Baseline

The Baseline feature in DocDriven is a powerful tool designed to help you continuously compare your progress against the current state of your API. It provides a clear, visual representation of how your API evolves over time, ensuring transparency and traceability of all modifications and updates.

It allows you to establish a reference point (baseline) for your API at any given moment. By doing so, you can compare subsequent changes against this baseline, providing insight into your development progress and ensuring that all stakeholders are informed about the alterations and updates made to the API.

Creating a Baseline

Creating a baseline is an effortless process. Navigate to the Changes section in the DocDriven interface, and select the Baseline tab. Here, you can add a new baseline by clicking the plus ("+") button. This action captures the current state of your API, saving it as a reference point.

Comparing Changes Against the Baseline

The Baseline tab provides a timeline visual representation, displaying the baseline and subsequent changes to the API. The right side of the interface lists detailed differences detected between the selected baseline and the current state of the API. These changes are categorized into:

1. New Endpoints: The new API endpoints added since the last baseline.
2. Deleted Endpoints: The endpoints removed from the API.
3. Modified Endpoints: Detailed modifications in existing endpoints, including changes in request bodies and parameters.
4. New Schemas: Newly added schemas since the last baseline.
5. Deleted Schemas: The schemas removed from the API.
6. Modified Schemas: Detailed modifications in existing schemas.

This comparison ensures you can easily identify additions, deletions, or modifications to your API, providing a comprehensive overview of all changes made.

Keeping Track of Modifications

By continuously comparing your progress against the baseline, you can monitor the impact of your changes, ensuring no breaking modifications are introduced inadvertently. For example, you might notice that a particular endpoint has been significantly modified — request bodies may have a new structure, additional fields may have been added, or certain fields may have been removed. This insight allows for early feedback and ensures all modifications are well-documented and communicated to all stakeholders.

Conclusion

The Baseline feature in DocDriven empowers you to maintain an accurate and up-to-date log of all API changes. By capturing baselines and comparing subsequent modifications, you ensure that your API development is transparent, collaborative, and avoids the introduction of breaking changes. This feature is an essential tool for any development team looking to maintain the integrity and responsiveness of their API design.