GuideAutomator


> Automated User Guide Generation with Markdown

GuideAutomator allows developers and technical writers to create user manuals with screenshots that are always in sync with the latest version of the application being documented. For that end, it takes as input a Markdown file containing the user manual text with short JavaScript chunks that determine how to capture each screencast.

Sample GuideAutomator input:

## How to find GuideAutomator

Open the Bing website and type GuideAutomator aside-ufba:

``js
get('https://bing.com/');
fillIn('#sb_form_q', 'GuideAutomator aside-ufba');
takeScreenshotOf('#sb_form>div', true);
`

Press Enter. The first result should be what you are looking for:

`js
submit('#sb_form');
takeScreenshotOf('#b_results>li:nth-child(1)', true);
`

Corresponding output:

!GuideAutomator output

GuideAutomator was proposed by professor Rodrigo Souza and originally implemented by Allan Oliveira as part of his Bachelor's thesis. The project is now being maintained by Welbert Serra. The project is being developed in the context of aSide, a research group at the Federal University of Bahia specialized in software design and evolution.

Related publications:

- GuideAutomator: Continuous Delivery of End User Documentation -- paper accepted at ICSE 2017, NIER Track (New Ideas and Emerging Results)
- GuideAutomator: Automated User Manual
Generation with Markdown -- Allan Oliveira's bachelor thesis
- GuideAutomator: Automated User Manual Generation with Markdown -- paper presented at CBSoft 2016 (Tools Track)

---

Summary

- Installation
- Prerequisites
- Linux
- Windows
- Getting started
- Description
- Example
- Css selector
- Firefox extension
- Usage
- Api commands
- Using GD.driver
- Author
- Contributors

----


Installation

`coffeescript
sudo wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aside-ufba/guide-automator/master/install_linux.sh | bash -
`

- (Option 2) Manual installation. You need install some binary dependencies.

1.Node and npm:
`
https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/#debian-and-ubuntu-based-linux-distributions
`
2.ImageMagick (Usually is already installed):
`
https://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php#unix
`
3.Wkhtmltopdf
`
http://wkhtmltopdf.org/downloads.html
`
4.Chrome/Chromium Browser
`
-Chrome:
https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html
-Chromium:
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser
`
5.Chrome WebDriver
`
https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/index.html?path=2.25/
`
6.Guide-Automator
`
sudo npm install -g guide-automator
`
Node, wkhtmltopdf and Chrome WebDriver need to be add in path.

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#### Windows

1.Node and npm:
`
https://nodejs.org/en/download/
`
2.ImageMagick: (Check to install legacy utilities)
`
https://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php#windows
`
3.Wkhtmltopdf
`
http://wkhtmltopdf.org/downloads.html
`
4.Chrome
`
-Chrome:
https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html
`
5.Chrome WebDriver
`
https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/index.html?path=2.25/
`
6.Guide-Automator
`
npm install -g guide-automator
`
Node, ImageMagick(convert.exe), Wkhtmltopdf and Chrome WebDriver need to be add in path.

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---


Getting started

#### Description
Guide-automator extract javascript or js tags (\\\javascript guide-automator commands \\\ or \\\js guide-automator commands \\\) from markdown file and generate manual from them. You need use our API commands in markdown file.

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#### Example:
`


This is my github

`js
get('https://github.com/welbert');
takeScreenshot();
takeScreenshotOf('.avatar',false,true);

`(<- three back-ticks)

`
More examples with comments here or see raw, if you want to look the output pdf (_This pdf was created using command '$ guide-automator -i examples/example.md -o output/ -s lightBlue'_)

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#### Css selector
You will need know how to extract css selector of Web elements, you can use the browser to do that. If you dont know how to do this, see below.

* Google Chrome

!Inspect Element


!Copy Css Selector

* Mozilla Firefox

!Inspect Element


!Copy Css Selector

After this steps, the css selector will be copied to your clipboard

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---
#### Firefox extension
---
You can use the firefox addon to make easy the construction of blocks

Guide-automator-addon

!Context

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---


USAGE

`
$ guide-automator -h

Usage: guide-automator [options]

Options:


-h, --help Output usage information
-V, --version Output the version number
-i, --input Input .md file
-o, --output Output destination folder
-P, --pdf Export manual to PDF, default is export for all types
-H, --html Export manual to HTML, default is export for all types
-I, --image Export ONLY manual's image and ignore others types, default is export for all types
-s, --style Css style to be used in the manual or theme [lightBlue,lightOrange]
-t, --autosleep Time to sleep before screenshot
-d, --debug Show progress of code
-b, --browser Use Chromium browser at given path
-l, --headless Use headless Chrome (does not require a GUI)
-w, --window Set browser window's dimensions (e.g., 800x600)

Examples:

$ guide-automator -i input.md -o output/
$ guide-automator -i input.md
$ guide-automator -i input.md -o output/ -s lightBlue

`

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---


API commands

Params: [Optional]

- get
- click
- clickByLinkText
- highlight
- takeScreenshot
- takeScreenshotOf
- fillIn
- submit
- wait
- sleep
- console.print
- pageContext

$3