flatdoc

.. image:: https://travis-ci.org/miguelgrinberg/flatdoc.svg?branch=master :target: https://travis-ci.org/miguelgrinberg/flatdoc

flatdoc is a simple tool that generates flat documentation from docstrings that are defined in modules, functions, classes and methods in your code.

Installation

You can install flatdoc with pip::

pip install flatdoc

Writing Documentation

You can write your module, function, class and method documentation in any format that you like. Markdown and reStructuredText are both good formats to use, since they are easy to type, they are very readable, and have the tooling necessary to generate HTML, PDF, Postscript, etc.

The key to build the flat documentation from all these docstrings is to link them with the !INCLUDE directive. As an example, consider the following module foo.py, with Markdown docstrings::

"""# Foo

This module does foo.

!INCLUDE Bar, func
"""
class Bar:
    """## Bar

    This class does bar.

    !INCLUDE baz
    """
    def baz(self):
        """### baz()

        This method does baz.
        """
        pass

def func():
    """## func()

    This function does func.
    """
    pass
"""

The generated documentation for the above module would be a consolidated Markdown file::

# Foo

This module does foo.

## Bar

This class does bar.

### baz()

This method does baz.

## func()

This function does func.

The !INCLUDE directive

As you've seen in the example in the previous section, documentation lines that begin with !INCLUDE are treated as references to other docstrings. With this mechanism multiple docstrings can be consolidated into a single output document.

The argument given to !INCLUDE is a comma-separated list of references to other docstrings. These references are always relative to the current docstring, so for example, in a module docstring, any top-level functions or classes can be referenced by their names, and in a class, all its methods can also be referenced directly by their names.

When there is a need to reference a docstring that is not a direct subordinate, a standard dot notation can be used. Using the example of the previous section, consider the following cases:

• Include method baz of class Bar from module foo::

  !INCLUDE Bar.baz

• Include class Bar from function func::

  !INCLUDE .Bar

• Include a module mod that exists at the same level as foo from method baz::

  !INCLUDE ...mod

Command Line Usage

The flatdoc utility can be used to generate documentation from the command line. The only argument this command takes is the import name of the top-level object to generate documentation for.

This documentation you are reading was generated with the following command::

flatdoc flatdoc > README.rst

API Reference

flatdoc(name)

Generates documentation from docstrings.

Parameters
^^^^^^^^^^

======== ======== ===============
  Name     Type     Description
======== ======== ===============
 `name`   string   The import name for the top-level object to document.
======== ======== ===============

Return value
^^^^^^^^^^^^

A string with the flattened documentation.

Example
^^^^^^^

The following example generates the documentation for a package named
``my_pkg`` and prints it to the console::

    from flatdoc import flatdoc
    print(flatdoc('my_pkg'))