GitHub - elastic/docs (original) (raw)
Docs HOWTO
Conditions of use
This documentation build process is provided to the public purely for the purpose of testing documentation changes before submitting pull requests to the appropriate Elastic repository.
Getting started
Requirements
You’ll need the following installed:
- Python 3
- Docker
Cloning the repository
Clone the docs
repository with:
git clone git@github.com:elastic/docs.git
Building this README
You can test that everything is working correctly by building this README as follows:
cd docs/ ./build_docs --doc README.asciidoc --open
This should convert README.asciidoc
into HTML and open it in your browser.
Building documentation
For a local repo
When you are making changes to documentation in a locally checked out repository, and you want to check that they are building correctly, use build_docs
with the --doc
parameter to generate the HTML version of the docs:
cd path/to/your/repo ~/path/to/docs/repo/build_docs --doc /full/path/to/index.asciidoc
Each Elastic project may need its own documentation book build command.doc_build_aliases.sh provides simplified aliases and the build commands for each book. For example, if you want to build the Elasticsearch Guide, refer to theElasticsearch section in doc_build_aliases.sh file.
Specifying a different output dir
By default, the HTML docs are generated in ./html_docs
. You can change the output directory with the --out
parameter:
build_docs --doc path/to/index.asciidoc --out output/dir/
Warning | The output/dir/ will be deleted and recreated, so don’t point it at a directory that contains anything you are fond of. |
---|
Viewing the docs
To view the generated docs in your web browser immediately after the build has finished, use the --open
parameter:
build_docs --doc path/to/index.asciidoc --open
Single- or multi-page
By default, the build process generates an HTML file per part/chapter/section. To generate all of the docs in a single file instead, use the --single
parameter:
build_docs --doc path/to/index.asciidoc --single
And if you want a table of contents added at the beginning of the single page output, add the --toc
parameter:
build_docs --doc path/to/index.asciidoc --single --toc
Note | The multi-page output always contains tables-of-content where appropriate. |
---|
Chunking in the right place
Before Christmas 2019 we built all of the docs usingdocbook which is designed to generate HTML, PDFs, and physical books. In the past this was useful because the Definitive Guide is both HTML and a physical book. But now we only really make HTML. And docbook is very slow and difficult to customize. So we removed it from our build process and instead generate HTML directly from the Asciidoc files.
But we still have some docbook concepts hanging around because we have tons of Asciidoc files written with docbook in mind. Thus we still use docbook’s concept of "chunking".
By default, each part (= Part Title
) and chapter (== Chapter Title
) is "chunked" into a separate HTML file. However, for most of our books, this results in enormous pages. So we mostly chunk at the first section level (=== Section One Title
). This behaviour is specified in theconf.yamlfile, but must also be specified on the command line when building a single book:
build_docs --doc path/to/index.asciidoc --chunk 1
Note | If you leave out the --chunk flag we’ll use the default chunking. |
---|
Alternative languages for examples
The build supports finding "alternative languages" for examples that allows users to specify their preferred language or client. You can do this by passing--alternatives
to the build like:
cd docs/
./build_docs --doc README.asciidoc --open
--alternatives console:js:integtest/readme_examples/js
--alternatives console:csharp:integtest/readme_examples/csharp
Building all of the Elastic docs
Building all of the docs runs a link checker to validate cross-document links. While it isn’t generally necessary, if you know the book you are working on has links to/from other books, you can build with --all
to validate the links.
Note | To build everything, you must have access to all of the repositories referenced in conf.yaml. If you don’t have the required access privileges, an error will occur during the cloning phase. |
---|
To check links before you merge your changes:
- Make sure you have the branch with your changes checked out.
