From Acquisition to Integration: How SmartBear is Elevating API Development with Stoplight

  April 17, 2024

Back in August, SmartBear acquired Stoplight, a leader in API design and documentation. Since this acquisition, our focus has been on seamlessly integrating Stoplight's open-source tools—Spectral, Elements, and Prism—into SwaggerHub. Our goal is to simplify complex API development tasks and address the common challenges encountered in API development.

Enhancing API Design and Governance

The journey to superior API design begins with the right set of tools. SmartBear's integration of Spectral into SwaggerHub has already established a foundation for enhanced API design and governance. Known for its powerful linting capabilities, Spectral enforces style guides from the outset, ensuring APIs adhere to best practices and organizational standards.

Coming soon, SwaggerHub will be further enriched with the addition of Stoplight's visual editor. This upcoming feature will simplify the design process for technical and non-technical users, offering an intuitive interface that makes creating and managing APIs more accessible than ever. This strategic enhancement will not only elevate the quality of APIs but also streamline their development, promoting consistency across an organization's API portfolio.

Delivering User-Friendly and Flexible API Documentation

Understanding and utilizing APIs should be a straightforward process. With the integration of Elements into SwaggerHub Portal, SmartBear revolutionizes how API documentation is presented and consumed. By offering a choice between Elements and the traditional SwaggerUI for rendering OpenAPI definitions, SwaggerHub transforms static documentation into an interactive, engaging experience. This enhancement simplifies the learning curve for developers interacting with APIs and significantly increases adoption rates.

Ensuring API Reliability and Consistency

Looking forward, SmartBear's integration of Prism into SwaggerHub Explore exemplifies the company's determined effort to further enhance API reliability and consistency. Prism's advanced mocking capabilities enable developers to create mock servers instantly, facilitating parallel development workflows, and reducing time-to-market for new features. Additionally, Prism's rigorous validation against OpenAPI specifications ensures that APIs are not only consistent but also adhere to the highest quality standards. This focus on reliability and consistency is a testament to SmartBear's vision of empowering developers to deliver superior APIs.

Moving Forward Together

As SmartBear realigns its product offerings into intuitive solution hubs, the integration of Stoplight's tools into SwaggerHub exemplifies our dedication to solving the real-world challenges faced by our customers. The journey towards improved API design, flexible documentation, and reliable APIs is a collaborative effort. We are committed to providing the tools and support needed to navigate this journey successfully.

Learn more about our API Hub here.