vue-docgen-cli

Generate documentation markdown files from VueJs components using the vue-docgen-api.

Install

Install the module directly from npm:

yarn add -D vue-docgen-cli

Usage

In a terminal window, navigate to the root of your project, then type the following command.

yarn vue-docgen src/components/**/*.vue docs/components

If your components are in the src/components folder, this will generate one .md file per component.

Config

Command Line Args

vue-docgen can take two nameless arguments. The components glob to locate components and the destination directory.

-w or --watch

Should vue-docgen watch for modifications of your components and update generated markdown files accordingly?

yarn vue-docgen -w

-c or --configFile

Specify the path of your configuration file. By default, docgen will look for docgen.config.js in the current folder.

yarn vue-docgen -c config/docgen.config.js

-v or --verbose

Should vue-docgen output more information?

yarn vue-docgen -v

same as --logLevel debug

--logLevel

Specify the log level. Can be error, warn, info, debug, trace.

yarn vue-docgen --logLevel debug

default is error

Config File

Create a docgen.config.js at the root of your project to avoid having to specify command-line arguments everytime.

All of the command-line arguments, except for the --config, can be replaced by lines in the docgen.config.js file.

In a config file you can even be more specific. Each of the following configurations is optional.

const path = require('path')

module.exports = {
  componentsRoot: 'src/components', // the folder where CLI will start searching for components.
  components: '**/[A-Z]*.vue', // the glob to define what files should be documented as components (relative to componentRoot)
  ignore: '*.test.ts', // optional glob to ignore files
  outDir: 'docs', // folder to save components docs in (relative to the current working directry)
  apiOptions: {
    ...require('./webpack.config').resolve, // inform vue-docgen-api of your webpack aliases
    jsx: true // tell vue-docgen-api that your components are using JSX to avoid conflicts with TypeScript <type> syntax
  },
  getDocFileName: (componentPath: string) =>
    componentPath.replace(/\.vue$/, '.md'), // specify the name of the input md file
  getDestFile: (file: string, config: DocgenCLIConfig) =>
    path.join(config.outDir, file).replace(/\.vue$/, '.doc.md'), // specify the name of the output md file
  templates: {
    // global component template wrapping all others see #templates
    component: require('templates/component'),
    events: require('templates/events'),
    methods: require('templates/methods'),
    props: require('templates/props'),
    slots: require('templates/slots'),
    // static template to display as a tag if component is functional
    functionalTag: '**functional**'
  },
  docsRepo: 'profile/repo',
  docsBranch: 'master',
  docsFolder: '',
  editLinkLabel: 'Edit on github'
}

components

type: string | string[] , default: "src/components/**/[a-zA-Z]*.{vue,js,jsx,ts,tsx}"

Glob string used to get all the components to parse and document.

outDir

type: string, default: "docs"

The root directory for the generation of the markdown files

outFile

type: string, optional

If you specify this, all documentation will be generated in one single page. The path of this file is relative to the outDir.

The following configuration will generate one single file: myDocs/components.md

module.exports = {
  outDir: 'myDocs',
  outFile: 'components.md'
}

componentsRoot

type: string, default: path.dirname(configFilePath)

The folder where CLI will start searching for components. Since the folder structure will be kept from source to destination, it avoids having uselessly deep scaffoldings.

   src
    └───components
        ├───Button.vue
        ├───CounterButton.vue
        ├───Functional.vue
        └───Input.vue

If you simply use src/components/**/[A-Z]*.vue as source glob and docs as outDir, you will get this.

   src
    └───components
        ├───Button.vue
        ├───CounterButton.vue
        ├───Functional.vue
        └───Input.vue
   docs
    └───src
        └───components
            ├───Button.vue
            ├───CounterButton.vue
            ├───Functional.vue
            └───Input.vue

Specifying componentsRoot: 'src/components' and using **/[A-Z].vue will skip the two useless levels of hierarchy.

apiOptions

type: DocGenOptions, optional

Allows you to give vue-docgen-api some config. Most notably, you can specify wether your components contain JSX code and the alias configured in your webpack.

getDocFileName

type: (componentPath: string) => string, default: (componentPath) => path.resolve(path.dirname(componentPath), 'Readme.md')

By default it will find the Readme.md sibling to the component files. Use this to point docgen to the files that contain documentation specific to a component.

getDestFile

type: (file: string, config: DocgenCLIConfig) => string, default: (file, config) => path.resolve(config.outDir, file).replace(/\.\w+\$/, '.md')

Function returning the absolute path of the documentation markdown files. If outFile is used, this config will be ignored.

watch

type: boolean, default: false

Should vue-docgen keep on watching your files for changes once the first files are generated?

templates

type: Templates, optional

An object specifying the functions to be used to render the components.