- Specify the branch you are targeting and the directory that contains your local clone with the
--sub_dir
option. For example, if you are working on changes that will be merged into the master branch of theelasticsearch
repo, run:
./docs/build_docs --all --target_repo git@github.com:elastic/built-docs.git \
--open --keep_hash --sub_dir elasticsearch:master:./elasticsearch
Note | If there are no outstanding changes in the elasticsearch directory then this will build against the result of merging the last successful docs build and the contents of elasticsearch. If there are outstanding changes then it’ll just build against the contents ofelasticsearch. |
---|
To run a full build to mimic the website build, omit the --sub_dir
and--keep_hash
options:
./build_docs --all --target_repo git@github.com:elastic/built-docs.git --open
Running a full build for the first time can be slow (60 mins+) as the build needs to:
- clone each repository
- build the docs for each branch
Subsequent runs will pull any changes to the repos and only build the branches that have changed.
Previewing the Elastic docs in pull requests
In most Elastic repositories, when you open a pull request that affects the documentation, it calculates which books are affected and creates a PR check to build them.
If you need to re-run the check, add a comment like this:
@elasticmachine run docs build
or
@elasticmachine, run elasticsearch-ci/docs
To force all versions of the documentation to be rebuilt (not just the calculated subset), add a comment like this:
@elasticmachine, run elasticsearch-ci/docs rebuild
Adding new docs or new branches
You can add a new repository under the repos
section, if it doesn’t already exist, and you can add a new "book" under thecontents
section.
Each book contains a list of branches
and we build a separate copy of each book for each of those branches
. There is also a current
branch which gets special treatment. When we fork a branch like 7.x or 7.9 we typically add it to the list of branches
so we immediately start building docs for it while we’re actively developing against it. When we release a new minor or major version we update the current
branch to point to that branch.
Note | At this point changing current requires a full "rebuild" which we do by logging into the docsbuildclicking the "Build with Parameters" link, checking the "rebuild" option, and then starting the build. |
---|
Each book may optionally contain a list of live
branches. If the list is specified only branches that are in it are considered "living" and books that are not in the list will get a message at the top of each page saying that we don’t plan to release any more bug fixes or actively maintain the docs for that branch.
If you want a branch to have a different "version" name (for instance, if you want to build a version called "4.2" but have it build out of a branch called "branch-for-4.2"), you can put {branch-for-4.2: 4.2}
as an entry in thebranches
list. Everywhere else in conf.yaml
, continue to usebranch-for-4.2
.
Asciidoc Guide
Basic book structure
Asciidocs can be built as a book
, article
, manpage
etc. All our docs are built as a book
, and thus follow the layout for books. The most basic structure is as follows:
= Book title // level 0
== Chapter title // level 1
=== Section title // level 2
==== Section title // level 3
===== Section title // level 4
Usually this structure will be sufficient for most of your documentation needs. More complicated "books", such as the {ref}[Elasticsearch Guide], require a few additional elements, described on the following pages.
Filenames
By default, each chapter will generate a new _chunk_or HTML file. You can control the name of the file by giving the header an ID, as follows:
[[intro-to-xyz]] == Intro to XYZ
This chapter would then be written to a file calledintro-to-xyz.html
. If no ID is provided, then a filename will be auto-generated. See Controlling chunkingfor more.
These IDs are also used to link to sections within each book. See Linking.
Tip | For search engine optimization (SEO), make sure the keywords you use in the ID match keywords used in the topic title. For example, if the topic is called "Install XYZ", use [[install-xyz]] for the topic ID. |
---|
TOC titles
By default, the link text used in the generated TOC is based on the title of each file. You can provide an abbreviated title using a titleabbrev
in one of two ways:
- You should add a
titleabbrev
attribute to the section:
[id=intro_to_xyz,titleabbrev=" XYZ Intro"]
== Intro to XYZ
Words. - You may use the pass block but it isn’t recommended:
== Intro to XYZ
++++
XYZ Intro
++++
Words.
Multi-part books
Books may also be divided into multiple parts, which are indicated with level 0
headers:
= Book title // level 0
= Part title // level 0
== Chapter title // level 1
=== Section title // level 2
... etc ...
Each part
also creates a new chunk or HTML file.
Part intro
A part
may include text before the first chapter
, but it must be marked with [partintro]
in order to be valid:
= Book title // level 0
= Part one // level 0
[partintro] A paragraph introducing this Part
== Chapter title // level 1
... etc ...
