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<!DOCTYPE html>  <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>CanJS - Documentation</title> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, user-scalable=no"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../static/bundles/bit-docs-site/static.css"> <link rel="shortcut icon" sizes="16x16 24x24 32x32 48x48 64x64" href="/docs/images/canjs_favicon.ico"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="57x57" href="../../../docs/images/canjs_favicon_57x57.png"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="../../../docs/images/canjs_favicon_57x57.png"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="72x72" href="../../../docs/images/canjs_favicon_72x72.png"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="114x114" href="../../../docs/images/canjs_favicon_114x114.png"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="120x120" href="../../../docs/images/canjs_favicon_128x128.png"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="144x144" href="../../../docs/images/canjs_favicon_144x144.png"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="152x152" href="../../../docs/images/canjs_favicon_152x152.png"> <meta content="yes" name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable"> <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="white-translucent"> <script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-2302003-11', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script> </head> <body> <input type="checkbox" id="nav-trigger" class="nav-trigger"/> <label for="nav-trigger">Menu</label> <div id="everything"> <div id="left" class="column"> <div class="top-left"> <div class="brand"> <div class="logo"> <a href="../../../index.html" alt="CanJS"></a> <div class="dropdown project-dropdown"> <a href="https://donejs.com/">DoneJS</a> <a href="http://stealjs.com/">StealJS</a> <a href="http://jquerypp.com/">jQuery ++</a> <a href="https://funcunit.com/">FuncUnit</a> <a href="http://documentjs.com/">DocumentJS</a> </div> </div> <div class="version"> <div class="version-number"> 3.0.0 </div> <div class="dropdown version-dropdown"> <a href="https://v2.canjs.com">2.3.27</a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="search-bar"> <p>   </p> </div> </div> <div class="bottom-left"> <div class="social-side-container"> <ul class="social-side"> <li> <a class="header-mobile github" href="https://github.com/canjs/canjs" target="_blank"><img class="social-icon-small" src="../../../docs/images/github.png">Github</a> </li> <li> <a class="header-mobile twitter" href="https://twitter.com/canjs" target="_blank"><img class="social-icon-small" src="../../../docs/images/twitter.png">Twitter</a> </li> </ul> <ul class="social-side"> <li> <a class="header-mobile" href="https://gitter.im/canjs/canjs" target="_blank">Chat</a> </li> <li> <a class="header-mobile" href="http://forums.donejs.com/c/canjs" target="_blank">Forum</a> </li> </ul> </div> <ul> <li class=" parent expanded"> <a class="page" href="../../guides.html" title="Welcome to CanJS! These guides are here to help you develop and improve your relationship with CanJS. After all, picking a JavaScript framework is a commitment. We want CanJS to be the framework you marry. This page helps you know how advance through the different stages of this relationship:"> Guides </a> <ul> <li> <span>introduction</span> <ul> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../mission.html" title="Learn about CanJS's mission, why it matters, and how we've worked (and will keep working) to accomplish it."> Mission </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../technical.html" title=""> Technical Highlights </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../who-uses-canjs.html" title=""> Who uses CanJS? </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <span>experiment</span> <ul> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../chat.html" title="This guide walks through building real time chat application with CanJS's Core libraries. It takes about 30 minutes to complete."> Chat Guide </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../todomvc.html" title="This guide walks through building a slightly modified version of TodoMVC with CanJS's Core libraries and can-fixture. It takes about 1 hour to complete."> TodoMVC Guide </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../atm.html" title="This guide walks through building and testing an ATM application with CanJS's Core libraries. It teaches how to do test driven development (TDD) and manage complex state. It takes about 2 hours to complete."> ATM Guide </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../setup.html" title="CanJS is packaged in multiple ways so that it can fit into any development workflow. Learn how to setup CanJS in different environments."> Setting up CanJS </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <span>commitment</span> <ul> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../api.html" title="This page walks through how to use and understand CanJS's API documentation."> API Guide </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../examples.html" title=""> Examples </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../../roadmap.html" title="Learn about CanJS's future plans and how we make them, and how you can influence them."> Roadmap </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../../migrate-3.html" title=""> Migrating to 3.0 </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <span>contribute</span> <ul> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="bug-report.html" title="Learn how to submit a bug report."> Bug Report </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="code.html" title="Learn how contribute a code change to CanJS."