AutoDoc: Your Automated Documentation Generator

AutoDoc is a command-line tool designed to streamline the documentation process for JavaScript/Node.js projects. It automatically generates a basic README.md file by parsing your code and extracting relevant information, saving you valuable time and effort.

Key Features:

• Automated README Generation: Quickly create a foundational README.md with project details.
• JSDoc Parsing: Extracts documentation from JSDoc-style comments in your code.
• Dependency Listing: Automatically lists your project's dependencies from package.json.
• Configurable Sections: Organize your README with sections for installation, usage, contributing, etc.
• Customizable Output: Tailor the generated README to your project's needs.

Important Note: AutoDoc is currently in development and requires manual setup. Future releases will be published to npm for easier installation.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• Configuration
• Dependencies
• Contributing
• License

Installation

Since AutoDoc is not yet published to npm, you'll need to clone the repository and set it up manually:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ColePoppleton/AutoDoc-cli
   cd https://github.com/ColePoppleton/AutoDoc-cli

2. Install dependencies:

   AutoDoc relies on several Node.js packages. Make sure you have Node.js and npm installed. Then, run:

   npm install

Usage

AutoDoc provides two main commands: init and generate.

init Command

The init command initializes a AutoDoc.yaml configuration file and sample Markdown files in your project's root directory.

./index.js init

This command will prompt you for:

• Project name: The name of your project.
• Project description: A brief description of your project.
• Generate INSTALL.md?: Whether to create an INSTALL.md file.
• Generate CONTRIBUTING.md?: Whether to create a CONTRIBUTING.md file.
• Generate USAGE.md?: Whether to create a USAGE.md file.
• generate Command

The generate command generates the README.md file based on the settings in docgen.yaml and the content of your code and Markdown files.

./index.js generate

This command will create (or overwrite) the README.md file in your project's root directory.

Configuration

AutoDoc uses a docgen.yaml file for configuration. This file is created by the init command and allows you to customize the README generation process.

Example docgen.yaml:

projectName: MyProject
projectDescription: A cool project.
files:
  - src/**/*.js
exclude:
  - src/test/**/*.js
output: README.md
sections:
  - title: Installation
    files:
      - ./INSTALL.md
  - title: API Documentation
    files:
      - src/index.js
      - src/utils.js
  - title: Contributing
    files:
      - ./CONTRIBUTING.md
  - title: Dependencies
    files:
      - ./DEPENDENCIES.md
  - title: Usage
    files:
      - ./USAGE.md

Configuration Options:

• projectName: The name of your project (used in generated files).
• projectDescription: A description of your project (included at the beginning of README.md).
• files: An array of file paths or glob patterns to include in documentation generation.
• exclude: An array of file paths or glob patterns to exclude.
• output: The name of the output README file (default: README.md).
• sections: An array of objects defining the sections of your README:
• title: The title of the section.
• files: An array of file paths to include in the section.

Dependencies

AutoDoc relies on the following Node.js packages:

• commander: For parsing command-line arguments.
• fs-extra: For enhanced file system operations.
• js-yaml: For parsing the docgen.yaml configuration file.
• glob: For file globbing.
• acorn: For parsing JavaScript code into Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs).
• doctrine: For parsing JSDoc-style comments.
• prompts: For interactive command-line prompts. These dependencies are automatically installed when you run npm install in the project directory.

Contributing

We welcome contributions to AutoDoc! Please follow these guidelines:

• Fork the repository on GitHub.
• Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix.
• Make your changes and commit
• Submit a pull request.