Longer partintro
blocks should be wrapped in anopen blockwhich starts and ends with two dashes: --
:
= Part two // level 0
[partintro] .A partintro title -- <1> This section may contain multiple paragraphs.
[discrete] == A header should use [discrete]
Everything up to the closing -- marker will be considered part of the partintro. -- <1>
== Chapter title // level 2
... etc ...
- The open block delimiters
Optional sections
Books may include other sections such as a preamble, a preface, a glossary or appendices.
Preamble
= Book title // level 0
.Optional preamble title Preamble text...
Preface and Appendix
[preface] = Preface title // level 0
=== Preface header // level 2 (1)
= Part one // level 0
and
[appendix] = Appendix title // level 0
=== Appendix header // level 2 (1)
- Any headers in the appendix or in the preface start out-of-sequence at
level 2
, not atlevel 1
.
Glossary
[glossary] = Glossary title // level 0
[glossary] Term one:: Defn for term one
Term two:: Defn for term two
Note | The two [glossary] elements above have different purposes: The first marks this section of the document as a glossary, to be included in the table of contents The second marks the definitions list as type glossary |
---|
Also see
If you need to use some of these more advanced structural elements, have a look at the example of a multi-part book included in this repo in book-multi.txt.
Paragraphs
A paragraph consists of multiple lines of text which start in the left hand column:
This is a paragraph even though it contains line breaks.
This is a second paragraph.
Paragraph titles
Like most elements, a paragraph can have a title:
Example 1. Paragraph with a title
.Paragraph title Text of my paragraph
Paragraph title
Text of my paragraph
Admonition paragraphs
A paragraph which starts with TIP:
, NOTE:
, IMPORTANT:
,WARNING:
or CAUTION:
is rendered as an admonition paragraph, eg:
NOTE: Compare admonition paragraphs with <>.
This renders as:
Note | Compare admonition paragraphs with Admonition blocks. |
---|
Literal paragraphs
Literal paragraphs, which are rendered as <pre>
blocks without any source highlighting, must be indented:
Example 2. A literal paragraph
.Optional title
This para must
be indented
Optional title
This para must be indented
See also Code blocks for blocks with syntax highlighting.
Inline text
Inline text can be formatted as follows:
_emphasis_ | emphasis |
---|---|
*bold* | bold |
`mono' | mono |
^superscript^ | superscript |
~subscript~ | subscript |
These formatting characters expect to adjoin whitespace or common punctuation characters. To combine bold with emphasis, double up the quotes (ie use __
and **
):
Example 3. Combining bold and emphasis
This example co__mbines__ bold and emphasis
This example co_mbines_ bold and emphasis.
Unwanted quotes can be escaped with a \
character.
Replacement characters
Certain runs of ASCII characters are replaced as follows:
-- | — (em dash) |
---|---|
... | … |
-> | → |
<- | ← |
=> | ⇒ |
<= | ⇐ |
(C) | © |
(TM) | ™ |
(R) | ® |
Shared attributes
Books that use shared attributes files must declare a dependency on them inconf.yaml like this:
- repo: docs path: shared/versions/stack/{version}.asciidoc
- repo: docs path: shared/attributes.asciidoc
or
- repo: docs path: shared/versions/stack/current.asciidoc
- repo: docs path: shared/attributes.asciidoc
There is also a special set of attributes that are automatically created by the build process. They are labelled <repo>-root
, where <repo>
is the name defined at the top of theconf.yaml. For example, there is an elasticsearch-root
attribute that resolves to the root path of the Elasticsearch repo. Please use these root attributes or define es-repo-dir
, for example, rather than relying on intrinsic attributes like `` and{asciidoc-dir}
. The instrinsic attributes are problematic when you re-use files in different source file paths.
