It should be easy to go from seeing a MediaWiki API example, to seeing its dynamic output, to experimenting based on the example.

Currently

We have three ways to make an API request and see a response

• api.php has examples from PHP code shown as query strings (sample). Click one and the browser executes it and shows the response.
  • GET requests only, no POSTs
• API wiki pages have similar examples using mw:Template:ApiEx (sample). Click one and the browser executes it and shows the response, and you can expand to see API response (currently static)
  • GET requests only, no POSTs
  • the API response is static text that someone copy-pasted
• Special:ApiSandbox is an interactive sandbox. Choose an action and it has buttons to show documentation and examples (generated from source, like api.php). It can do POSTs.
  • Doesn't support some query submodules.

Some ideas:

• Link the sample API requests in the first two to Special:ApISandbox, pre-populating its fields.
  • In that mode Special:ApISandbox could look more like the api.php help instead of a confusing form.
• We can transclude the generated API help in wiki pages, e.g. {{Special:ApiHelp/query+extracts}}
  • e.g. Extension:TextExtracts
• Somehow automate the insertion of static API results into the wiki page.
• We could add JavaScript to the first two to give users a little sandbox window. It would initially show the canned example query and show the result; maybe even let you edit the query as in a JSFiddle and see the new results. Similar to OOjsUI demos and the OOjs UI Living Style Guide
  • There are some security implications (e.g. vandal modifies wiki page, gets users to make bad API requests).