Dox

Dox is a JavaScript documentation generator written with node. Dox no longer generates an opinionated structure or style for your docs, it simply gives you a JSON representation, allowing you to use _markdown_ and _JSDoc_-style tags.

Installation

Install from npm:

$ npm install -g dox

Usage Examples

dox(1) operates over stdio:

$ dox < utils.js
...JSON...

to inspect the generated data you can use the --debug flag, which is easier to read than the JSON output:

$ dox --debug < utils.js

utils.js:

``js
/**
* Escape the given html.
*
* @example
* utils.escape('')
* // => '<script></script>'
*
* @param {String} html string to be escaped
* @return {String} escaped html
* @api public
*/

exports.escape = function(html){
return String(html)
.replace(/&(?!\w+;)/g, '&')
.replace(/ .replace(/>/g, '>');
};
`

output:

`json
[
{
"tags": [
{
"type": "example",
"string": " utils.escape('')\n // => '<script></script>'",
"html": "

utils.escape('<script></script>')\n// => '&lt;script&gt;&lt;/script&gt;'\n

`

Usage: dox [options]

Options:

-h, --help output usage information
-V, --version output the version number
-r, --raw output "raw" comments, leaving the markdown intact
-a, --api output markdown readme documentation
-s, --skipPrefixes [prefixes] skip comments prefixed with these prefixes, separated by commas
-d, --debug output parsed comments for debugging
-S, --skipSingleStar set to false to ignore / ... / comments

Examples:

# stdin
$ dox > myfile.json

# operates over stdio
$ dox < myfile.js > myfile.json

`

$3

` javascript

var dox = require('dox'),
code = "...";

var obj = dox.parseComments(code);

// [{ tags:[ ... ], description, ... }, { ... }, ...]

`

Properties

A "comment" is comprised of the following detailed properties:

- tags
- description
- isPrivate
- isEvent
- isConstructor
- line
- ignore
- code
- ctx

$3

A dox description is comprised of three parts, the "full" description,
the "summary", and the "body". The following example has only a "summary",
as it consists of a single paragraph only, therefore the "full" property has
only this value as well.

`js
/**
* Output the given str to _stdout_.
*/

exports.write = function(str) {
process.stdout.write(str);
};
`
yields:

`js
description:
{ full: '

Output the given str to stdout.

`js
/**
* Output the given str to _stdout_
* or the stream specified by options.
*
* Options:
*
* - stream defaulting to _stdout_
*
* Examples:
*
* mymodule.write('foo')
* mymodule.write('foo', { stream: process.stderr })
*
*/

exports.write = function(str, options) {
options = options || {};
(options.stream || process.stdout).write(str);
};
`

yields:

`js
description:
{ full: '

Output the given str to stdout
or the stream specified by options.

mymodule.write(\'foo\')\nmymodule.write(\'foo\', { stream: process.stderr })\n

mymodule.write(\'foo\')\nmymodule.write(\'foo\', { stream: process.stderr })\n

Dox also supports JSdoc-style tags. Currently only __@api__ is special-cased, providing the comment.isPrivate boolean so you may omit "private" utilities etc.

`js

/**
* Output the given str to _stdout_
* or the stream specified by options.
*
* @param {String} str
* @param {{stream: Writable}} options
* @return {Object} exports for chaining
*/

exports.write = function(str, options) {
options = options || {};
(options.stream || process.stdout).write(str);
return this;
};
`

yields:

`js
tags:
[ { type: 'param',
string: '{String} str',
types: [ 'String' ],
name: 'str',
description: '' },
{ type: 'param',
string: '{{stream: Writable}} options',
types: [ { stream: ['Writable'] } ],
name: 'options',
description: '' },
{ type: 'return',
string: '{Object} exports for chaining',
types: [ 'Object' ],
description: 'exports for chaining' },
{ type: 'api',
visibility: 'public' } ]
`

#### Complex jsdoc tags

dox supports all jsdoc type strings specified in the jsdoc documentation. You can
specify complex object types including optional flag =, nullable ?, non-nullable ! and variable arguments ....

Additionally you can use typesDescription which contains formatted HTML for displaying complex types.

`js

/**
* Generates a person information string based on input.
*
* @param {string | {name: string, age: number | date}} name Name or person object
* @param {{separator: string} =} options An options object
* @return {string} The constructed information string
*/

exports.generatePersonInfo = function(name, options) {
var str = '';
var separator = options && options.separator ? options.separator : ' ';

if(typeof name === 'object') {
str = [name.name, '(', name.age, ')'].join(separator);
} else {
str = name;
}
};
`

yields:

`js
tags:
[
{
"tags": [
{
"type": "param",
"string": "{string | {name: string, age: number | date}} name Name or person object",
"name": "name",
"description": "Name or person object",
"types": [
"string",
{
"name": [
"string"
],
"age": [
"number",
"date"
]
}
],
"typesDescription": "string|{ name: string, age: number|date }",
"optional": false,
"nullable": false,
"nonNullable": false,
"variable": false
},
{
"type": "param",
"string": "{{separator: string} =} options An options object",
"name": "options",
"description": "An options object",
"types": [
{
"separator": [
"string"
]
}
],
"typesDescription": "{ separator: string }|undefined",
"optional": true,
"nullable": false,
"nonNullable": false,
"variable": false
},
{
"type": "return",
"string": "{string} The constructed information string",
"types": [
"string"
],
"typesDescription": "string",
"optional": false,
"nullable": false,
"nonNullable": false,
"variable": false,
"description": "The constructed information string"
}
]
`

$3

The .code property is the code following the comment block, in our previous examples:

`js
exports.write = function(str, options) {
options = options || {};
(options.stream || process.stdout).write(str);
return this;
};
`

$3

The .ctx object indicates the context of the code block, is it a method, a function, a variable etc. Below are some examples:

`js
exports.write = function(str, options) {
};
`

yields:

`js
ctx:
{ type: 'method',
receiver: 'exports',
name: 'write',
string: 'exports.write()' } }
`

`js
var foo = 'bar';
`

yields:

`js
ctx:
{ type: 'declaration',
name: 'foo',
value: '\'bar\'',
string: 'foo' }
`

`js
function User() {

}
`

yields:

`js
ctx:
{ type: 'function',
name: 'User',
string: 'User()' } }
`

$3

Context matching in dox is done by performing pattern matching against the code following a
comment block. dox.contextPatternMatchers is an array of all pattern matching functions,
which dox will iterate over until one of them returns a result. If none return a result,
then the comment block does not receive a ctx value.

This array is exposed to allow for extension of unsupported context patterns by adding more
functions. Each function is passed the code following the comment block and (if detected)
the parent context if the block.

`js
dox.contextPatternMatchers.push(function (str, parentContext) {
// return a context object if found
// return false otherwise
});
`

$3

Comments and their associated bodies of code may be flagged with "!" to be considered worth ignoring, these are typically things like file comments containing copyright etc, however you of course can output them in your templates if you want.

`
/**
* Not ignored.
*/
`

vs

`
/*!
* Ignored.
*/
`

You may use -S, --skipSingleStar or {skipSingleStar: true} to ignore / ... / comments.

$3

Install dev dependencies and execute make test`:

$ npm install -d
$ make test

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2011 TJ Holowaychuk <tj@vision-media.ca>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.