(2)
			.build();
}
1 Create a RestDocumentationFilter, configured to preprocess the request and response.
2 Create a RequestSpecification instance, configured to always call the documentation filter.

Then, in each test, any configuration specific to that test can be performed. For example:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc.perform(get("/")) (1)
		.andExpect(status().isOk())
		.andDo(this.documentationHandler.document( (2)
				links(linkWithRel("self").description("Canonical self link"))
		));
1 The request and response will be preprocessed due to the use of alwaysDo above.
2 Document the links specific to the resource that is being tested
REST Assured
RestAssured.given(this.spec) (1)
	.filter(this.documentationFilter.document( (2)
			links(linkWithRel("self").description("Canonical self link"))))
	.when().get("/")
	.then().assertThat().statusCode(is(200));
1 The request and response will be preprocessed due to the configuration of the RequestSpecification in the setUp method.
2 Document the links specific to the resource that is being tested

Various built in preprocessors, including those illustrated above, are available via the static methods on Preprocessors. See below for further details.

Preprocessors

Pretty printing

prettyPrint on Preprocessors formats the content of the request or response to make it easier to read.

If you’re documenting a Hypermedia-based API, you may want to encourage clients to navigate the API using links rather than through the use of hard coded URIs. One way to do this is to limit the use of URIs in the documentation. maskLinks on Preprocessors replaces the href of any links in the response with …​. A different replacement can also be specified if you wish.

Removing headers

removeHeaders on Preprocessors removes any headers from the request or response where the name is equal to any of the given header names.

removeMatchingHeaders on Preprocessors removes any headers from the request or response where the name matches any of the given regular expression patterns.

Replacing patterns

replacePattern on Preprocessors provides a general purpose mechanism for replacing content in a request or response. Any occurrences of a regular expression are replaced.

Modifying request parameters

modifyParameters on Preprocessors can be used to add, set, and remove request parameters.

Modifying URIs

If you are using MockMvc, URIs should be customized by changing the configuration.

modifyUris on RestAssuredPreprocessors can be used to modify any URIs in a request or a response. When using REST Assured, this allows you to customize the URIs that appear in the documentation while testing a local instance of the service.

Writing your own preprocessor

If one of the built-in preprocessors does not meet your needs, you can write your own by implementing the OperationPreprocessor interface. You can then use your custom preprocessor in exactly the same way as any of the built-in preprocessors.

If you only want to modify the content (body) of a request or response, consider implementing the ContentModifier interface and using it with the built-in ContentModifyingOperationPreprocessor.

Configuration

Documented URIs

As REST Assured tests a service by making actual HTTP requests, the documented URIs cannot be customized in this way. You should use the REST-Assured specific preprocessor instead.

When using MockMvc, the default configuration for URIs documented by Spring REST Docs is:

Setting Default

Scheme

http

Host

localhost

Port

8080

This configuration is applied by MockMvcRestDocumentationConfigurer. You can use its API to change one or more of the defaults to suit your needs:

this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(this.context)
		.apply(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation).uris()
				.withScheme("https")
				.withHost("example.com")
				.withPort(443))
		.build();
If the port is set to the default for the configured scheme (port 80 for HTTP or port 443 for HTTPS), it will be omitted from any URIs in the generated snippets.
To configure a request’s context path, use the contextPath method on MockHttpServletRequestBuilder.

Snippet encoding

The default snippet encoding is UTF-8. You can change the default snippet encoding using the RestDocumentationConfigurer API. For example, to use ISO-8859-1:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(this.context)
		.apply(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation)
				.snippets().withEncoding("ISO-8859-1"))
		.build();
REST Assured
this.spec = new RequestSpecBuilder()
		.addFilter(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation)
				.snippets().withEncoding("ISO-8859-1"))
		.build();
When Spring REST Docs converts a request or response’s content to a String, the charset specified in the Content-Type header will be used if it is available. In its absence, the JVM’s default Charset will be used. The JVM’s default Charset can be configured using the file.encoding system property.

Snippet template format

The default snippet template format is Asciidoctor. Markdown is also supported out of the box. You can change the default format using the RestDocumentationConfigurer API:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(this.context)
		.apply(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation)
				.snippets().withTemplateFormat(TemplateFormats.markdown()))
		.build();
REST Assured
this.spec = new RequestSpecBuilder()
		.addFilter(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation)
				.snippets().withTemplateFormat(TemplateFormats.markdown()))
		.build();

Default snippets

Six snippets are produced by default:

  • curl-request

  • http-request

  • http-response

  • httpie-request

  • request-body

  • response-body

You can change the default snippet configuration during setup using the RestDocumentationConfigurer API. For example, to only produce the curl-request snippet by default:

MockMvc
this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(this.context)
		.apply(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation).snippets()
				.withDefaults(curlRequest()))
		.build();
REST Assured
this.spec = new RequestSpecBuilder()
		.addFilter(documentationConfiguration(this.restDocumentation).snippets()
				.withDefaults(curlRequest()))
		.build();

Working with Asciidoctor

This section describes any aspects of working with Asciidoctor that are particularly relevant to Spring REST Docs.