If books don’t use shared attributes files, the attributes generally appear at the beginning of the book, under the title. For example:
Example 4. Using book-scoped attributes for cross-document linking
= My Book Title
:branch: master :ref: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/{branch}
Here is a link to the {ref}/search.html[search page]
Attribute scope
Attributes are in-scope for the entire book unless you explicitly clear them by setting :!attributename:
. For example:
Example 5. Clearing an attribute
:myattribute: some value All the things on the page. :!myattribute:
To create page-scoped attributes, clear the attribute at the end of the page.
Linking
You can link to any block in the document that has an ID — an identifier before the block which is wrapped in double square brackets: ``
[[para-id]]
This paragraph can be linked to using the ID para-id
.
When you need to combine an ID with a style, you can either specify each on a separate line:
[[note-id]] [NOTE]
This note can be linked to using the ID note-id
.
or in one line:
["NOTE",id="note-id"] (1)
This note can be linked to using the ID note-id
.
- In the one line format, the
NOTE
must be enclosed in double quotes.
Both of the above render as:
Note | This note can be linked to using the ID note-id. |
---|
The ID
is added to the HTML document as an <a>
anchor and, as explained in Controlling chunking, the ID
is used as the filename for sections which are chunked — written to separate HTML files.
Internal links
You can link to any ID within a document using double angle brackets:
Example 6. Links with default link text
It will use the title associated with each ID as the link text.
Alternative link text can be provided as a second parameter inside the angle brackets:
Example 7. Links with custom link text
See the <<note-id,note about IDs>>.
See the note about IDs.
External links
Links to external websites can just be added as normal inline text, optionally with custom link text in square brackets:
Example 8. External links
See http://github.com/elastic or http://github.com/elastic/docs[this repository]
The existence of external links is not confirmed by the build process.
Cross document links
Links to other Elastic books are essentially the same as external links. However, for conciseness and maintainability, you should use an attribute to represent the absolute URL of the docs.
Example 9. Using shared attributes for cross-document linking
= My Book Title
Use this if your repo is versioned with the Elastic stack:
include::{docs-root}/shared/versions/stack/{source_branch}.asciidoc[]
Or use this to alway point to the most recent version of the stack
include::{docs-root}/shared/versions/stack/current.asciidoc[]
Either way, you'll want to include a reference to the attributes file
which builds the links from the versions.
include::{docs-root}/shared/attributes.asciidoc[]
Here is a link to the {ref}/search.html[search page]
The main benefit of using attributes for cross document links is that, when the docs for an old version contain links that no longer exist in the current
branch, you can update all the links in the document to point to the older version, by just updating a single attribute.
Cross document links are checked when build_docs
is run with the --all
parameter. See Building all of the Elastic docs.
Lists
Bullet points
Bullet point lists are written using asterisks:
Example 10. Bullet points
.Optional title
- Point
- Point ** Sub-point *** Sub-sub-point
- TODO
- Done
- A point can have multiple paragraphs
- But use a
+
instead of an empty line between paras.
An empty line signifies the end of the list.
Optional title
- Point
- Point
- Sub-point
* Sub-sub-point
- Sub-point
- ❏ TODO
- ✓ Done
- A point can have multiple paragraphs
But use a+
instead of an empty line between paras
An empty line signifies the end of the list.
Ordered lists
Ordered lists use .
instead of *
, and will alternate between numbers and letters automatically:
Example 11. An ordered list
.Optional title . foo .. bar ... baz .... balloo
Optional title
- foo
- bar
- baz
1. balloo
- baz
- bar
Definition lists
Definition lists are used to define terms. The term must be followed by a double colon ::
eg:
Example 12. A vertical definition list
term one:: Definition for term one
term two::
Can start on the next line
term three:: A definition can have multiple
+
paragraphs, but use +
to separate them
term four::: Definitions can be nested by adding more colons term five:: A definition can even include lists: * point one * point two
term one
Definition for term one
term two
Can start on the next line
term three
A definition can have multiple
paragraphs, but use +
to separate them
term four
Definitions can be nested by adding more colons
term five
A definition can even include lists:
- point one
- point two
Horizontal definition lists
Often definition lists are better rendered horizontally, eg:
Example 13. A horizontal definition list
[horizontal]
term one:: Definition for term one
term two::
Can start on the next line
term three:: A definition can have multiple
+
paragraphs, but use +
to separate them
term four::: Definitions can be nested by adding more colons term five:: A definition can even include lists: * point one * point two
term one | Definition for term one |
---|---|
term two | Can start on the next line |
term three | A definition can have multiple paragraphs, but use + to separate them term four Definitions can be nested by adding more colons |
term five | A definition can even include lists: point one point two |
Blocks
Blocks are used for special blocks of content, such asCode blocks, Example blocks, Sidebars andAdmonition blocks.
