Add Documentation¶
Why does a plugin need documentation? A peek plugin needs documentation to help developers focus on what it needs to do, and allow other developers to use the APIs it shares.
Then it helps Peek admins determine the plugins requirements and if there is a need for it.
Documenting software can be a complicated and a tedious task. There are many things to consider:
- Documentation must be versioned with the code, making sure features match, etc.
- Documentation must be available for each version of the code, your documentation will branch as many times as your code will, 1.0, 1.1, etc
- Documentation must be updated as features are added and changed in the code.
These are a few of the conundrums around the complexity of software documentation. Fortunately there are some fantastic tools around to solve these issues, and you’re reading the result of those tools right now.
Sphinx is a tool that makes it easy to create intelligent and beautiful documentation.
Documentation File Structure¶
The peek-plugin is structured in such a way that the plugin developer can create documentation for 3 different audiences:
- Administrators
- Users
- Developers
Add Admin Documentation¶
Create directory peek_plugin_tutorial/doc-admin
:
mkdir -p peek_plugin_tutorial/doc-admin
Create the file index.rst
: within the directory
peek_plugin_tutorial/doc-admin
with following content:
==============
Administration
==============
The Peek-Plugin-Tutorial plugin performs the following:
- Point 1
- Point 2
Edit the file peek_plugin_tutorial/plugin_package.json
:
Add “doc-admin” to the requiredServices
section so it looks like:
"requiresServices": [
...
"doc-admin"
...
]
Add the “doc-admin” section after requiresServices section:
"doc-admin": {
"docDir": "doc-admin",
"docRst": "index.rst"
}
Ensure your JSON is still valid (Your IDE may help here)
Here is an example:
{
"plugin": {
...
},
"requiresServices": [
...
"doc-admin"
...
],
"doc-admin": {
"docDir": "doc-admin",
"docRst": "index.rst"
}
}
Add User Documentation¶
Note
These steps are almost identical to the Admin documentation.
Create directory peek_plugin_tutorial/doc-user
:
mkdir -p peek_plugin_tutorial/doc-user
Create the file index.rst
: within the directory
peek_plugin_tutorial/doc-user
with following content:
==========
User Guide
==========
This plugin can be used by clicking on the menu icon, etc.
Edit the file peek_plugin_tutorial/plugin_package.json
:
Add “doc-user” to the requiredServices
section so it looks like:
"requiresServices": [
...
"doc-user"
...
]
Add the “doc-user” section after requiresServices section:
"doc-user": {
"docDir": "doc-user",
"docRst": "index.rst"
}
Add Developer Documentation¶
Note
These steps are almost identical to the Admin documentation.
Create directory peek_plugin_tutorial/doc-dev
:
mkdir -p peek_plugin_tutorial/doc-dev
Create the file index.rst
: within the directory
peek_plugin_tutorial/doc-dev
with following content:
=========
Developer
=========
This plugins architecture is as follows <insert images, etc>
Edit the file peek_plugin_tutorial/plugin_package.json
:
Add “doc-dev” to the requiredServices
section so it looks like:
"requiresServices": [
...
"doc-dev"
...
]
Add the “doc-dev” section after requiresServices section:
"doc-dev": {
"docDir": "doc-dev",
"docRst": "index.rst",
"hasApi": false
}
If your plugin has a public python API, then ensure hasApi
above is set to
true
.
Check Peek Server Config¶
The peek-server service builds the admin and dev documentation.
Edit the ~/peek-server.home/config.json
and ensure the following options are set.
- Ensure
frontend.docBuildEnabled
is set totrue
, with no quotes - Ensure
frontend.docBuildPrepareEnabled
is set totrue
, with no quotes
Example:
{
...
"frontend": {
...
"docBuildEnabled": true,
"docBuildPrepareEnabled": true
},
...
}
Check Peek Client Config¶
The peek-client service builds the user documentation.
Edit the ~/peek-client.home/config.json
and ensure the following options are set.
- Ensure
frontend.docBuildEnabled
is set totrue
, with no quotes - Ensure
frontend.docBuildPrepareEnabled
is set totrue
, with no quotes
Example:
{
...
"frontend": {
...
"docBuildEnabled": true,
"docBuildPrepareEnabled": true
},
...
}
Viewing Documentation¶
The documentation from each peek plugin is loaded into three projects by peek-server (Admin, Development) and peek-client (User).
The documentation packages are as follows
Administration: | peek_doc_admin: |
---|---|
Development: | peek_doc_dev |
User: | peek_doc_user |
To view the documentation, you can run watch_docs.sh
. This will generate the
documentation, serve it with a web server and live refresh a web page when a browser
is connected to it.
Locate the relevant python project. These instructions will demonstrate with the “Admin” documentation.
Run the following to find the location of peek_doc_admin
python - <<EOF
import peek_doc_admin
print(peek_doc_admin.__file__)
EOF
This will return the following, which you can get the location of peek_doc_admin
from.
peek@peek ~ % python - <<EOF
import peek_doc_admin
print(peek_doc_admin.__file__)
EOF
/Users/peek/dev-peek/peek-doc-admin/peek_doc_admin/__init__.py
Navigate to peek_doc_admin
from the step above and run the following command:
cd /Users/peek/dev-peek/peek-doc-admin/peek_doc_admin
bash watch_docs.sh
In your browser, connect to the docs web server that watch_docs.sh displays at the end of its start.
[I 200505 20:51:48 server:296] Serving on http://0.0.0.0:8020
Note
The watch-docs.sh
shell script won’t always build a change in the
toctree while running. If you update the toctree or modify headings it is good
practice to stop watch-docs.sh
, run rm -rf dist/*
and restart
watch-docs.sh
.
Note
version
is the Peek version that is deployed. For example: 2.1.7
Important
Windows users must use bash and run the commands from the plugin root directory.
For more information on document formatting, please visit ReStructuredText Cheat Sheet.
What Next?¶
Start developing your own plugins.