Uses and applications of the OpenAPI/Swagger specification: a systematic mapping of the literature

The OpenAPI or Swagger specification has become the reference choice for describing web APIs (REST, RESTful, etc.). That is why this specification has been and is currently the center of many research articles. Several activities, tasks, and problems associated with software development can be improved, simplified, solved and/or automated with this specification. The purpose of this study is to synthesize the uses and applications of the OpenAPI/Swagger specification. The development activities in which it has been useful, the software artifacts (results) generated from it, and which domains have been covered, among others, are identified. The literature review that we analyzed had a total of 47 articles published between 2011 and 2020. The search corresponded with these parameters: a) mention of the development activities in which the specification has been useful, b) inclusion of the software artifacts (results) that it generates and their corresponding validation, and c) reference to the domains covered. Results show that the OpenAPI/Swagger specification has benefited various software development activities, being the improvement of the documentation the one that predominates (43%). Similarly, 77% of the articles provide solutions to the requirements and/or problems of the web API consumers. The automation of tasks, based on diverse tools, constitutes the most predominant result in 68% of the manuscripts. Besides, 40% of the works consulted cover a specific domain (IoT, Cloud, etc.).