Blocks are delimited with a start and end line which uses the same characters, like =====
.
Code blocks
Code blocks are rendered as <pre>
blocks, and use syntax highlighting, eg:
Example 14. A code block
.Optional title [source,js]
{ "query": "foo bar" }
Important | If you don’t specify the source language then the generated HTML is quite different so, in general, you should specify a language. We use the language as a hint for the syntax highlighter. See files in this repository names lang-*.js for information. |
---|
Callouts
Code blocks can use callouts to add an explanatory footnote to a particular line of code:
Example 15. Code block with callouts
[source,js]
{ "query": "foo bar" <1> }
<1> Here's the explanation
{ "query": "foo bar" (1) }
- Here’s the explanation
Copy as curl/View in Console
Code blocks can be followed by a "Copy as curl" link which will convert the snippet into a sequence of calls to the ubiquitouscurl tool that work in the bash shell and copy it to the clipboard. Similarly, if the target of the snippet is Elasticsearch we also add a "Try in Console" link will open the code snippet in Console.
You enable it by setting the "language" of the snippet to a supported language. The options are "console" for Elasticsearch, "kibana" for Kibana, "ess" for Elasticsearch Service (Elastic’s official SaaS offering), and "ece" for Elastic Cloud Enterprise.
For Elasticsearch do this:
Example 16. Code block with "Copy as curl" and "Try in Console" link for Elasticsearch
[source,console]
GET /_search { "query": "foo bar" <1> }
<1> Here's the explanation
Which renders as:
GET /_search { "query": "foo bar" (1) }
- Here’s the explanation
Note | In older branches you’ll see // CONSOLE after the snippet to trigger this behavior. That is deprecated. |
---|
For Kibana do this:
Example 17. Code block with "Copy as curl" link for Kibana
[source,kibana]
GET /
Which renders as:
For Elasticsearch Service do this:
Example 18. Code block with "Copy as curl" link for Elasticsearch Service
[source,ess]
GET /
Which renders as:
For Elastic Cloud Enterprise do this:
Example 19. Code block with "Copy as curl" link for Elastic Cloud Enterprise
[source,ece]
GET /
Which renders as:
Responses
If Console
requests are followed by a "response" then it should be written with the language set to console-response
. That will allowalternative examples to find the responses. Like this:
[source,console-result]
{ "hits": { "total": { "value": 0, "relation": "eq" }, "hits": [] } }
Which should render as:
{
"hits": {
"total": { "value": 0, "relation": "eq" },
"hits": []
}
}
Admonition blocks
Admonition blocks are much the same as Admonition paragraphs, except that they can be longer and contain more than just a paragraph. For instance:
[NOTE]
This note contains a list:
- foo
- bar
- baz
and some code
[source,js]
{ "query": "foo bar"}
=========================
This renders as:
Note | This note contains a list: foo bar baz and some code |
---|
Sidebars
Sidebars are used to highlight a block of content that is outside the usual flow of text:
.Optional title
So why does the bulk
API have such a
funny format? Sit down and I'll tell you
all about it!
Optional title
So why does the bulk
API have such a funny format? Sit down and I’ll tell you all about it!
Example blocks
Example blocks contain normal text which is used as an example. The title, if any, is labelled as an example and numbered:
.My first example
Text explaining the first example.
.My second example
Text explaining the second example.
This renders as:
Example 20. My first example
Text explaining the first example.
