docgen

A documentation generator for Dart.

The docgen tool takes in a file or directory as input and produces documentation for all .dart file it finds as YAML or JSON files. This outputs information about all classes, variables, functions, and methods defined in the library and its imported libraries.

Quick Start: Common Commands

To only generate documentation, while standing in the bin directory:

dartdoc.py generates all documentation and runs a local server with your html pages.

dartdoc.py -d ONLY generates documentation for the SDK and all packages (no html pages generated and no server).

dartdoc.py -d -o package/to/document ONLY generates documenation for the specified package.

To generate documentation and view it through the webpage:

• Install Google App Engine SDK for Python (one time setup) and agree to add symlinks so that dev_appserver.py can be found on your PATH.
• Run dartdoc.py.

Generating files & uploading to Cloud Storage

The viewer uses YAML files generated by the docgen package as the data being displayed. These files are stored in Google Cloud Storage.

• Run python upload_docgen.py to generate these files and upload them to Cloud Storage as a new version.

These tasks can be done separately if necessary:

Generating YAML files

YAML files can be generated using the docgen package in the dart repository.

Usage

Run dart docgen.dart [OPTIONS] <path to directory or file>

Options available

• -h, --help Prints help and usage information.
• -v, --verbose Output more logging information.
• -j, --[no-]json Outputs to JSON. Files are outputted to YAML by default. If --append is used, it takes the file-format of the previous run stated in library_list.json ignoring the flag.
• --include-private Flag to include private declarations.
• --include-sdk Flag to parse SDK Library files imported.
• --parse-sdk Parses the SDK libraries only. (Ignores the path passed in.)
• --package-root Sets the package root of the library being analyzed.
• --append Appends to the docs folder, library_list.json, and index.txt.
• --introduction Adds the provided markdown text file as the introduction for the outputted documentation.

Output directory

Documented libraries will be located at bin/docs in either YAML or JSON format depending on options specified. There will also be a library_list.json, containing a list of all the libraries inside the docs folder.

To get more information on how to use the outputted documentation with dartdoc-viewer, please take a look at the dartdoc-viewer documentation.

Uploading to Cloud Storage

To push new files to Google Cloud Storage for use by the viewer, use the gsutil tool located at third_party/gsutil/gsutil in the Dart repository.

• Run python gsutil -m cp -q -a public-read -r <folder> gs://dartlang-docgen to upload the specified folder to the viewer's bucket. Be sure to also upload a new VERSION file if the uploaded folder is to be used.**

**Note that the bucket contains several numbered folders for each version of the documentation. Run python gsutil ls gs://dartlang-docgen to see the file layout. Follow this convention and update a new VERSION file when uploading a new version of documentation. You can see the format of the VERSION file by running python gsutil cat gs://dartlang-docgen/VERSION.

Viewing generated documentation

Docgen's generated YAML files can be used by the Dart Documentation Viewer for easy viewing and navigation through a project.

Using dartdoc.py

The dartdoc.py script located in the bin directory is a useful tool for creating documentation for a Dart project and running it locally.

Setup

The dartdoc.py script makes use of the Google App Engine SDK for Python's development server to serve the documentation viewer. Install a recent version of the SDK before running dartdoc.py.

Running dartdoc.py

######Common Options

The following options are the most used:

python dartdoc.py --gae-sdk=<path to SDK>
  --options=<path to files>
  --options=--parse-sdk
  --options='--include-sdk <path to files>'
  --options='--append <path to files>'

######All Options

Run python dartdoc.py -h from the bin directory for all available options. The two required options are as follows:

1. The --options option describes any options being passed into docgen.dart. If more then one option is desired, separate the options with a space (ex. --options='--include-sdk files').
2. The --gae-sdk option gives the absolute path to the Google App Engine SDK.

Running python dartdoc.py --options=<docgen options> --gae-sdk=<path to SDK> will serve files generated by docgen.dart in your browser.