DocBlox: your source matters @ #phpnw11

These are the slides for the talk 'DocBlox: your source matters' as given at the PHP Northwest Conference 2011 in Manchester (#phpnw11).
In this talk I have shown the basic operation of DocBlox and how to write DocBlocks in PHP, including tips and pointers to get the most out of it.

Transcript

1. DocBlox Your source matters
2. 2011/10/08 2 Mike van Riel Lead Developer of DocBlox Technical Lead Developer for Unet B.V. Active with PHP since 2002
3. 2011/10/08 3 What is DocBlox? ➔ Documentation Generation Application (DGA) for PHP ➔ Generates API documentation ➔ Uses the structure and comments of your source code ➔ Inspired by phpDocumentor and JavaDoc
4. 2011/10/08 4
5. 2011/10/08 5 Why DocBlox? ➔ Support for PHP 5.3+ features ➔ Performance, improved with up to 80% ➔ Memory usage, no more gigabytes ➔ Active project, every month new features • Bug fixes even more frequent ➔ QA Tool for in-source documentation
6. 2011/10/08 6 Feature DocBlox phpDocumentor Doxygen PHP 5.3+ Support Can cope with large projects Search Incremental Parsing Doctrine Annotations XML output Class inheritance diagram PDF DocBook Linking to external documentation Checkstyle output of violations (since 0.16.0) Latex support Parse directly from phar Plugins
7. 2011/10/08 7 Who uses DocBlox?
8. 2011/10/08 8 Installation Installation via PEAR $ pear channel-discover pear.docblox-project.org $ pear channel-discover pear.michelf.com $ pear install docblox/DocBlox-beta Manual installation See http://docs.docblox-project.org/Installation.html#manual-installation Has become obsolete with DocBlox 0.15.1
9. 2011/10/08 9 Running docblox $ docblox -d [FOLDER] -f [FILE] -t [DESTINATION] $ docblox parse -d [FOLDER] -f [FILE] -t [STAGING] $ docblox transform -s [STAGING]/structure.xml -t [DESTINATION] OR
10. 2011/10/08 10 Running docblox: Incremental parsing $ docblox parse -d [FOLDER] -f [FILE] -t [STAGING] $ docblox transform -s [STAGING]/structure.xml -t [DESTINATION] ➔ Structure file is written to a staging location ➔ Every parsing run DocBlox will know if a file has changed • If so, re-parse • If not, re-use ➔ Advantages: • Parsing speed is increased • Structure file is not distributed along with rest of documentation
11. 2011/10/08 11 Running docblox: Options $ docblox –-help -h [--help] Show this help message -q [--quiet] Silences the output and logging -c [--config] [STRING] Configuration filename OR "none", when this option is omitted DocBlox tries to load the docblox.xml or docblox.dist.xml from the current working directory -f [--filename] STRING Comma-separated list of files to parse. The wildcards ? and * are supported -d [--directory] STRING Comma-separated list of directories to (recursively) parse. -t [--target] [STRING] Path where to store the generated output (optional, defaults to "output") -e [--extensions] [STRING] Optional comma-separated list of extensions to parse, defaults to php, php3 and phtml -i [--ignore] [STRING] Comma-separated list of file(s) and directories that will be ignored. Wildcards * and ? are supported -m [--markers] [STRING] Comma-separated list of markers/tags to filter, (optional, defaults to: "TODO,FIXME") -v [--verbose] Provides additional information during parsing, usually only needed for debugging purposes --title [STRING] Sets the title for this project; default is the DocBlox logo --template [STRING] Sets the template to use when generating the output --force Forces a full build of the documentation, does not increment existing documentation --validate Validates every processed file using PHP Lint, costs a lot of performance --parseprivate Whether to parse DocBlocks tagged with @internal --visibility [STRING] Specifies the parse visibility that should be displayed in the documentation (comma seperated e.g. "public,protected") --defaultpackagename [STRING] name to use for the default package. If not specified, uses "default"
12. 2011/10/08 12 Configuration ➔ Stored as XML ➔ docblox.dist.xml or docblox.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <docblox> <parser> <default-package-name>DocBlox</default-package-name> <target>data/output</target> </parser> <transformer> <target>data/output</target> </transformer> <files> <directory>.</directory> <ignore>tests/*</ignore> </files> </docblox>
13. 2011/10/08 13 Writing Docblocks ➔ Docblocks are used to tag elements with meta-data ➔ Specific type of comment: /** … */ ➔ Three parts: • Short description, one liner • Long description, a complete description of the element • Tags, annotations which provide additional information
14. 2011/10/08 14 Docblocks - II /** * This is a short description. * * This is a long description, which may span * multiple lines and contain {@inline} tags and * can be *styled* with `Markdown`. * * @param string $a This is the first variable. * @param \Exception $b This is the second variable. * @param array $c This is the third variable. * * @return void */ function myFunction($a, \Exception $b, array $c) { }
15. 2011/10/08 15 Supported elements ➔ Files ➔ Namespaces ➔ Includes & requires ➔ Classes ➔ Traits (not yet, is coming) ➔ Functions, methods and closures ➔ Properties ➔ Constants, global and class
