gendocs

This is a simple documentation generator that generates an output markdown file designed to be saved as your README.md in your repository.

Usage

Install using the instructions shown in the lovely nodei.co badge above then run in a repository directory:

gendocs > README.md

Done. By default all gendocs does is extract all special emu comments from your source files and generate a single markdown file using a sensible ordering system implemented by sourcecat.

Emu looks for standard JS block comments, but with two asterisks instead of one. While emu is unfussy about the content of those comments, gendocs is expecting mardown formatted text to be present.

For example:

/**
  # module-level
 
  This is a module which does blah.
 
  ## Example Usage
 
  Jump up and down.
 
  ## Reference
 
**/
 
/**
  ### sayHello(target)
 
  The `sayHello` function is used to say, um, hello to the specified
  target.
**/
exports.sayHello = function(target) {
};

NOTE: As emu is a little fussy about the indentation of the documentation within the comment block, it's wise to make sure you indent your documentation one level in from the opening comment. If you haven't you will notice this with code samples losing indentation.

Customizing Output

Gendocs uses a simple plugin system to allow you to customize the documentation generated. Most plugins are manually enabled through configuration within a docs.json file, though some are enabled automatically.

badges

Generate badges for your documentation without having to remember those special markdown image link things.

Will be inserted just before the first non top level (#) heading encountered in your documentation.

Example Docs Configuration for Simple Badges

{
  "badges": {
    "nodeico": true,
    "travis": true,
    "stability": "experimental",
    "testling": true
  },
 
  "license": {}
}

If you want to bootstrap a new docs.json file in your project directory then try the following:

curl https://gist.github.com/DamonOehlman/6249137/raw > docs.json

include-code

Copy and paste. Yeah, I'm not a fan. If I'm going to write some example code, I'd rather write it once and include it into a file. This plugin helps you do that and it's enabled by default.

Any time a line similar to the following is encountered:

<<< examples/demo.js

The file contents is included and an appropriate Github flavoured markdown code section is created with the syntax highlighting mode to set match the file type. So in the case of our previous example, something like the following might get created in our resulting markdown file:

!!!js
console.log('this is a tricky demo');
!!!

You have to imagine that the exclamation marks are backticks in the output above, but you get the idea.

NOTE: Should you wish to highlight a syntax that is different to it's extension (or it's extension is not recognised), simply specify the highlighter syntax directly after the the <<< directive. For example, to include a stylus file using the css highlighter, you could do something like:

<<<css examples.styl

Regarding Relative File Paths

At this stage, all include paths are relative to the project root rather than the source file location. So if you had were including an example from a subfolder in your project, rather than referencing ../examples/demo.js simply reference examples/demo.js and everything will be sweet.

Including Example code from Github Gists

If you have example code in a gist then you can include that into your readme also quite easily. For example:

<<< gist://DamonOehlman:6249137

However, as gendocs is unable to determine what the file type is from a raw http request (and github serves all raw content as text/plain IIRC) you need to tell gendocs the typeof of syntax highlighting you want:

<<<json gist://DamonOehlman:6249137

Alternative Include Format (Leanpub Compatible)

In addition to the format outlined above, I have been experimenting with adding support for the leanpub markdown includes:

https://github.com/peterarmstrong/leanpub_sample_markdown_book/blob/master/Leanpub Book Format.md

license

Insert the license at the tail end of your documentation. Uses the current year and package information from the package.json file to generate an appropriate license for your project. The license(s) that will be appended to your README are based on the licenses specified in the package.json file also.

To enable, you will need to inform docs.json that you want this functionality:

{
  "license": {}
}

If you want to override the copyright holder (or year) from the default of the author in the package.json file, then use the following in your docs.json file:

{
  "license": {
    "year": "2008 - 2013",
    "holder": "Foobar Corp <development@foobar.com>"
  }
}

Currently implemented license templates can be found at the following location:

https://github.com/DamonOehlman/gendocs/tree/master/licenses

License(s)

MIT

Copyright (c) 2016 Damon Oehlman damon.oehlman@gmail.com

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.