gradle-mkdocs-example

This project provides a template for building documentation websites with Gradle and MkDocs.

Prerequisites

This project requires that you have the following prerequisites installed on your system:

• Python
• Pip

Development

The website is built using markdown files processed by MkDocs.

Internal Links

When the production site is built, all of the markdown pages (e.g. foo.md) become represented in the site as http://docs.netifi.com/x.y.z/foo/[index.html]. This has implications for how to correctly create internal links in the documentation pages. Links that work correctly when you view the site locally (using ./gradlew mkdocsServe) may not work on the live site if you do not form them properly. Consult the following chart

link format	result
[link text](../page)	CORRECT.
[link text](./page)	INCORRECT. Will incorrectly link to the new page as though it were in the subdirectory formed by the current page.
[link text](page)	INCORRECT. Will incorrectly link to the new page as though it were in the subdirectory formed by the current page.
[link text](/page)	INCORRECT. Will incorrectly link to the new page as through it were at the root of the docs.netifi.com site without the x.y.z version number.

If you add new subdirectories to the documentation site, this may become yet more complex.

The above does not apply to the main documentation site index.md file. In that file, use the simple [link text](page) format to refer to other pages on the site.

Building the Site

Run the following command to build the website:

./gradlew clean mkdocsBuild

Under the /build directory you will now see a mkdocs folder containing the latest version of the site and a master index.html file that redirects the user to the latest version of the documentation.

Adding a New Page

Follow the steps below to add a new page to the site:

1. Add new markdown file under /src/doc/docs

2. Update the nav element in mkdocs.yml to add the page at your desired location in the site hierarchy.

Running Site with Live Reload

During development it may be helpful to have the server continuously reload the site as changes are made so you can preview your modifications.

Run the following command to start the development server:

./gradlew mkdocsServe

The site will be available at: http://localhost:8000

Release

Follow the steps below to release a new version of the site:

1. Update the version property in the root build.gradle file to the current version.

2. Run the following command to build the website:

    ./gradlew clean buildRelease
   

3. Validate that there is a new folder with the version number as the name in the /site directory.

4. Validate that the index.html file in the /site directory redirects to the new version of the documentation.

5. Check-in / merge all new files to the master branch in GitHub. This will kick off an automated deployment process in Netlify.

6. Once the Netlify deploy process has completed, validate that the website now points to the new version of the documentation.

Additional Documentation

• Material Theme
• Mkdocs

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2019 Greg Whitaker

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.