/docs-tap

Documentation Repository for Tanzu Application Platform (TAP)

Overview

This repo contains the content for Tanzu Application Platform docs, v0.1–v1.1

Branches

Branch Usage
main Development branch for pre-release v1.1 docs staged at https://docs-staging.vmware.com/en/draft/Tanzu-Application-Platform/1.1/tap/GUID-overview.html
1-0 Branch that is published to https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tanzu-Application-Platform/index.html
beta-4 Branch that is published to https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tanzu-Application-Platform/index.html
beta-3 Branch that is published to https://docs.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.
convention controller Lowercase; this is one of the minor components that make up Convention Service
convention server Lowercase; this is one of the minor components that make up Convention Service
Convention Service Title case; this is a component with its own TanzuNet product page
Default Supply Chain singular
Insight CLI There was a mix of Insight CLI and insight CLI. Standardized on the former.
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
Services Toolkit for VMware Tanzu (First use in body text) No longer Services Control Plane Toolkit 2021.10.26 Ed Cook
Services Toolkit (In headings and after first use in body text) No longer SCP Toolkit 2021.10.26 Ed Cook
Source Controller Title case; this is a component with its own TanzuNet product page
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. Also not "the Tanzu Application Platform GUI" because Tanzu Application Platform GUI is considered a product name.
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

Other style stuff

Top tips:

  • Keep line lengths short, around 110 chars.
  • Start each sentence on its own line. Markdown only creates new paragraphs after a blank line.
  • We've changed our heading style to match the more modern style: sentence case not title case. So going forward, we only need to capitalize the first word in a title. E.g. "Other style stuff" instead of "Other Style Stuff."
  • UI elements are bolded and the widget type not mentioned. For example, "Click on the NEXT STEPS button." is rewritten as "Click NEXT STEPS."

Autogenerated Docs

If a doc file is autogenerated, any direct edits are overwritten at the next autogeneration event. The files in these folders are autogenerated:

  • scst-store/cli_docs

Troubleshooting Markdown

Problem List displays as a paragraph
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.
Problem List numbering is broken: every item is 1.
Symptom: Each numbered item in a list is a 1. instead of 1., 2., 3., etc
Solution: Try removing any blank newlines within each step.
Problem Code boxes not showing
Symptom: VMware publishing system doesn't accept code tags after the three back ticks.
Solution: Make sure you're not using shell or bash or console or yaml after back ticks.

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

v1.1 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.

git pull ; rm *.zip ; zip -r tap-1-0 *

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

  1. Wait about 1 minute for processing to complete after uploading.

  2. 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.

  1. Go to Staging publications in docsdash
    https://docsdash.vmware.com/deployment-stage

  2. Select a publication (make sure it's the latest version)

  3. Click "Deploy selected to Pre-Prod" and wait for the pop to turn green (refresh if necessary after about 10s)

  4. Go to Pre-Prod list
    https://docsdash.vmware.com/deployment-pre-prod

  5. Select a publication

  6. Click "Sign off for Release"

  7. Wait for your username to show up in the "Signed off by" column

  8. Select the publication again

  9. 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 Tanzu Kubernetes Grid publish separate release notes publications for each point release.
  • For comparison see https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tanzu-Application-Catalog/index.html