Example 21. My second example
Text explaining the second example.
Caution | The === and --- delimiters can sometimes be confused with a header, resulting in an error. To resolve this, add newlines between the delimiter and the content before and after it. |
---|
Examples can be made collapsible:
[%collapsible] .An example
Lots of text can go in here.
Which renders as:
An example
Lots of text can go in here.
Including files
For long documentation, you probably want to break up the Asciidoc files into smaller units, and just include them where appropriate:
include::myfolder/mydoc.asciidoc[]
Paths are relative to the file which contains the include
statement.
Across repositories
If you have to include files in a different repository then use its -root
attribute to locate the files:
include::{elasticsearch-root}/docs/foo.asciidoc[]
Books that reference another repository should register that reference inconf.yaml.
- repo: elasticsearch path: docs/foo.asciidoc
The path should be as specific as possible because we skip rebuilding books if changes to the referenced repository don’t change the referenced path.
Additions and deprecations
Documentation is built for various branches, eg 0.90
,1.00
, master
. However, we release versions0.90.0
, 0.90.1
, etc, which are all based on the0.90
branch.
When adding new functionality to a branch, or deprecating existing functionality, you can mark the change as_added_, coming or deprecated. Use coming
when the addition is in an as yet unreleased version of the current branch, and added
when the functionality is already released.
The update_versions.pl
script can be used to change coming
notices to added
notices when doing a new release, and can also be used to remove added
, coming
and deprecated
notices completely.
Inline notifications
Use inline notifications for small changes, such as the addition or deprecation of individual parameters.
[horizontal]
foo.bar
:: Does XYZ. added:[0.90.4]
foo.bar
:: Does XYZ. coming:[0.90.4]
foo.baz
:: Does XYZ. deprecated:[0.90.4]
foo.bar | Does XYZ. added:[0.90.4] |
---|---|
foo.bar | Does XYZ. coming:[0.90.4] |
foo.baz | Does XYZ. deprecated:[0.90.4] |
You can also include details about additional notes in the notifications which show up when the user hovers over it:
[horizontal]
foo.bar
:: Does XYZ. added:[0.90.4,Replaces foo.baz
]
foo.bar
:: Does XYZ. coming:[0.90.4,Replaces foo.baz
]
foo.baz
:: Does XYZ. deprecated:[0.90.4,Replaced by foo.bar
]
foo.bar | Does XYZ. added:[0.90.4,Replaces foo.baz] |
---|---|
foo.bar | Does XYZ. coming:[0.90.4,Replaces foo.baz] |
foo.baz | Does XYZ. deprecated:[0.90.4,Replaced by foo.bar] |
Note | If the details include a comma, you must use quotation marks. For example: deprecated::[1.1.0,"Span started automatically by <<apm-start-span,apm.startSpan()>>"] |
---|
Section notifications
Use section notifications to mark an entire chapter or section as added/deleted. Notifications can just refer to the version in which the change was made:
==== New section
added::[0.90.4]
Text about new functionality...
==== New section not yet released
coming::[0.90.9]
Text about new functionality...
==== Old section
deprecated::[0.90.4]
Text about old functionality...
New section
added::[0.90.4]
Text about new functionality…
New section not yet released
coming::[0.90.9]
Text about new functionality…
Old section
deprecated::[0.90.4]
Text about old functionality…
With details…
Or they can include extra text, including more Asciidoc markup:
[[new-section]] ==== New section
added::[0.90.4,Replaces foo.bar
. See <>]
Text about new functionality...
[[coming-section]] ==== New section not yet released
coming::[0.90.9,Replaces foo.bar
. See <>]
Text about new functionality...
[[old-section]] ==== Old section
deprecated::[0.90.4,Replace by foo.baz
. See <>]
Text about old functionality...
New section
added::[0.90.4,Replaces foo.bar
. See Old section]
Text about new functionality…
Old section
deprecated::[0.90.4,Replace by foo.baz
. See New section]
Text about old functionality…
Beta, Dev, and Preview (experimental)
APIs or parameters that are in beta, in development, or in technical preview (formerly experimental) can be marked as such, using markup similar to that used in Additions and deprecations.