For example:

file: component.ts

export default function component(
  renderedUsage: RenderedUsage, // props, events, methods and slots documentation rendered
  doc: ComponentDoc, // the object returned by vue-docgen-api
  config: DocgenCLIConfig, // the local config, useful to know the context
  fileName: string, // the name of the current file in the doc (to explain how to import it)
  requiresMd: ContentAndDependencies[], // a list of all the documentation files
  // attached to the component documented. It includes documentation of subcomponents
  { isSubComponent, hasSubComponents }: SubTemplateOptions // are we documenting
): // a sub-component or does the current component have subcomponents
string {
  const { displayName, description, docsBlocks } = doc
  return `
  # ${displayName}

  ${description ? '> ' + description : ''}

  ${renderedUsage.props}
  ${renderedUsage.methods}
  ${renderedUsage.events}
  ${renderedUsage.slots}
  ${docsBlocks ? '---\n' + docsBlocks.join('\n---\n') : ''}
  `
}

And the partial for slots

import { SlotDescriptor } from 'vue-docgen-api'
import { cleanReturn } from './utils'

export default (
  slots: {
    [slotName: string]: SlotDescriptor
  },
  opt?: {
    isSubComponent: boolean
    hasSubComponents: boolean
  }
): string => {
  const slotNames = Object.keys(slots)
  if (!slotNames.length) {
    return '' // if no slots avoid creating the section
  }
  return `
## Slots

  | Name          | Description  | Bindings |
  | ------------- | ------------ | -------- |
${slotNames
  .map(slotName => {
    const { description, bindings } = slots[slotName]
    const readableBindings = // serialize bindings to display them ina readable manner
      bindings && Object.keys(bindings).length
        ? JSON.stringify(bindings, null, 2)
        : ''
    return cleanReturn(
      `| ${slotName} | ${description} | ${readableBindings} |`
    ) // remplace returns by <br> to allow them in a table cell
  })
  .join('\n')}
  `
}

pages

type: Array<DocgenCLIConfig>, optional

Allows to group components into pages. Each page will inherit its parent properties.

const path = require('path')

module.exports = {
  componentsRoot: 'src/components', // the folder where CLI will start searching for components.
  outDir: 'docs',
  pages: [
    {
      components: 'atoms/**/[A-Z]*.vue', // the glob to define what files should be documented as components (relative to componentRoot)
      outFile: 'atoms.md' // saved as `docs/atoms.md`
    },
    {
      components: 'molecules/**/[A-Z]*.vue', // the glob to define what files should be documented as components (relative to componentRoot)
      outFile: 'molecules.md' // saved as `docs/molecules.md`
    }
  ]
}

defaultExamples

type: boolean, default: false

Generate an example for components that have neither <docs> block nor a markdown file to provide examples of usage.

cwd

type: string, optional

Force the Current Working Directory. Useful in monorepos.

getRepoEditUrl

type: (relativePath: string) => string, default: p => `https://github.com/${config.docsRepo}/edit/${branch}/${dir}/${p}`

Gets the link to the documentation edition from

docsRepo

type: string, optional

If you specify the docsRepo, and you do not want to specify getRepoEditUrl you will get links to edit the docs near each readme files.

docsBranch

type: string, default: master

The branch you want the edit links to send you to

docsFolder

type: string, default: ``

If the root folder is not at the root of your repo, use this parameter

editLinkLabel

type: string, default: Edit on github

The label we can read on edit button

Change log

The change log can be found on the Changelog Page.

Authors and license

Bart Ledoux

MIT License.