If you want to use an arc42 template for your system, you don’t need to use this repo - just use one of the templates you find on http://arc42.org/download.

The content (structure + embedded-help) of the arc42 template are maintained in the http://github.com/arc42/arc42-template repository. We call that one the Golden-Master

This repository contains a gradle project to convert the golden master into other formats. In order to make it really easy to use this gradle project, the repository includes the gradle-wrapper - a script which will automatically install gradle for you if it is not already installed.

In order to create the other formats from the "Golden Master", follow these steps:

1. open the project with https://gitpod.io

This will open gitpod as development environment, clone the project into a docker container and run all needed tasks to generate the various formats. You then only have to check the results and do an add/commit/push

or as a manual alternative you can follow these steps:

1. Downgrade java to Java 8

   sdk install java 8.0.282.j9-adpt

2. Clone this repository:

   git clone git@github.com:arc42/arc42-generator.git

3. Add the "Golden Master" templates by initializing the git submodule and update them

   cd arc42-generator
   git submodule update -i
   cd arc42-template
   git checkout master
   git pull
   cd ..

4. Create derived versions from the "Golden Master"

   ./gradlew createTemplatesFromGoldenMaster

   This will extract the "plain" and "with-help"-version from the golden master. You’ll find the templates in different languages in build\src_gen in AsciiDoc format.

   Btw: gradle allows you to "shorten" the command - as long as gradle is still able to guess the command, anything goes :-). ./gradlew createT is as valid as ./gradlew cTFGM.

5. After you have executed the task to create the templates, a new task will become available in gradle:

   ./gradlew arc42

   This will generate all other formats, i.e. docx and markdown. The results are created the /build directory.

6. Now you can create the distribution:

   ./gradlew createDistribution

   This will create the 'arc42-template/dist' directory with all downloadable versions, nicely compressed.

7. Now you should cross-check, test, verify the generated files :-)

8. Finally you can commit and push these to the arc42-template repository:

   cd arc42-template
   git commit -m "<commit comment>" *.zip
   git push https://github.com/arc42/arc42-template.git

We collected the arc42 requirements in a separate document.

For template downloads please see the arc42-template repository or the official download page on http://arc42.org/download.