amd-doc

amd-doc is a JavaScript documentation generator for AMD-based projects. It post-processes the JSON output of jsdoc3, using RequireJS configuration and AMD conventions to infer more information.

Installation

npm install amd-doc

Usage

The main functionality of amd-doc is exposed through the compile function. It returns a Deferred object and accepts an opts argument which can contain these properties (example from deferreds.js):

var amddoc = require('amd-doc');

amddoc.compile({
	//globbing-supported String or Array of Strings with process-relative
	//files to process for documentation. Entries starting with "!" will be excluded.
	files: 'src/deferreds/**/*.js',

	//directory to output generated HTML (default = 'doc/out')
	out: 'doc/out',

	//directory to store jsdoc cache (default = 'doc/cache')
	cache: 'doc/cache',

	//directory to look for markdown mixins (default = 'doc/mixin')
	mixin: 'doc/mixin',

	//github URL where source is available. the file path and line number of
	//each documented variable will be added to this to make source links.
	repoview: 'https://github.com/zship/deferreds.js/blob/develop/',

	//Array of Type (see tasks/doc/Types.js) objects to transform into links
	//when used as parameter types, return types, or description namepaths
	types: (function() {
		var types = [];

		//make all built-in types link to their MDN pages
		['Number', 'String', 'Object', 'Function', 'Array', 'RegExp', 'Boolean'].forEach(function(val) {
			types.push({
				name: val,
				link: 'https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/' + val
			});
		});

		types.push({
			name: 'Any',
			link: 'https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects'
		});

		types.push({
			name: 'void',
			link: 'https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/undefined'
		});

		types.push({
			name: 'Element',
			link: 'https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/element'
		});

		types.push({
			name: 'jQuery',
			link: 'http://api.jquery.com/jQuery/'
		});

		types.push({
			name: 'require',
			link: 'http://requirejs.org/'
		});

		types.push({
			//any name matching this RegExp (with name.search()) will be given
			//the following link
			regexp: /amd-utils\/.*/,
			link: 'http://millermedeiros.github.com/amd-utils/'
		});

		return types;
	})(),

	//requirejs configuration object
	//more: https://github.com/jrburke/r.js/blob/master/build/example.build.js
	//amd-doc uses `basePath`, `paths`, and `packages` (all optional) to
	//transform file names to AMD module names.
	requirejs: {
		baseUrl: 'src/deferreds',
		optimize: 'none',
		packages: [
			{ name: 'amd-utils', location: '../lib/amd-utils' }
		],
	}
});

What it does

Inferred information

Class names
- Convention: one class per file - names the class after the last part of the module name (e.g. 'joss/geometry/Rect' -> 'Rect')
- When using @lends, any name may be specified and it will be replaced by the last part of the module name (i.e. /** @lends __.prototype */ will apply its properties to the only class defined in the file, regardless of the existence of a variable __)
Namespace names
- Convention: one namespace per file - names the namespace after the last part of the module name
- @namespace may be used by itself (with no name to assign to the namespace)
Dependencies
- AMD dependencies of each file are included in the output

Other Additions

Cache jsdoc output
- jsdoc3 is very comprehensive, but suffers from poor performance. amd-doc tries to compensate by maintaining a per-file cache, with freshness determined by hashing each source file's contents and comparing on each run.
Type system
- Every declared class will, on declaration, have a Type object associated with it (see tasks/doc/Types.js). These Types contain both long names (full module names) and short names (last part of the module name) and are used to match against AMD dependencies, parameters, return types, and namepaths in descriptions.
- External types like {String} and {Object} can be specified in the configuration object, to present links in the output. (e.g. {String} can become String, linking to MDN's String reference)
Mixing-in markdown documentation from external files
- Markdown files can be specified in a directory structure mirroring your source, one per source file. Any h2s (##) in the file will be matched against variable names in your source, and content under the h2 will replace the description for that variable
Converting jsdoc namepaths or Type names to links within descriptions
- Specify namepaths between braces {}, and if there is a matching documented variable, the namepath will be converted to a link.
- {joss/geometry/Rect#moveTop} becomes Rect.moveTop
- {Rect#moveTop} also becomes Rect.moveTop, if the short-name "Rect" is not declared more than once
- {joss/geometry/Rect} becomes Rect. (it's a Type name, not a jsdoc namepath)
Multiple inheritance
- Using the C3 Method Resolution Order algorithm, the full inheritance heirarchy of classes which @extend multiple Classes is computed.
Unstyled HTML output
- Module definition for each module
  - code and pre blocks will be processed by highlight-js
- Taglist for each module
  - taglists and module definitions are rendered from jade templates (see tasks/tpl)
- Hierarchical menu linking to every module
Summary information
- List of all declared and external Types, both long names and short names
- List of ambiguous short names (e.g. joss/geometry/Rect and joss/display/Rect are unique modules, but the last part (the short-name) of both is Rect)
- List of undeclared Types (used in parameters, return types, or description namepaths but never declared)
- Percentage of documented variables with markdown descriptions
- Percentage of documented variables with non-empty descriptions
- (Guess) list of direct members of documented classes which have no jsdoc annotations, but probably should (because they're direct members)