Valadoc.org

Stays crunchy, even in milk.

This package contains build-tools used to generate valadoc.org and ideally shouldn't be used to generate other pages.

Building

In order to build the docs you will need the following:

• valadoc >= 0.35.0
• php
• 4 GB of free space

On elementary OS or Ubuntu run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vala-team
sudo apt update
sudo apt install valac valadoc libvaladoc-dev libjson-glib-dev unzip php php-curl 

Arch or derivatives run:

pacman -S vala php

Next, install JS dependencies:

npm install

After you have valadoc installed, you can move to building the documentation. Simply run:

make serve

This will take a bit of time, so grab yourself a cup of coffee; if you’re impatient, run:

make serve-mini

for a minimal test version. If you encounter an error at this step, please see the common pitfalls section. After you completed building, you should see a valadoc.org folder.

To access the documentation navigate your browser to http://localhost:7777.

Install locally

To install valadoc documentation as devhelp books, first build the pages with either

make build-docs-mini build-data GENERATOR_OPTS=--skip-existing

for just glib, gio and gobject, or

make build-docs build-data GENERATOR_OPTS=--skip-existing

for all packages. This can take a bit longer.

After that you can run

sudo make install

to install the devhelp books in your system. Now launch Devhelp and use them!

Searching

For a more complete experience, you will need to install manticore and xsltproc.

On elementary OS or Ubuntu run:

sudo apt install xsltproc

The run the following command to generate search indexes:

make serve-search

This will (eventually!) start a manticore daemon on port 51413.

Add New Packages

Open documentation/packages.xml and add a new package-entry.

Use <external-package> to create external links:

<external-package name="package-name" link="http://path/to/docs">
  short description
</external-package>

Use <package> to build and include documentation for vapi files:

<package name="gdl-1.0">
  short description
</package>

The following attributes are supported:

Name	Description
name	The vapi name
deprecated	Set it to '"true"' to mark a package as deprecated
maintainers	List of binding maintainers
gir	The GIR file used to extract documentation from
c-docs	Link to C documentation
ignore	Do not build documentation for this entry
home	Homepage link
flags	Additional vala flags (Missing dependencies, ...)
gallery	Link to a GTK-Doc widget gallery
vapi-image-source	Source to download images from

Referenced GIR and vapi-files have to be part of one of the following repositories:

• vala
• vala-girs
• vala-extra-vapis

Add New Source Code Examples

Copy your examples to examples/<vapi-name>/ and add a new entry to examples/<vapi-name>/<vapi-name>.valadoc.examples:

<example>
  <title>Example Title</title>
  <image>optional-screenshot.png</image>
  <file>file-name-1.vala</file>
  <file>file-name-2.vala</file>
  <compile>valac file-name1.vala file-name-2.vala ...</compile>
  <node>Associated.Symbol.name1</node>
  <node>Associated.Symbol.name2</node>
</example>

If this is the first example for the package, add a line to the check-examples target of Makefile.

Add Handwritten Documentation

Create a new file called <vapi-name>.valadoc in documentation/<vapi-name>/:

...

/**
 * My valadoc comment
 */
c::c_symbol_name

...

/**
 * My valadoc comment
 */
Vala.Symbol.Name

Tool Overview

• generator: Parses packages.xml files describing all packages. It is responsible for building up the page. It fetches resources such as images from specified sources, computes valadoc-calls, builds documentation for specified packages and puts-together the whole page. (make serve, make serve-mini)
• configgen: Used to generate configuration files for our search index.
• valadoc-example-gen: Internally used to generate example listings.
• valadoc-example-tester: Compiles and checks all registered examples. (make test-examples)

Common Pitfalls

Uncaught Error: Class 'mysqli' not found

• Uncomment extension=mysqli.so in your OS's php.ini (find /etc -name php.ini)

error: failed to load driver

• Your valadoc version does not support the requested vala version. Install a recent vala version and recompile valadoc.
• Change VALAC_VERSION in Makefile.

Other errors:

• Check LOG in the root of this repo for more information
• Have you run out of disk space?

Contact And Help

• Homepage, GIT
• Issue Tracker, valadoc.org
• Issue Tracker, valadoc (now a part of Vala)
• IRC: irc.gnome.org, #vala (flo, UTC+01:00)
• Mail: flo.brosch@gmail.com