Is it possible to customize the ServiceStack /metadata page?

Question

I run my site behind a loadbalancer on a non-standard port. When loading up the /metadata page it has my public domain name yet the local port that the app is hosted on, which causes the links to the different formats to break as well.

Example:

• in the browser: http://mydomain.com/api/metadata
• in metadata page: http://mydomain.com:10000/api/metadata

Is there a way to customize these links in the output? Further, is it possible to customize the other text/css/etc of the page, such that it can be modified to fit into the template I use for the rest of my site?

Answer 1

v4 Update

v4 ServiceStack provides a number of new ways to customize the built-in Metadata pages:

Using the Virtual File System

ServiceStack's Virtual FileSystem by default falls back (i.e when no physical file exists) to looking for Embedded Resource Files inside dlls.

You can specify the number and precedence of which Assemblies it looks at with Config.EmbeddedResourceSources which by default looks at:

• The assembly that contains your AppHost
• ServiceStack.dll

The VFS now lets you completely replace built-in ServiceStack metadata pages and templates with your own by simply copying the metadata or HtmlFormat Template files you want to customize and placing them in your folder at:

/Templates/HtmlFormat.html        // The auto HtmlFormat template
/Templates/IndexOperations.html   // The /metadata template
/Templates/OperationControl.html  // Individual operation template

Registering links on the Metadata pages

You can add links to your own Plugins in the metadata pages with:

appHost.GetPlugin<MetadataFeature>()
    .AddPluginLink("swagger-ui/", "Swagger UI");
appHost.GetPlugin<MetadataFeature>()
    .AddDebugLink("?debug=requestinfo", "Request Info");

AddPluginLink adds links under the Plugin Links section whilst AddDebugLink can be used by plugins only available during debugging or development.

Using Metadata Attributes

Many of the same attributes used in Swagger are also used in the metadata pages, e.g:

[Api("Service Description")]
[ApiResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, "Your request was not understood")]
[ApiResponse(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError, "Oops, something broke")]
[Route("/swagger/{Name}", "GET", Summary = @"GET Summary", Notes = "GET Notes")]
[Route("/swagger/{Name}", "POST", Summary = @"POST Summary", Notes = "Notes")]
public class MyRequestDto
{
    [ApiMember(Name="Name", Description = "Name Description", 
               ParameterType = "path", DataType = "string", IsRequired = true)]
    [ApiAllowableValues("Name", typeof(Color))] //Enum
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

---

Older v3 Notes

ServiceStack's Metadata page allows limited customization via the EndpointHostConfig config settings (where all of ServiceStack configuration lives). E.g. you can change the Home page Body HTML and the Operations Page HTML in your AppHost with:

SetConfig(new EndpointHostConfig {
    MetadataPageBodyHtml = "<p>HTML you want on the home page</p>",
    MetadataOperationPageBodyHtml = "<p>HTML you want on each operation page</p>"
});

You can also add further metadata documentation for each Web Service by using the attributing the Request DTO with the [Description] attribute as done in the MoviesRest Example project:

[Description("GET or DELETE a single movie by Id. POST to create new Movies")]
[RestService("/movies", "POST,PUT,PATCH,DELETE")]
[RestService("/movies/{Id}")]
public class Movie
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string ImdbId { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
}

And what it looks like on the MoviesRest /metadata page.

Answer 2

The Service Stack Metadata page is fully customizable. You can use attributes to annotate specific properties or services whilst retaining the auto-generated content.

The content is delivered using embedded HTML templates and this can also be replaced for detailed customization.

The metadata pages can be completely turned off, which is what I typically do, using the following snippet.

SetConfig(new HostConfig { 
EnableFeatures = Feature.All.Remove(Feature.Metadata) });

Further details can be found from Service Stack Wiki.

Answer 3

Look here for insights. It is not how to customize /metadata page, but more how to use XHTML to do the same through Hypermedia APIs.