Documentation Repository for Tanzu Application Platform (TAP)

Overview

This repo publishes to:

Branches

Branch	Usage
main	Development branch for pre-release beta-3 docs staged at https://docs-staging.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tanzu-Application-Platform/0.3/tap-0-3/GUID-overview.html
beta-2	Branch that is published to https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tanzu-Application-Platform/0.2/tap-0-2/GUID-overview.html
beta-1	Branch that is published to https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tanzu-Application-Platform/0.1/tap-0-1/GUID-overview.html

Product Names

There is a great variety of spellings and misspellings of product names. JD suggests the following list:

Cloud Native Runtimes
Application Accelerator
Application Live View
Tanzu Build Service (not Services)
Tanzu Application Platform (not TAP)

But use the complete product name at first use:

Cloud Native Runtimes for VMware Tanzu
Application Accelerator for VMware Tanzu
Application Live View for VMware Tanzu
VMware Tanzu Build Service

Word List

Use this table to keep a running list of terms used and how they should be defined.

Word or phrase	Explanation
API portal	The p is supposed to be lowercase. Pull request #73.
components	The individual products available in the TAP SKU. For example, Cloud Native Runtimes is a component of TAP. Not: add-ons or capabilities.
Default Supply Chain	singular
packageRepository	Is a definition. Variations found in original doc (Package repository, PackageRepository, packagerepository) but standardize on the one shown. 2021.08.26
PackageRepositories	Don't use. There is really only one packageRepository of interest for this page.
packageRepository custom resource	Because we don't use CR in other Kubernetes docs, spell out custom resource here too. An example of the packageRepository custom resource is given in the YAML file named `tap-package-repo.yaml`.
packageRepository pull	Just means pulling the packages from the repository
Supply Chain Security Tools - Store	Not SCST - Store
Supply Chain Security Tools - Scan	Not SCST - Scan
Tanzu Application Platform GUI	Not Tanzu Application Platform Graphical User Interface, nor TAP GUI, nor TAP UI, etc.
Tanzu Kubernetes Grid	Never use TKGm or TKG in customer facing documentation.
TAP repo bundle	Decided on lowercase and not "TAP Repo Bundle".
TAP packages	Right now there are three packages: one for each component. The three packages make up the bundle. The bundle is stored in the the TAP package repository. Although "Tanzu Application Platform packages" is in the original google doc, let's use "TAP packages" for consistency.
TAP package repository	How is this different from the other package repositories? (Are there non-TAP package repositories discussed on this page?) Changed from TAP to Tanzu Application Platform, Sept 24, 2021.
.yaml and YAML file	Standardize on using the "a", not `.yml`

Placeholder List

Placeholder	Definition
`TANZU-NET-USER` and `TANZU-NET-PASSWORD`	Where `TANZU-NET-USER` and `TANZU-NET-PASSWORD` are your credentials for Tanzu Network
`PACKAGE-REPO-NAME`	Where `PACKAGE-REPO-NAME` is the name of the packageRepository from step 1 above.
`VERSION`	Where `VERSION` is the version of the package listed in step 7

Troubleshooting Markdown

Problem	Broken lists
Symptom:	Bulleted or numbered lists look fine on github but display as a single paragraph in HTML.
Solution:	Add a blank line after the stem sentence and before the first item in the list.

Creating a Pull Request

For instructions on how to create a pull request on a branch and instructions on how to create a pull request using a fork, see Creating a PR in the documentation team wiki.

Publishing Docs

v0.1 Staging docs:

docworks is the main tool for managing docs used by writers.
docsdash is a deployment UI which manages the promotion from staging to pre-prod to production. The process below describes how to upload our docs to staging, replacing the publication with the same version.

Prepare Markdown Files

Markdown files live in this repo.
Each page requires an entry in toc.md for the table of contents.
Images should live in an images directory at the same level and linked with a relative link.

Create the ZIP File

Starting from the repo root, this will create a new docs.zip with no root folder and show its contents.

rm docs.zip ; cd docs && zip -r ../docs.zip * && cd .. && unzip -l docs.zip

git pull ; rm docs.zip ; zip -r tap2beta *.md VMwarePub.yaml images/ scc/ scst-scan/ scst-store/ vscode-extension/  apps-plugin/ cli-plugins/

Upload the ZIP File to Docworks

Go to https://docworks.vmware.com/md2docs/publish
Fill in the fields exactly as below. Repeat this every time - the browser can help to remember form fields.
Click on upload, and when prompted, enter your VMware AD password (for docsdash)
If you see invalid path errors in the yellow box on the right there are broken links, but the site will still be published.
If the toc.md is invalid then the site will not build, but there will be no indication that something is wrong.

Form Fields

Form fields for beta-1: VMwarePub.yaml Form fields for main (beta-2?): VMwarePub.yaml

In Docsdash

Wait about 1 minute for processing to complete after uploading.
Go to https://docsdash.vmware.com/deployment-stage

There should be an entry with a blue link which says Documentation and points to staging.

Promoting to Pre-Prod and Prod

Prerequisite Needs additional privileges - reach out to Paige Calvert on the docs team #tanzu-docs or ask a writer to do this step for you.

Go to Staging publications in docsdash
https://docsdash.vmware.com/deployment-stage
Select a publication (make sure it's the latest version)
Click "Deploy selected to Pre-Prod" and wait for the pop to turn green (refresh if necessary after about 10s)
Go to Pre-Prod list
https://docsdash.vmware.com/deployment-pre-prod
Select a publication
Click "Sign off for Release"
Wait for your username to show up in the "Signed off by" column
Select the publication again
Click "Deploy selected to Prod"

Landing Page and Publications

General information about landing pages:

Every product has a landing page (Not exactly true: every umbrella product, such as Tanzu Application Platform should have a landing page.)
The landing page is a container for all the "publications" for a product. Our first publication will be our combined docs for our first Beta, including installation, and user docs.
Typically there will be a new docs publication for each minor release but not each point release. This version number become part of the URL e.g. Our first release was version 0.1 (see form section above for the current release).
Some products like TKG publish separate release notes publications for each point release.
For comparison see https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tanzu-Application-Catalog/index.html

coyote240/docs-tap