javasphinx User’s Guide¶
Welcome to the javasphinx user’s guide.
Introduction¶
javasphinx is a Sphinx extension that provides a Sphinx domain for documenting
Java projects and a javasphinx-apidoc
command line tool for automatically
generating API documentation from existing Java source code and Javadoc
documentation.
Installing¶
javasphinx is available in the Python Package Index (PyPi) and can be installed
using tools such as pip
or easy_install
,
$ pip install javasphinx
or,
$ easy_install -U javasphinx
Configuration¶
To enable javasphinx for your existing Sphinx configuration add 'javasphinx'
to the list of extensions in your conf.py file. javasphinx can be configured to
cross link to external sources of documentation using the javadoc_url_map
option,
javadoc_url_map = {
'com.netflix.curator' : ('http://netflix.github.com/curator/doc', 'javadoc'),
'org.springframework' : ('http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.1.x/javadoc-api/', 'javadoc'),
'org.springframework.data.redis' : ('http://static.springsource.org/spring-data/data-redis/docs/current/api/', 'javadoc')
}
Each key in the map should be a Java package. Each value is a tuple of the form
(base_url, doc_type)
where base_url
is the base URL of the documentation
source, and doc_type
is one of,
javadoc
- For documentation generated by the Javadoc tool before version 8.
javadoc8
- For documentation generated by the Javadoc tool after version 8. This is required due to changes in how method anchors are generated (see JDK-8144118).
sphinx
- For external documentation generated by javasphinx.
When comparing referenced types to the list of available packages the longest
match will be used. Entries for java
, javax
, org.xml
, and
org.w3c
packages pointing to http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api are
included automatically and do not need to be defined explicitly.
Java domain¶
Directives¶
The Java domain uses the name java and provides the following directives,
-
.. java:type::
type-signature
¶ Describe a Java type. The signature can represent either a class, interface, enum or annotation declaration.
Use the
param
field to document type parameters.Example,
.. java:type:: public interface List<E> extends Collection<E>, Iterable<E> An ordered collection (also known as a *sequence*) :param E: type of item stored by the list
produces,
-
.. java:field::
field-signature
¶ Describe a Java field.
-
.. java:method::
method-signature
¶ Describe a Java method.
Use the
param
field to document parameters.Use the
throws
field to document exceptions thrown by the method.Use the
return
field to document the return type
-
.. java:constructor::
constructor-signature
¶ Describe a Java constructor.
Use the
param
field to document parameters.Use the
throws
field to document exceptions thrown by the constructor.
-
.. java:package::
package
¶ Provide package-level documentation and also sets the active package for the type, method, field, constructors, and references that follow.
Use the
:noindex:
option if the directive is only being used to specify the active package. Only one directive for a given package should exclude:noindex:
.
-
.. java:import::
package type
¶ Declare the given type as being provided by the given package. This information helps javasphinx create cross references for types in type, method, and field declarations. It also allows explicit cross references (using the
java:ref
role) to exclude the package qualification.
The method, construct, field, and type directives all accept the following standard options,
-
package
Specify the package the declaration is within. Can be used instead of, or to override, a
java:package
directive.
-
outertype
Specify the class/interface the documented object is contained within. This option should be provided for any constructor, method, or field directive that isn’t nested within a corresponding type directive.
Roles¶
The following roles are provided,
-
:java:ref:
¶ This role can be used to create a cross reference to any object type within the Java domain. Aliases for this role include
java:meth
,java:type
,java:field
,java:package
, andjava:construct
.An explicit title can be provided by using the standard
title <reference>
syntax.
-
:java:extdoc:
¶ This role can be used to explicitly link to an externally documented type. The reference must be fully qualified and supports an explicit title using the
title <reference>
syntax.The
java:ref
role will also create external references as a fall-back if it can’t find a matching local declaration so using this role is not strictly necessary.
javasphinx-apidoc¶
The javasphinx-apidoc
tool is the counterpoint to the sphinx-apidoc
tool
within the Java domain. It can be used to generate reST source from existing
Java source code which has been marked up with Javadoc-style comments. The
generated reST is then processed alongside hand-written documentation by Sphinx.
At minimum a source and destination directory must be provided. The input
directory will be scanned for .java files and documentation will be generated
for all non-private types and members. A separate output file will be generated
for each type (including inner classes). Each file is put within a directory
corresponding to its package (with periods replaced by directory separators) and
with the basename of the file deriving from the type name. Inner types are
placed in files with a basename using a hyphen to separate inner and outer
types, e.g. OuterType-InnerType.rst
.
By default javasphinx-apidoc
will not override existing files. Two options
can change this behavior,
-
-f
,
--force
¶
All existing output files will be rewritten. If a cache directory is specified it will be rebuilt.
-
-u
,
--update
¶
Updated source files will have their corresponding output files updated. Unchanged files will be left alone. Most projects will want to use this option.
For larger projects it is recommended to use a cache directory. This can speed
up subsequent runs by an order of magnitude or more. Specify a directory to
store cached output using the -c
option,
-
-c
,
--cache-dir
¶
Specify a directory to cache intermediate documentation representations. This directory will be created if it does not already exist.