Including snippets

Including multiple snippets for an operation

A macro named operation can be used to import all or some of the snippets that have been generated for a specific operation. It is made available by including spring-restdocs-asciidoctor in your project’s build configuration.

If you are using Gradle and its daemon or support for continuous builds, do not use version 1.5.6 of the org.asciidoctor.convert plugin. It contains a regression that prevents extensions from working reliably.

The target of the macro is the name of the operation. In its simplest form, the macro can be used to include all of the snippets for an operation, as shown in the following example:

operation::index[]

The operation macro also supports a snippets attribute. The snippets attribute can be used to select the snippets that should be included. The attribute’s value is a comma-separated list. Each entry in the list should be the name of a snippet file, minus the .adoc suffix, to include. For example, only the curl, HTTP request and HTTP response snippets can be included as shown in the following example:

operation::index[snippets='curl-request,http-request,http-response']

This is the equivalent of the following:

[[example_curl_request]]
== Curl request

include::{snippets}/index/curl-request.adoc[]

[[example_http_request]]
== HTTP request

include::{snippets}/index/http-request.adoc[]

[[example_http_response]]
== HTTP response

include::{snippets}/index/http-response.adoc[]
Section titles

For each snippet that’s including using operation, a section with a title will be created. Default titles are provided for the built-in snippets:

Snippet Title

curl-request

Curl Request

http-request

HTTP request

http-response

HTTP response

httpie-request

HTTPie request

links

Links

request-body

Request body

request-fields

Request fields

response-body

Response body

response-fields

Response fields

For snippets not listed in the table above, a default title will be generated by replacing - characters with spaces and capitalising the first letter. For example, the title for a snippet named custom-snippet will be "Custom snippet".

The default titles can be customized using document attributes. The name of the attribute should be operation-{snippet}-title. For example, to customize the title of the curl-request snippet to be "Example request", use the following attribute:

:operation-curl-request-title: Example request

Including individual snippets

The include macro is used to include individual snippets in your documentation. The snippets attribute that is automatically set by spring-restdocs-asciidoctor configured in the build configuration can be used to reference the snippets output directory. For example:

include::{snippets}/index/curl-request.adoc[]

Customizing tables

Many of the snippets contain a table in its default configuration. The appearance of the table can be customized, either by providing some additional configuration when the snippet is included or by using a custom snippet template.

Formatting columns

Asciidoctor has rich support for formatting a table’s columns. For example, the widths of a table’s columns can be specified using the cols attribute:

[cols="1,3"] (1)
include::{snippets}/index/links.adoc[]
1 The table’s width will be split across its two columns with the second column being three times as wide as the first.

Configuring the title

The title of a table can be specified using a line prefixed by a .:

.Links (1)
include::{snippets}/index/links.adoc[]
1 The table’s title will be Links.

Avoiding table formatting problems

Asciidoctor uses the | character to delimit cells in a table. This can cause problems if you want a | to appear in a cell’s contents. The problem can be avoided by escaping the | with a backslash, i.e. by using \| rather than |.

All of the default Asciidoctor snippet templates perform this escaping automatically use a Mustache lamba named tableCellContent. If you write your own custom templates you may want to use this lamba. For example, to escape | characters in a cell that contains the value of a description attribute:

| {{#tableCellContent}}{{description}}{{/tableCellContent}}

Further reading

Refer to the Tables section of the Asciidoctor user manual for more information about customizing tables.

Working with Markdown

This section describes any aspects of working with Markdown that are particularly relevant to Spring REST Docs.

Limitations

Markdown was originally designed for people writing for the web and, as such, isn’t as well-suited to writing documentation as Asciidoctor. Typically, these limitations are overcome by using another tool that builds on top of Markdown.

Markdown has no official support for tables. Spring REST Docs' default Markdown snippet templates use Markdown Extra’s table format.

Including snippets

Markdown has no built-in support for including one Markdown file in another. To include the generated snippets of Markdown in your documentation, you should use an additional tool that supports this functionality. One example that’s particularly well-suited to documenting APIs is Slate.

Contributing

Spring REST Docs is intended to make it easy for you to produce high-quality documentation for your RESTful services. However, we can’t achieve that goal without your contributions.

Questions

You can ask questions about Spring REST Docs on StackOverflow using the spring-restdocs tag. Similarly, we encourage you to help your fellow Spring REST Docs users by answering questions.

Bugs

If you believe you have found a bug, please take a moment to search the existing issues. If no one else has reported the problem, please open a new issue that describes the problem in detail and, ideally, includes a test that reproduces it.

Enhancements

If you’d like an enhancement to be made to Spring REST Docs, pull requests are most welcome. The source code is on GitHub. You may want to search the existing issues and pull requests to see if the enhancement is already being worked on. You may also want to open a new issue to discuss a possible enhancement before work on it begins.