Documentation toolbox for your javascript / typescript projects based on JSDoc3 with @category, @component and @optional plugins.

This is how it looks:

Example

Example documentation can be found here: https://softwarebrothers.github.io/example-design-system/index.html

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Installation

npm install --save-dev better-docs

Theme Usage

With command line

Assuming that you have jsdoc installed globally:

jsdoc your-documented-file.js -t ./node_modules/better-docs

With npm and configuration file

In your projects package.json file - add a new script:

"script": {
  "docs": "jsdoc -c jsdoc.json"
}

in your jsdoc.json file, set the template:

"opts": {
  "template": "node_modules/better-docs"
}

TypeScript support

better-docs has a plugin which allows you to generate documentation from your TypeScript codebase.

Usage

To use it update your jsdoc.json file

...
"tags": {
    "allowUnknownTags": ["optional"] //or true
},
"plugins": [
    "node_modules/better-docs/typescript"
],
"source": {
    "includePattern": "\\.(jsx|js|ts|tsx)$",
},
...

And now you can run your jsdoc command and parse TypeScript files.

How it works?

It performs 4 operations:

• First of all it transpiles all .ts and .tsx files to .js, so that all comments used by you are treated as a regular JSDoc comments.

Furthermore it:

• Converts all your commented type aliases to @typedef
• Converts all your commented interface definitions to @interface,
• Converts descriptions for your public, protected, static class members

so they can be printed by JSDoc automatically.

Examples

/**
 * ActionRequest
 * @memberof Action
 * @alias ActionRequest
 */
export type ActionRequest = {
  /**
   * parameters passed in an URL
   */
  params: {
    /**
     * Id of current resource
     */
    resourceId: string;
    /**
     * Id of current record
     */
    recordId?: string;
    /**
     * Name of an action
     */
    action: string;

    [key: string]: any;
  };
}

is converted to:

/**
 * ActionRequest'
 * @memberof Action'
 * @alias ActionRequest'
 * @typedef {object} ActionRequest'
 * @property {object} params   parameters passed in an URL'
 * @property {string} params.resourceId   Id of current resource'
 * @property {string} [params.recordId]   Id of current record'
 * @property {string} params.action   Name of an action'
 * @property {any} params.{...}'
 */

Also you can comment the interface in a similar fashion:

/**
 * JSON representation of an {@link Action}
 * @see Action
 */
export default interface ActionJSON {
  /**
   * Unique action name
   */
  name: string;
  /**
   * Type of an action
   */
  actionType: 'record' | 'resource' | Array<'record' | 'resource'>;
  /**
   * Action icon
   */
  icon?: string;
  /**
   * Action label - visible on the frontend
   */
  label: string;
  /**
   * Guarding message
   */
  guard?: string;
  /**
   * If action should have a filter (for resource actions)
   */
  showFilter: boolean;
  /**
   * Action component. When set to false action will be invoked immediately after clicking it,
   * to put in another words: there wont be an action view
   */
  component?: string | false | null;
}

or describe your class properties like that:

/**
 * Class name
 */
class ClassName {
  /**
   * Some private member which WONT be in jsdoc (because it is private)
   */
  private name: string

  /**
   * Some protected member which will go to the docs
   */
  protected somethingIsA: number

  /**
   * And static member which will goes to the docs.
   */
  static someStaticMember: number

  public notCommentedWontBeInJSDoc: string

  constructor(color: string) {}
}

@category plugin

better-docs also allows you to nest your documentation into categories and subcategories in the sidebar menu.

Usage

To add a plugin - update plugins section in your jsdoc.json file:

...
"tags": {
    "allowUnknownTags": ["category"] //or true
},
"plugins": [
    "node_modules/better-docs/category"
],
...

and then you can use @category and/or @subcategory tag in your code:

/**
 * Class description
 * @category Category
 * @subcategory All
 */
class YourClass {
  ....
}

@component plugin [BETA]

Better-docs also allows you to document your React and Vue components automatically. The only thing you have to do is to add a @component tag. It will take all props from your components and along with an @example tag - will generate a live preview.

Installation instructions

Similar as before to add a plugin - you have to update the plugins section in your jsdoc.json file:

...
"tags": {
    "allowUnknownTags": ["component"] //or true
},
"plugins": [
    "node_modules/better-docs/component"
],
...

Since component plugin uses parcel as a bundler you have to install it globally. To do this run:

# if you use npm
npm install -g parcel-bundler

# or yarn
yarn global add parcel-bundler

Usage

To document components simply add @component in your JSDoc documentation:

/**
 * Some documented component
 *
 * @component
 */
const Documented = (props) => {
  const { text } = props
  return (


{text}


  )
}

Documented.propTypes = {
  /**
   * Text is a text
   */
  text: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
}

export default Documented

The plugin will take the information from your PropTypes and put them into an array.

For Vue it looks similar:

<script>
/**
 * @component
 */
export default {
  name: 'ExampleComponent',
  props: {
    spent: {
      type: Number,
      default: 30,
    },
    remaining: {
      type: Number,
      default: 40,
    }
  },
}
</script>

In this case, props will be taken from props property.