16. 2011/10/08 16 Supported tags ➔ @abstract ➔ @access ➔ @api ➔ @author ➔ @category ➔ @copyright ➔ @deprecated ➔ @example ➔ @final ➔ @filesource ➔ @global ➔ @ignore ➔ @internal ➔ @license ➔ @link ➔ @method ➔ @name ➔ @package ➔ @param ➔ @property ➔ @return ➔ @see ➔ @since ➔ @static ➔ @staticvar ➔ @subpackage ➔ @throws / @throw ➔ @todo ➔ @tutorial ➔ @uses / @usedby ➔ @var ➔ @version
17. 2011/10/08 17 Inheritance ➔ Docblocks inherit by default (if not overridden) • Short description • Long description – Can be augmented using {@inheritdoc} • Specific tags
18. 2011/10/08 18 Inheritance - Classes ➔ Methods ➔ Properties ➔ Tags • @package • @subpackage – if @package is the same as parent • @version • @copyright • @author
19. 2011/10/08 19 Inheritance - METHODS ➔ Tags • @param • @return • @throw / @throws • @version • @copyright • @author
20. 2011/10/08 20 Inheritance - Properties ➔ Tags • @var • @version • @copyright • @author
21. 2011/10/08 21 Inheritance - Example class Parent { /** * Short description. * * @api * @param int $a First param. * @param string $b Second param. */ function doIt($a, $b) { .. } } class Child extends Parent { function doIt($a, $b) { .. } } DocBlox adds this for you. Note the missing @api tag /** * Short description. * * @param int $a First param. * @param string $b Second param. */
22. 2011/10/08 22 Inheritance - @inheritdoc class Parent { /** * Short description. * * This is my long description. * * @param int $a First param. * @param string $b Second param. */ function doIt($a, $b) { .. } } class Child extends Parent { function doIt($a, $b) { .. } } /** * Short description. * * This method adds another bit of functionality * {@inheritdoc} * * @param int $a First param. * @param string $b Second param. */
23. 2011/10/08 23 Inheritance - @inheritdoc class Parent { /** * Short description. * * This is my long description. * * @param int $a First param. * @param string $b Second param. */ function doIt($a, $b) { .. } } class Child extends Parent { function doIt($a, $b) { .. } } /** * Short description. * * This method adds another bit of functionality * This is my long description. * * @param int $a First param. * @param string $b Second param. */ DocBlox adds this for you.
24. 2011/10/08 24 References ➔ From Docblocks you can refer to other parts of the documentation using • @uses • @see • @link and {@link .. } • @example * @uses \My\Namespace\Class::function() * @see \My\Namespace\Class::$property * @link http://my.domain link text * @example gist:123456
25. 2011/10/08 25 Plugins ➔ Core functionality is captured in a plugin (eat your own dog food) ➔ Easy, pluggable event-based system ➔ Can manipulate many functions in DocBlox ➔ Add your own Transformation Writers
26. 2011/10/08 26 Plugins: invoking ➔ Add to configuration file as `plugins/plugin` element ➔ DocBlox Core plugin is assumed when nothing is defined ➔ Autoloading is set up by DocBlox ➔ Can have options, added in configuration file
27. 2011/10/08 27 Plugins: Configuration <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <docblox> ... <plugins> <plugin path="/my/path/to/plugin_folder"> <option name="my_option"> value </option> </plugin> </plugins> ... </docblox>
28. 2011/10/08 28 Plugins: Creating ➔ Skeleton can be generated using the following command: $ docblox plugin:generate -t [PATH] -n [NAME]
29. 2011/10/08 29 Plugins: Example class DocBlox_Plugin_Core_Listener extends DocBlox_Plugin_Abstract { /** * Apply a set of behaviours to the given structure. * * @docblox-event transformer.pre-transform * * @param sfEvent $data * * @return void */ public function applyBehaviours(sfEvent $data) { … } }
30. 2011/10/08 30 Plugins: Hooks ➔ No XSL hooks to start with ➔ Limited set to start with: • system.log, default logger • system.debug, logging of debug messages • parser.log, logging of parser errors • transformer.transform.pre, adding behaviour • transformer.transform.post, post processing of output • reflection.docblock-extraction.post, validating docblock • reflection.docblock.tag.export, transform tag to specialized form
31. 2011/10/08 31 BONUS: Templates ➔ Templates are a sequence of data transformations ➔ Can contain other templates ➔ May reside anywhere; even in your own project • which is recommended for custom templates ➔ A transformation invokes a Writer
32. 2011/10/08 32 BONUS: Templates ➔ Skeleton can be generated using the following command: $ docblox theme:generate -t [PATH] -n [NAME]
33. 2011/10/08 33 BONUS: THEMES ➔ Are a collection of `views` ➔ Can be transformed to a specific output ➔ Templates can cherry pick from different themes ➔ Themes can 'use' eachother
34. 2011/10/08 34 The (NEAR?) future ➔ Plugin and theme repository ➔ Tasks to package and upload themes and plugins ➔ Support for PHP 5.4 ➔ Improved tag support ➔ More output formats (DocBook, PDF, etc)
35. 2011/10/08 35 Questions?
36. 2011/10/08 36 What is SCRUM? Mike van Riel mike.vanriel@naenius.com @docblox @mvriel http://blog.naenius.com Links • http://www.docblox-project.org • http://github.com/mvriel/docblox 36 / 36 http://joind.in/3598 http://blog.naenius.com