> Code </a> </li> <li class="current parent expanded"> <a class="page" href="documentation.html" title="Learn how to improve CanJS's site and documentation."> Documentation </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="evangelism.html" title="Learn about resources that can help you spread the word about CanJS."> Evangelism </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="feature-suggestion.html" title="Learn how to suggest a feature."> Feature Suggestion </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="releases.html" title="Release and hosting information for CanJS maintainers."> Releases </a> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../../can-core.html" title="The best, most hardened and generally useful libraries in CanJS."> Core </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../../can-ecosystem.html" title="Useful libraries that extend or add important features to the core collection."> Ecosystem </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../../can-infrastructure.html" title="Utility libraries that power the core and ecosystem collection."> Infrastructure </a> </li> <li class=" "> <a class="page" href="../../can-legacy.html" title="Former libraries that we still accept patches for, but are not under active development."> Legacy </a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="right" class="column"> <div class="top-right"> <div class="top-right-top"> <ul class="top-right-bitovi"> <li class="dropdown"> <a href="http://bitovi.com" class="bitovi icon-bits">Bitovi</a> <ul class="dropdown-menu"> <li><a href="http://bitovi.com">Bitovi.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://bitovi.com/blog/">Blog</a></li> <li><a href="http://bitovi.com/consulting/">Consulting</a></li> <li><a href="http://bitovi.com/training/">Training</a></li> <li><a href="http://bitovi.com/open-source/">Open Source</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <div class="brand"> <div class="logo"> <a href="../../../index.html" alt="CanJS"></a> </div> </div> <ul class="top-right-links"> <li> <a href="https://gitter.im/canjs/canjs">Chat</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://forums.donejs.com/c/canjs">Forum</a> </li> <li> <a class="github-button nav-social" href="https://github.com/canjs/canjs" data-count-href="/canjs/canjs/stargazers" data-count-api="/repos/canjs/canjs#stargazers_count">Star</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://twitter.com/canjs" class="twitter-follow-button nav-social" data-show-count="true" data-show-screen-name="false">Follow @canjs</a><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="breadcrumb"> <li><a href="../../../index.html">CanJS</a></li> / <li><a href="../../guides.html">Guides</a></li> / <li><a href="documentation.html">Documentation</a></li> <li class="breadcrumb-dropdown">/ <a> On this page</a> <ul class="on-this-page"></ul> </li> <div class="nav-toggle" title="Back to top"></div> </div> </div> <div class="bottom-right"> <article> <section class="title"> <div class="page-type"> <h1>Documentation</h1> <div>page</div> </div> <section class="description"> <p>Learn how to improve CanJS's site and documentation.</p> </section> </section> <section class="on-this-page-table"> </section> <section class="title-footer"> <ul class="title-links">  <li><a href="//github.com/canjs/canjs/tree/v3.0.0/docs/can-guides/contribute/documentation.md">source</a></li>   </ul> </section> <section class="body"> <h2>Overview</h2> <p>The CanJS site is generated with <a href="https://github.com/bit-docs/bit-docs">bit-docs</a>, a modified version of <a href="http://documentjs.com">DocumentJS</a>. Its content is hosted using Github pages publishing the <a href="https://github.com/canjs/canjs/tree/gh-pages">canjs/canjs#gh-pages</a> repo.</p> <p><code>bit-docs</code> reads JavaScript comments and markdown files within the <code>canjs</code> repo as well as the individual repositories within <code>node_modules</code> to produce a static site.</p> <p>The high level content (Ex: homepage) and the guides content for the site is within the <code>canjs/docs</code> folder. Individual repositories contain their own markdown and commented JavaScript files used to produce their API pages.</p> <h2>Generate the documentation locally</h2> <p>To generate the CanJS site:</p> <ol> <li><p>Clone <a href="https://github.com/canjs/canjs">https://github.com/canjs/canjs</a></p> <pre><code>> git clone git@github.com:canjs/canjs </code></pre></li> <li><p>Install dependencies:</p> <pre><code>> npm install </code></pre></li> <li><p>Run <code>bit-docs</code>:</p> <pre><code>> ./node_modules/.bin/bit-docs -d </code></pre></li> </ol> <p>This should produce a static site in your <code>canjs</code> folder. Open <code>canjs/index.html</code> and you should see the site. You might want to use <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/http-server">http-server</a> to start a simple static file server.</p> <h2>Improve the theme's design and styles</h2> <p>The CanJS theme is in <a href="https://github.com/canjs/bit-docs-html-canjs">bit-docs-html-canjs</a>. It's <a href="https://github.com/canjs/bit-docs-html-canjs/blob/master/readme.md">readme</a> has instructions on how to test out the theme. Once the theme is updated and published,</p> <ol> <li>Open canjs/package.json. Update "bit-docs-html-canjs"'s version to the new theme version.</li> <li>Run <code>./node_modules/.bin/bit-docs -df</code> to make sure the theme is correctly applied.</li> </ol> <h2>Test out content from other repos</h2> <p>As noted above, the API docs from each package come from that package. So if you're improving the docs for say <code>can-compute</code>, you want to see what <code>can-compute</code>'s docs look like, install your local <code>can-compute</code> and re-run bit-docs like:</p> <pre><code>> npm install ../can-compute && ./node_modules/.bin/bit-docs -d </code></pre> <h2>Publish the documentation</h2> <p>Once the docs look right locally, commit your changes, then run:</p> <pre><code>> make </code></pre> <p>The make script will generate the documentation again and push out the <code>gh-pages</code> branch.