In the block format, you have the option of adding a related GitHub issue link. If both custom text and a GitHub link are provided, the GitHub link must be provided second. If it’s supported in your repo, you can use the {issue}
attribute in place of the GitHub issue link.
Using the beta
admonition
[[new-beta-feature]] === New beta feature
beta::[]
beta::[https://github.com/elastic/docs/issues/505]
beta::[{issue}505]
beta::["Custom text goes here."]
beta::["Custom text goes here.",https://github.com/elastic/docs/issues/505]
beta::["Custom text goes here.",{issue}505]
Text about new feature...
[[old-beta-feature]] === Established feature
This feature has been around for a while, but we're adding a new parameter that's in beta:
established_param
::
This param has been around for ages and won't change.
beta_param
::
beta:[]
This param is in beta and may change in the future.
beta_param
::
beta:["Custom text goes here."]
This param is in beta and may change in the future.
Using the dev
admonition
[[new-dev-feature]] === New feature in development
dev::[]
dev::[https://github.com/elastic/docs/issues/505]
dev::[{issue}505]
dev::["Custom text goes here."]
dev::["Custom text goes here.",https://github.com/elastic/docs/issues/505]
dev::["Custom text goes here.",{issue}505]
Text about feature in development...
[[old-dev-feature]] === Established feature
This feature has been around for a while, but we're adding a new parameter that's in development:
established_param
::
This param has been around for ages and won't change.
dev_param
::
dev:[]
This param is in development and may change in the future.
dev_param
::
dev:["Custom text goes here."]
This param is in development and may change in the future.
Using the experimental
admonition
Experimental language is deprecated.
We decided on the much less raw sounding "technical preview".
See below.
Using the technical preview
admonition
[[new-feature]] === New feature in technical preview
preview::[]
preview::[https://github.com/elastic/docs/issues/505]
preview::[{issue}505]
preview::["Custom text goes here."]
preview::["Custom text goes here.",https://github.com/elastic/docs/issues/505]
preview::["Custom text goes here.",{issue}505]
Text about new feature...
[[old-feature]] === Established feature
This feature has been around for a while, but we're adding a new preview parameter:
established_param
::
This param has been around for ages and won't change.
experimental_param
::
preview:[]
This param is in technical preview and may change in the future.
experimental_param
::
preview:["Custom text goes here."]
This param is in technical preview and may change in the future.
Images
Any images you want to include should be saved in a folder in your repo, and included using a path relative to the document where the image::
statement appears.
[[cat]] .A scaredy cat image::resources/readme/cat.jpg[Alt text]
A link to <>
Figure 1. A scaredy cat
A link to A scaredy cat.
Width and height
The width
and/or height
of the image can be specified in pixels or as a percentage:
image::resources/readme/cat.jpg["Alt text",width=50] image::resources/readme/cat.jpg["Alt text",width="20%"]
Alignment
Images are left-aligned by default, but they can be centred or right-aligned:
image::resources/readme/cat.jpg["Alt text",width=100,align="left"] image::resources/readme/cat.jpg["Alt text",width=100,align="right"] image::resources/readme/cat.jpg["Alt text",width=100,align="center"]
Screenshots
Screenshots get extra margins and a box-shadow:
You can activate it with:
[role="screenshot"] image::resources/readme/screenshot.png[A screenshot example]
SVGs
SVGs are also supported. Just use them like you would any other image:
image::resources/readme/example.svg[An example svg]
Which looks like:
Image links
You can add relative or absoloute links to your images with the following syntax:
image:./images/dynamic-config.svg[link=configuration.html#configuration-dynamic]
Using internal link attributes is also supported, but the image must be inside the internal link syntax. It’s important to add a space on each side of the image tag. Without spaces, the image will not render.
