Mapbender Documentation

This is the repository of the Mapbender documentation.

You can find compiled pages of the latest tagged releases on the official documentation landing page. Other versions of the documentation are also available on the same page under Older Versions.

The website code is generated using Sphinx, the documentation is written in Restructured Text.

The documentation source code is available on Github.

Prerequisites

To build the website locally, you need to install Sphinx first. Install it and the required extensions in Debian-based distributions with:

sudo apt install sphinx-common python3-sphinx
sudo apt install python3-sphinxcontrib.phpdomain
sudo apt install python3-sphinx-rtd-theme
sudo apt install python3-sphinx-notfound-page
sudo apt install python3-sphinx-copybutton

You will then be able to build the documentation by running:

make

How to build

Alternatively, clone the repository from GitHub to any directory:

cd /data
git clone git@github.com:mapbender/mapbender-documentation
cd mapbender-documentation
git checkout master

Then, build a tagged version with:

sphinx-build . _build -A version=4.0

Now, create a symlink from your build folder to the Apache Webserver:

ln -s /data/mapbender-documentation/_build/ /var/www/html/mb-doc

Finally, you can open the documentation in a web browser using:

http://localhost/mb-doc/

If you want to rebuild the documentation, delete the old build first:

rm -rf _build

How to participate

To contribute to the documentation, first create a fork of this repository, then implement your changes in it and finally test the changes on your local machine.

  cd /mapbender-documentation/en/elements/basic # In your forked repo, let's assume that you want to create a docs page that is part of the Mapbender CoreBundle. Switch to the folder where you want to put your file.
  cp overview.rst basic/add_wms.rst  # Create an .rst file. In this example, we copy the overview.rst as a template for the new documentation file.
  # Write the documentation. Keep it short and simple. Use the structure of the document and check the documentation rules below.
  sphinx-build . _build -A version=4.0 # Build the documentation locally to see what your documentation looks like. Adjust the version number (optional).
  ln -s /data/mapbender-documentation/_build/ /var/www/html/mb-doc # Create a symlink from your Sphinx build folder to your Apache web server to test the documentation locally.

Now, take a look at the documentation in your browser. Is everything OK? Are any changes needed? If not, you can create a pull request to add your reviewed changes to the documentation.

How to write

Here are some basic conventions for writing documentation.

Formatting syntax

We implement the basic .rst formatting syntax in the Mapbender documentation. It is documented in detail on the Sphinx page.

For inline markup, the aim is to comply with the following syntax:

• One asterisk for file names (README.md),
• two asterisks for text quoted directly from Mapbender, e.g. feature names or button labels (Save),
• backquotes for (file) paths (figures/sketch.png),
• double backquotes for inline code (bin/console mapbender:security:migrate-from-acl),

For several lines of code, we use code blocks.

.. code-block::

Moreover, we use formatting blocks to add important information to the documentation.

.. hint::
    This is a small hint.

.. note::
    This is an important note.

.. tip::
    This is a handy tip.

.. warning::
    This is a warning.

Referencing syntax

Here are some basic conventions for referencing images and headings.

Referencing images

Images for the documentation are available in mapbender-documentation/figures.

• Create optimized web images in .png file format that are approximately 1 MB (or smaller) in size.
• For elements, use elementname.png and elementname_configuration.png as names.
• If you also provide German image files, please keep the names and create two more images in the de folder.
• See the Quickstart file to see image referencing methods in action.

Referencing text

Each .rst file has its own tag that you can refer to. Use :ref: and the tag in the first line of the corresponding file to refer to another page in the documentation, e.g.:

    :ref:`overview_de` points to the German page of the overview map.

For referencing specific documentation sections, we use the Sphinx Autosectionlabel extension. It allows to reference sections using its title. The syntax is a combination of the file path name, a colon and the section title name.

For example, you can add a link to the Install Mapbender section of the Quickstart document like this:

    The following class refers to the :ref:`en/quickstart:Install Mapbender` text section.

Languages

The two fully supported languages (i.e.: en - English, de - German) should have the same file structure:

  /mapbender-documentation
    index.rst          # refers to the different languages
    /figures           # images that are included in the documentation
    /de                # German file locations
      ...
    /en                # English file locations
      index.rst        # refers to TheBook, Developer's Book & the Bundle Documentation
      bundles.rst      # lists the chapters of this category - refers to rst files
      development.rst  # lists the chapters of this category - refers to rst files
      /architecture
      /development
          ....
      /elements
          /backend
          /basic
          ....

Have fun!