Preview

@component plugin also modifies the behaviour of @example tag in a way that it can generate an actual component preview. What you have to do is to add an @example tag and return component from it:

React example:

/**
 * Some documented component
 *
 * @component
 * @example
 * const text = 'some example text'
 * return (
 *   <Documented text={text} />
 * )
 */
const Documented = (props) => {
  ///...
}

Vue example 1:

<script>
/**
 * @component
 * @example
 * <ExampleComponent :spent="100" :remaining="50"></ExampleComponent>
 */
export default {
  name: 'ExampleComponent',
  //...
}
</script>

Vue example 2:

<script>
/**
 * @component
 * @example
 * {
 *   template: `<Box>
 *     <ProgressBar :spent="spent" :remaining="50"></ProgressBar>
 *     <ProgressBar :spent="50" :remaining="50" style="margin-top: 20px"></ProgressBar>
 *   </Box>`,
 *   data: function() {
 *     return {spent: 223};
 *   }
 * }
 */
export default {
  name: 'ExampleComponent',
  //...
}
</script>

You can put as many @example tags as you like in one component and "caption" each of them like this:

/**
 * @component
 * @example <caption>Example usage of method1.</caption>
 * // your example here
 */

Mixing components in preview

Also you can use multiple components which are documented with @component tag together. So lets say you have 2 components and in the second component you want to use the first one as a wrapper like this:

// component-1.js
/**
 * Component 1
 * @component
 *
 */
const Component1 = (props) => {...}

// component-2.js
/**
 * Component 2
 * @component
 * @example
 * return (
 *   <Component1>
 *     <Component2 prop1={'some value'}/>
 *     <Component2 prop1={'some other value'}/>
 *   </Component1>
 * )
 */
const Component2 = (props) => {...}

Wrapper component [only React]

Most probably your components will have to be run within a particular context, like within redux store provider or with custom CSS libraries. You can simulate this by passing a component.wrapper in your jsdoc.json: (To read more about passing options - scroll down to __Customization__ section)

// jsdoc.json
{
    "opts": {...},
    "templates": {
        "better-docs": {
            "name": "Sample Documentation",
            "component": {
              "wrapper": "./path/to/your/wrapper-component.js",
            },
            "...": "...",
        }
    }
}

Wrapper component can look like this:

// wrapper-component.js
import React from 'react'
import { BrowserRouter } from 'react-router-dom'
import { createStore } from 'redux'
import { Provider } from 'react-redux'

const store = createStore(() => ({}), {})

const Component = (props) => {
  return (
    <React.Fragment>
      <head>
        <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/bulma/0.7.5/css/bulma.css" />
      </head>
      <Provider store={store}>
        <BrowserRouter>
          {props.children}
        </BrowserRouter>
      </Provider>
    </React.Fragment>
  )
}

export default Component

Styling React examples

Better-docs inserts all examples within an iframe. This results in the following styling options:

1. If you pass styles inline - they will work right away.

2. For css modules to work with parcel bundler - you have to install postcss-modules package:

yarn add postcss-modules

and create a .postcssrc file:

// .postcssrc
{
    "modules": true
}

1. For styled-components you have to use wrapper component which looks like this:

import React from 'react'
import { StyleSheetManager } from 'styled-components'

const Component = (props) => {
  const { frameContext } = props
  return (
    <StyleSheetManager target={frameContext.document.head}>
      {props.children}
    </StyleSheetManager>
  )
}

export default Component

Adding commands to bundle entry file

@component plugin creates an entry file: .entry.js in your docs output folder. Sometimes you might want to add something to it. You can do this by passing: component.entry option, which is an array of strings.

So let's say you want to add babel-polyfill and 'bulma.css' framework to your bundle. You can do it like this:

// jsdoc.json
{
    "opts": {...},
    "templates": {
        "better-docs": {
            "name": "Sample Documentation",
            "component": {
                "entry": [
                    "import 'babel-polyfill';",
                    "import 'bulma/css/bulma.css';"
                ]
            },
            "...": "...",
        }
    }
}

Customization

First of all, let me state that better-docs extends the default template. That is why default template parameters are also handled.

[BETA]: You must explicitly set the search option of the default template to true to enable search

To customize the better-docs pass options to templates['better-docs']. section in your jsdoc configuration file.

Example configuration file with settings for both default and better-docs templates:

{
    "tags": {
        "allowUnknownTags": ["category"]
    },
    "source": {
        "include": ["./src"],
        "includePattern": ".js$",
        "excludePattern": "(node_modules/|docs)"
    },
    "plugins": [
        "plugins/markdown",
        "jsdoc-mermaid",
        "node_modules/better-docs/category"
    ],
    "opts": {
        "encoding": "utf8",
        "destination": "docs/",
        "readme": "readme.md",
        "recurse": true,
        "verbose": true,
        "tutorials": "./docs-src/tutorials",
        "template": "better-docs"
    },
    "templates": {
        "cleverLinks": false,
        "monospaceLinks": false,
        "search": true,
        "default": {
            "staticFiles": {
              "include": [
                  "./docs-src/statics"
              ]
            }
        },
        "better-docs": {
            "name": "Sample Documentation",
            "logo": "images/logo.png",
            "title": "", // HTML title
            "css": "style.css",
            "trackingCode": "tracking-code-which-will-go-to-the-HEAD",
        "hideGenerator": false,
            "navLinks": [
                {
                    "label": "Github",
                    "href": "https://github.com/SoftwareBrothers/admin-bro"
                },
                {
                    "label": "Example Application",
                    "href": "https://admin-bro-example-app-staging.herokuapp.com/admin"
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

Extras

typedef(import(...))

better-docs also has one extra plugin for handling typescript'like types imports like (it has to be one-liner):

/** @typedef {import('./some-other-file').ExportedType} ExportedType */

It simply removes that from the code so JSDoc wont throw an error. In order to use it add this plugin to your plugins section:

  "plugins": [
        "node_modules/better-docs/typedef-import"
    ],

Setting up for the development

If you want to change the theme locally follow the steps:

1. Clone the repo to the folder where you have the project:

``` cd your-project git clone gi