</p> <h2>Writing API documentation</h2> <p>Our documentation is modeled off of jQuery's. Please read their <a href="https://github.com/jquery/api.jquery.com/blob/master/README.md">guidelines</a>. Also read our <a href="../api.html" title="This page walks through how to use and understand CanJS's API documentation.">API Guide</a>.</p> <p>Generally speaking there are three parts to every documentation page:</p> <ul> <li>Its description</li> <li>Its signatures</li> <li>The body (typically "Use" section)</li> </ul> <h3>Description</h3> <p>The description section should be a one or two sentence explanation of what this piece of documentation does from a <em>user</em> centric view. Descriptions are a quick summary of the <strong>why</strong> and the <strong>what</strong>. It should take on an active voice. For example, <a href="../../can-component.html" title="Create a custom element that can be used to manage widgets or application logic.">can-component</a>'s description:</p> <blockquote> <p>Create a custom element that can be used to manage widgets or application logic.</p> </blockquote> <p>Notice that it uses "Create" not "Creates".</p> <h3>Signatures</h3> <p>Signatures are the <strong>what</strong> and the <strong>how</strong>. They should include all or most of the following:</p> <ul> <li><strong>What the signature does</strong>, if different from the description, especially if there are multiple signatures.</li> <li>High level details on <strong>how the code works</strong>.</li> <li>A simple example showing <strong>how to use the code</strong>.</li> </ul> <p><a href="../../can-compute.html" title="Create an observable value.">can-compute</a>'s first signature is a good example of this. First, it explains <strong>what that signature does</strong>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Create a compute that derives its value from other observables.</p> </blockquote> <p>Then it briefly explains <strong>how the code works</strong>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Uses can-observation to call the getterSetter and track observables.</p> </blockquote> <p>Finally, it provides minimal sample code:</p> <pre><code class="language-js">var age = compute(32); var nameAndAge = compute(function(){ return "Matthew - " + age(); }); nameAndAge() // -> "Matthew - 32" age(33); nameAndAge() // -> "Matthew - 33" </code></pre> <p>Not all signatures need to hit all three points. For example <a href="../../can-event/batch/batch.html" title="Adds task batching abilities to event dispatching.">can-event/batch/batch</a>'s signature simply adds a bit more depth to the purpose of <a href="../../can-event/batch/batch.html" title="Adds task batching abilities to event dispatching.">can-event/batch/batch</a> and then details <strong>how the code works</strong>. <strong>How to use the code</strong> is left for the <code>body</code> section as importing the module is not necessary to show.</p> <p>Signature titles should follow jQuery's conventions:</p> <ul> <li>Static methods like: <code>TypeAlias.method()</code></li> <li>Prototype methods like: <code>typeAlias.method()</code></li> <li>Spaces in between arguments: <code>typeAlias.method( arg1, arg2 )</code></li> <li>Brackets around optional args: <code>typeAlias.method( arg1 [, arg2 ], arg3 )</code> or <code>typeAlias.method( arg1 [, arg2 ][, arg3 ] )</code></li> </ul> <p>Make sure to fully document the a signature's parameters and return value. There's a lot of flexibility in documenting the <a href="http://documentjs.com/docs/documentjs.typeExpression.html">type expression</a> of a return value or parameters and the <a href="http://documentjs.com/docs/documentjs.nameExpression.html">name expression</a> of parameters.</p> <ul> <li>Parameter and descriptions should start with a <code>Capital</code> and end with a period like: <code>@param {Type} name Indicates that something should happen.</code></li> </ul> <h3>body</h3> <p>Most body sections start with a <code>## Use</code> subsection. This is a mini guide on how to use that piece of code. Modules should have long bodies that span multiple topics. For example <a href="../../can-component.html" title="Create a custom element that can be used to manage widgets or application logic.">can-component</a>'s body has examples and information about nearly all of its sub-functions. However <a href="../../can-component.prototype.tag.html" title="Specifies the HTML tag (or node-name) the can-component will be created on.">can-component.prototype.tag</a> doesn't have a use section because it's covered in <a href="../../can-component.html" title="Create a custom element that can be used to manage widgets or application logic.">can-component</a>.</p> <h3>structuring documentation</h3> <ul> <li>Group names (like <code>prototype</code>) should be lower case.</li> <li>Types should be capitalized <code>{String}</code> except when they are describing a function <a href="../../can-fixture.requestHandler.html" title="">requestHandler</a>.</li> </ul> </section> <script type="text/javascript"> var docObject = {"src":{"path":"docs/can-guides/contribute/documentation.md"},"description":"Learn how to improve CanJS's site and documentation. \n","name":"guides/contributing/documentation","title":"Documentation","type":"page","parent":"guides/contribute","comment":" ","pathToRoot":"../../.."}; </script> </article> <footer><p>CanJS is part of <a href="http://donejs.com" target="_blank">DoneJS</a>. 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