dartdoc #

Use dartdoc to generate HTML documentaton for your Dart package.

For information about contributing to the dartdoc project, see the contributor docs.

For issues/details related to hosted Dart API docs, see dart-lang/api.dartlang.org.

Installing dartdoc #

• download the Dart SDK
• add the SDK's bin directory to your PATH

Generating docs #

Run dartdoc from the root directory of package. For example:

$ dartdoc
Generating documentation for 'server_code_lab' into <path-to-server-code-lab>/server_code_lab/doc/api/

parsing lib/client/piratesapi.dart...
parsing lib/common/messages.dart...
parsing lib/common/utils.dart...
parsing lib/server/piratesapi.dart...
Parsed 4 files in 8.1 seconds.

generating docs for library pirate.messages from messages.dart...
generating docs for library pirate.server from piratesapi.dart...
generating docs for library pirate.utils from utils.dart...
generating docs for library server_code_lab.piratesApi.client from piratesapi.dart...
Documented 4 libraries in 9.6 seconds.

Success! Docs generated into <path-to-server-code-lab>/server_code_lab/doc/api/index.html

By default, the documentation is generated to the doc/api directory as static HTML files.

Run dartdoc -h to see the available command-line options.

Viewing docs #

You can view the generated docs directly from the file system, but if you want to use the search function, you must load them with an HTTP server.

An easy way to run an HTTP server locally is to use the dhttpd package. For example:

$ pub global activate dhttpd
$ dhttpd --path doc/api

Navigate to http://localhost:8080 in your browser; the search function should now work.

Link structure #

dartdoc produces static files with a predictable link structure.

index.html                          # homepage
index.json                          # machine-readable index
library-name/                       # : is turned into a - e.g. dart:core => dart-core
  ClassName-class.html              # "homepage" for a class (and enum)
  ClassName/
    ClassName.html                  # constructor
    ClassName.namedConstructor.html # named constructor
    method.html
    property.html
  CONSTANT.html
  property.html
  top-level-function.html

File names are case-sensitive.

Writing docs #

Check out the Effective Dart: Documentation guide.

The guide covers formatting, linking, markup, and general best practices when authoring doc comments for Dart with dartdoc.

Excluding from documentation #

dartdoc will not generate documentation for a Dart element and its children that have the @nodoc tag in the documentation comment.

Advanced features #

Macros #

You can specify "macros", i.e. reusable pieces of documentation. For that, first specify a template anywhere in the comments, like:

/// {@template template_name}
/// Some shared docs
/// {@endtemplate}

and then you can insert it via {@macro template_name}, like

/// Some comment
/// {@macro template_name}
/// More comments

Auto including dependencies #

If --auto-include-dependencies flag is provided, dartdoc tries to automatically add all the used libraries, even from other packages, to the list of the documented libraries.

Issues and bugs #

Please file reports on the GitHub Issue Tracker. Issues are labeled with priority based on how much impact to the ecosystem the issue addresses and the number of generated pages that show the anomaly (widespread vs. not widespread).

Some examples of likely triage priorities:

• P0

  • Broken links, widespread
  • Uncaught exceptions, widespread
  • Incorrect linkage, widespread
  • Very ugly or navigation impaired generated pages, widespread

• P1

  • Broken links, few or on edge cases
  • Uncaught exceptions, very rare or with simple workarounds
  • Incorrect linkage, few or on edge cases
  • Incorrect doc contents, widespread or with high impact
  • Minor display warts not significantly impeding navigation, widespread
  • Default-on warnings that are misleading or wrong, widespread
  • Generation problems that should be detected but aren't warned, widespread
  • Enhancements that have significant data around them indicating they are a big win
  • User performance problem (e.g. page load, search), widespread

• P2

  • Incorrect doc contents, not widespread
  • Minor display warts not significantly impeding navigation, not widespread
  • Generation problems that should be detected but aren't warned, not widespread
  • Default-on warnings that are misleading or wrong, few or on edge cases
  • Non-default warnings that are misleading or wrong, widespread
  • Enhancements considered important but without significant data indicating they are a big win
  • User performance problem (e.g. page load, search), not widespread
  • Generation performance problem, widespread

• P3

  • Theoretical or extremely rare problems with generation
  • Minor display warts on edge cases only
  • Non-default warnings that are misleading or wrong, few or on edge cases
  • Enhancements whose importance is uncertain
  • Generation performance problem, limited impact or not widespread

License #

Please see the dartdoc license.

Generated docs include:

• Highlight.js - LICENSE
  • With github.css (c) Vasily Polovnyov vast@whiteants.net