CLI tool generating documentation files and folders for multiple projects on a Docusaurus-powered site.

Installation

Install the package locally using the global switch.

npm install docs-docgen-cli -g

After installing it locally, you can use from any folder on your computer. Check docs-docgen-cli is available:

docs-docgen-cli -V
# output
# 1.0.3

Alternativelly, run docs-docgen-cli without installing it locally (recommended).

npx docs-docgen-cli -V

Commands

• build - build files and folders for company product documentation structure for a Docusaurus-powered site.
• check - check valid structure of product list files.
• help - provide help text for a command.

Options

• -h, --help - provide application help.
• -V, --version -- provide current application version.

build command

This is the default command, i.e. this is the command executed when no command appears on the command line.

1. Retrieves product list files using patterns in the arguments or default patterns.
2. Collect product definitions from each product list file.
3. For each product defined, generate a product folder under docs and an index.md file inside each product folder.
4. In the docs folder, generate index.md containing a list of products and links to product index page.
5. Generate an .outline.yaml that you will use with Skelo CLI to complete the documentation start-up.

Usage

docs-docgen-cli [build] [patterns...] [options]

Arguments

• [patterns...] - optional list of product list filename patterns

Options

• -d, --docs <path> - path to Docusaurus docs folder. (default: website/docs)
• -o, --outline <filename> - name of the outline file intended for Skelo CLI (default: website/products.outline.yaml)
• -v, --verbose - verbose output
• --schema <filename> - name of .json file with product list definition schema (default: schema.json)

If no patterns appear, the default pattern is used: **/*.[Pp]roducts.json. If no files match this pattern, then the alternative pattern is used: __products__/**/*.json

Examples

docs-docgen-cli

• look for product files in current folder and matching the **/*.[Pp]roducts.json pattern. If no files match this pattern, look for files matching the __products__/**/*.json (i.e. look for all files ending with .json starting with the __products__ subfolder).
• -d value: website/docs
• -o value: website/products.outline.yaml

website/products.outline.yaml file:

sidebars:
   - label: "product-one-sidebar"
     items:
        - label: "Product One documentation"
          title: "Welcome to Product One documentation"
          slug: "product-one-documentation"
          brief: "Develop documentation with additional topics and categories in the `products.outline.yaml` in the `product-one-sidebar` sidebar definition"

docs-docgen-cli myproducts.products.json -v

• look for myproducts.products.json product list file in current folder.
• -d value: website/docs
• -o value: website/products.outline.yaml

Product list schema

Product definitions appear in product list files. Product list files are .json file containing an array of product definition items. To ensure product list files meet design specifications, a schema.json file contains the validation schema.

A product definition item is either a string or an object. The following product list contains two product definition items:

[
    "   Product One   ",
    {
        "label": "   Product Two   "
    }
]

• A string product item may have heading or trailing spaces, and contain letters, digits, and spaces. Only a space is allowed between sequences of letters or digits.
• The object must have the label property, whose value is a string. The string for label must adhere to the same rules as the string item.
• Additional object properties include:
  • productId - product slug string
  • path - path of folders preceding product documentation folder

The product list file schema is found in schema.json in the application root folder.

{
    "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
    "type": "array",
    "uniqueItems": true,
    "items": {
        "oneOf": [
            {
                "type": "string"
            },
            {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "label": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "pattern": "^\\s*([a-zA-Z0-9]+\\s)*[a-zA-Z0-9]+\\s*$"
                    },
                    "productId": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "pattern": "^[a-z]+([-]?[a-z0-9]+)*$"
                    },
                    "path": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "pattern": "^([a-z]+([-]?[a-z0-9]+)*\\/)*[a-z]+([-]?[a-z0-9]+)*$"
                    },
                    "description": {
                        "type": "string"
                    }
                },
                "required": [
                    "label"
                ],
                "additionalProperties": true
            }
        ]
    }
}

Property | Description | Default | Example | :--|:--|:--|:--| label | Human readable product label identifying the product | | "Product One" | productId | product slug string | slug of label value | product-one | path | | "" | "path/to/parent/to/product/folder" |

Product list file examples

1. Defines two products, "Product One" and "Product Two" using strings.

   [
       "Product One",
       "Product Two"
   ]

   The equivalent of object definition:

   [
       {
           "label": "Product One",
           "productId": "product-one"
       },
       {
           "label": "Product Two",
           "productId": "product-two"
       }
   ]

2. Defines three product, two in string format and the third in object format:

   [
       "Product One",
       {
           "label": "Product Three"
       },
       "Product Two"
   ]

   The equivalent of object definition:

   [
       {
           "label": "Product One",
           "productId": "product-one"
       },
       {
           "label": "Product Three",
           "productId": "product-three"
       },
       {
           "label": "Product Two",
           "productId": "product-two"
       }
   ]

3. Defines four products, two in string format the third and fourth in object format. The fourth product has a specified productId value

   [
       "Product One",
       {
           "label": "Product Three"
       },
       "Product Two",
       {
           "label": "Product Four",
           "productId": "pr-4"
       }
   ]

   The equivalent of object definition:

   [
       {
           "label": "Product One",
           "productId": "product-one"
       },
       {
           "label": "Product Three",
           "productId": "product-three"
       },
       {
           "label": "Product Two",
           "productId": "product-two"
       },
       {
           "label": "Product Four",
           "productId": "pr-4"
       }
   ]

check command

Validates product list files against the product list validation schema.

Usage

docs-docgen-cli check [patterns...] [options]

Arguments

• [patterns...] - optional list of product list filename patterns

Options

• -v, --verbose - verbose output
• --schema <filename> - path to validation schema file (default: schema.json)

Quick demo

For a quick demo of how to use docgen CLI, visit Quick demo