No need to develop and deploy, build elegant open source project documentation in seconds, this tool is cool to use

I have introduced several tools for building open source project documentation before, including Docsify, VuePress and Hexo. These tools have one thing in common, they need some development and deployment work, and deployment basically relies on Github Pages or self-built servers. So is there any tool that can be used out of the box? Recently, I found that many open source projects use to build document websites. I have experienced it and it is very good. I recommend it to everyone!

SpringBoot actual combat e-commerce project mall (50k+star) address: https://github.com/macrozheng/mall

Introduction

is a new generation of cloud knowledge base that can write book-like project documents, has a professional and easy-to-use editor (supports Markdown conversion), and convenient team collaboration functions.

The main usage scenarios are as follows:

• Personal notes: Yuque's knowledge base has public and private functions, and the private knowledge base can be used as an online cloud note, which can facilitate us to record bits and pieces and accumulate knowledge.
• Column Blog: If you don’t want to build your own blog site, you can generate it directly.
• Project documents: Have you seen project documents that can be collaborated by multiple people?
• Official documents: can be used as product descriptions and help manuals.

Show results

Let's take a look at the finished product first. The interface is pretty good right out of the box!

Core idea

Before using Yuque, we need to understand the concepts. The following introduces these core concepts, and then shows the corresponding interface.

• First, let's look at the relationship diagram of each core concept, which is very helpful to understand these concepts:

• Space: Space is similar to the concept of a company or organization. In the space, we can manage content such as teams, knowledge bases, and knowledge.

• Team: The team in the space can be linked to your actual organizational structure, such as departmental teams, project teams, etc.

• Knowledge base: The knowledge base is the carrier of knowledge content, just like a book. You can reorganize and classify the knowledge content in the knowledge base.

• Knowledge: The content in the knowledge base, which can be a document.

Build

Next, we use Yuque to build an open source project document, taking my open source e-commerce project mall as an example.

Quickly build

• First, we click on the upper left corner to create space to store the team and knowledge base;

• Then choose to create the knowledge base. Since our knowledge base is mainly used to store documents, select the document knowledge base, and then enter the name and introduction;

• After the knowledge base is created, we can add the document to the knowledge base, just copy the document written in Markdown before, and then click on upper right corner to convert it immediately;

• After the conversion is successful, the display effect is as follows. Is it much simpler than building a project document website by yourself?

• It is worth mentioning here that when we copy articles, Yuque will automatically upload online pictures for us, and many blog sites also have this function;

• If you want to modify the document catalog of the knowledge base, for example, if I want the entire secondary catalog, you can use the catalog function;

Custom homepage

In fact, at this point, we have learned how to make an open source project documentation website, but at this time the home page of the documentation website is just a directory, which is a bit monotonous. If we want the home page content to be richer, I need to create a team, Then customize the homepage of the team;

• First, let's create a team, choose the official document template of

• Then fill in the name, profile, and avatar;

• Then we can customize the home page and use a graphical interface to complete a home page. Below is the home page effect I have completed;

• Here I have added three modules: search, knowledge base, and custom content. If you want a richer homepage, you can add more modules to try;

• Here it is best to transfer your knowledge base to the created team on the settings page of your knowledge base;

• Next visit your team homepage, and a standard open source project documentation website is born.

Public access

If you want to build a private documentation website, the above operations can basically meet your needs, but if you want to build a public documentation website, you also need the following operations.

• Unfortunately, neither the team nor the knowledge base in the newly built space can be set up for everyone on the Internet to access, and only the following three access permissions are supported;

• In order for the team to be publicly accessible, we need to create a knowledge group in the default personal space, and you can choose the official document template;

• At this point, we can find that the visible range of the team has become visible on the Internet, and this is the truly open team;

• What we need to do afterwards is to transfer the previous knowledge base to the team through the import and export functions. The export function is in the knowledge base settings -> advanced settings, and choose to export to the .lakebook format;

• Then create a knowledge base in the knowledge group, set the range to visible on the Internet, and import the .lakebook file;

• Then follow the previous steps to customize the home page of the knowledge group, and a publicly accessible open source project documentation website is born!

Summarize

Through a wave of practice of building open source project documentation by using Yuque, we can find that this method is indeed much simpler than using Docsify to build a website by yourself. It requires neither coding nor buying a server. No wonder many open source projects use it to build document websites. Of course, Yuque has more than these functions. It is also very useful for making online cloud notes. If you are interested, you can explore it yourself!

Official website

https://www.yuque.com/

This article GitHub https://github.com/macrozheng/mall-learning has been included, welcome to Star!