<<configuration-dynamic, image:./images/dynamic-config.svg[] >>
Videos
You can add a vimeo hosted video with Asciidoctor’svideo tag:
video::366852847[vimeo,height=480]
Note | You should set height or else the video will be tiny. You shouldn’t set width because Vimeo will preserve the aspect ratio for you. |
---|
Which renders like this:
Tables
Our CSS for tables isn’t great at the moment so it’s almost always better to use Horizontal definition lists instead, but if you really want to use tables, you can read about them here.
Edit links
We automatically generate edit
links for most sections to make it easier for folks to contribute simple fixes and to help folks find the asciidoc file that generated a particular section. It should appear next to every title-like thing.
Books built with Asciidoctor will automatically pick the correct url for all files and by default doesn’t support overriding edit_url
. This is mostly a good thing because the overridden `edit_url`s were out of date in many cases.
Some books override edit_url
because the asciidoc files in them are not authoritative. In that case they set edit_url
to the "real" place to make the change. Sometimes this is another repository and sometimes it is some code that generates the asciidoc files. These books should addrespect_edit_url_overrides
to their config. While it isn’t required for AsciiDoc it is required for Asciidoctor.
Controlling chunking
In Basic book structure, we said that each part
or chapter
generates a new chunk or HTML file. For more complex documentation, you may want the first level of sections to also generate new chunks.
For example:
= 1st-level page // part
== 2nd-level child page // chapter
=== 3rd-level child page // section level 1
=== Another 3rd-level child page // section level 1
... etc ...
This renders in the TOC as follows:
Enabling section chunking
To enable section chunking when building docs in a local repository, pass the --chunk
parameter:
build_docs --doc path/to/index.asciidoc --chunk 1
To enable section chunking when building docs for the website, add chunk: 1
to theconf.yaml file in the docs
repo.
contents: - title: Elasticsearch Guide prefix: elasticsearch/reference repo: elasticsearch index: docs/reference/index.asciidoc chunk: 1 (1)
- Chunking is enabled for this book
Chunking selected sections
If you enable session chunking, you will probably find that you have a few short sections which you want to keep on the same page.
To do this, you can use the [discrete]
marker before a section header, to indicate that what follows isn’t a "real" header:
[[chapter-one]] == chapter // new chunk
[[section-one]] === Section one // new chunk
[discrete] [[section-two]] === Section two // same chunk
[[section-three]] === Section three // new chunk
The above would produce three HTML files, named for their IDs:
chapter-one.html
section-one.html
which would also contain "Section two"section-three.html
To link to "Section two" from an external document, you would use the URL: section-one.html#section-two
Tabbed widgets
Improve the usability of your docs by adding tabbed widgets. These handy widgets let you conditionally display content based on the selected tab. Best of all, tabbed widgets listen to each other – all widgets on the same page and with the same data-tab-group
will change content when any tab on the page is selected.
How do they work? I’m glad you asked. Tabbed widgets use HTML passthrough blocks to pass raw HTML into the build. Because of this hack, you must use include::
statements to render content within a tabbed widget.
Here’s an example:
widget.asciidoc
++++
// You must use a tagged region for Asciidoc content to render. For example: // include::content.asciidoc[tag=central-config]
++++
// You must use a tagged region for Asciidoc content to render. For example: // include::content.asciidoc[tag=reg-config]
++++
- Any tabbed widgets on the same page and with the same name will sync tabs when switched
- Only one tab should have aria-selected set to true. This tab will be selected by default
- The
button.aria-controls
value must match thediv.id
value of its corresponding content bucket - The
button.id
value must match thediv.aria-labelledby
value of its corresponding content bucket - All unselected tabs must have a
tabindex
of-1
content.asciidoc
// tag::central-config[] This is where the content for tab #1 goes. // end::central-config[]
// tag::reg-config[] This is the content for tab #2 goes. // end::reg-config[]
Global banners
Add a banner to every page within a book by creating a page_header.html
file. This file must live in the root of the documentation directory (i.e. the book’s path
in conf.yaml
) and is picked up by the doc build automatically. This file can include any valid HTML. An example can be seen here.