1 .. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
2 .. International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
3 .. Copyright 2017 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved.
7 This guide describes how to create documentation for the Open Network
8 Automation Platform (ONAP). ONAP projects create a variety of
9 content depending on the nature of the project. For example projects
10 delivering a platform component may have different types of content than
11 a project that creates libraries for a software development kit.
12 The content from each project may be used together as a reference for
13 that project and/or be used in documents that are tailored to a specific
14 user audience and tasks they are performing.
16 Much of the content in this document is derived from similar
17 documentation processes used in other Linux Foundation
18 Projects including OPNFV and Open Daylight.
20 Why reStructuredText/Sphinx?
21 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
23 In the past, standard documentation methods included ad-hoc Word documents,
24 PDFs, poorly organized Wikis, and other, often closed, tools like
25 Adobe FrameMaker. The rise of DevOps, Agile, and Continuous Integration,
26 however, created a paradigm shift for those who care about documentation
29 1. Documentation must be tightly coupled with code/product releases.
30 In many cases, particularly with open-source products, many different
31 versions of the same code can be installed in various production
32 environments. DevOps personnel must have access to the correct version
35 2. Resources are often tight, volunteers scarce. With a large software base
36 like ONAP, a small team of technical writers, even if they are also
37 developers, cannot keep up with a constantly changing, large code base.
38 Therefore, those closest to the code should document it as best they can,
39 and let professional writers edit for style, grammar, and consistency.
41 Plain-text formatting syntaxes, such as reStructuredText, Markdown,
42 and Textile, are a good choice for documentation because:
44 a. They are editor agnostic
46 b. The source is nearly as easy to read as the rendered text
48 c. Documentation can be treated exactly as source code is (e.g. versioned,
49 diff'ed, associated with commit messages that can be included
52 d. Shallow learning curve
54 The documentation team chose reStructuredText largely because of Sphinx,
55 a Python-based documentation build system, which uses reStructuredText
56 natively. In a code base as large as ONAP's, cross-referencing between
57 component documentation was deemed critical. Sphinx and reStructuredText
58 have built-in functionality that makes collating and cross-referencing
59 component documentation easier.
61 Which docs should go where?
62 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
64 Frequently, developers ask where documentation should be created. Should
65 they always use reStructuredText/Sphinx? Not necessarily. Is the wiki
66 appropriate for anything at all? Yes.
68 It's really up to the development team. Here is a simple rule:
70 The more tightly coupled the documentation is to a particular version
71 of the code, the more likely it is that it should be stored with the
72 code in reStructuredText.
74 The doc team encourages component teams to store as much documentation
75 as reStructuredText as possible because:
77 1. It is easier to edit component documentation for grammar,
78 spelling, clarity, and consistency.
80 2. A consistent formatting syntax across components will allow
81 flexibility in producing different kinds of output.
83 3. It is easier to re-organize the documentation.
85 4. Wiki articles tend to grow in size and not maintained making it hard
86 to find current information.
90 A top level master document structure is used to organize all
91 documents created by ONAP projects and this resides in the gerrit doc
92 repository. Complete documents or guides may reside here and
93 reference parts of source for documentation from other project
94 repositories. Other ONAP projects will provide content that
95 is referenced from this structure.
101 │ ├── active-projects
107 │ │ ├── how-to-use-docs
117 │ │ ├── onap-portal-admin
118 │ │ │ └── attachments
123 │ │ │ ├── change_config
124 │ │ │ ├── pnf_connect
125 │ │ │ └── vnf_connect
127 │ │ │ ├── control-loop
130 │ │ │ ├── parameter_resolution
131 │ │ │ │ └── ubuntu_example
132 │ │ │ │ ├── cba-after-enrichment
133 │ │ │ │ │ ├── Definitions
134 │ │ │ │ │ ├── Templates
135 │ │ │ │ │ └── TOSCA-Metadata
136 │ │ │ │ ├── cba-before-enrichment
137 │ │ │ │ │ ├── Definitions
138 │ │ │ │ │ ├── Templates
139 │ │ │ │ │ └── TOSCA-Metadata
140 │ │ │ │ └── ubuntuCDS_heat
141 │ │ │ ├── pre-onboarding
143 │ │ │ ├── resource-onboarding
145 │ │ │ ├── service-design
147 │ │ │ ├── service-distribution
152 │ │ │ ├── instantiation
154 │ │ │ │ ├── pnf_instance
155 │ │ │ │ ├── service_instance
160 │ │ │ │ ├── virtual_link_instance
161 │ │ │ │ └── vnf_instance
162 │ │ │ └── pre_instantiation
163 │ │ └── onap-portal-user
176 All documentation for project repositories should be structured and stored
177 in or below `<your_project_repo>/docs/` directory as Restructured Text.
178 ONAP jenkins jobs that verify and merge documentation are triggered by
179 RST file changes in the top level docs directory and below.
183 All contributions to the ONAP project are done in accordance with the
184 ONAP licensing requirements. Documentation in ONAP is contributed
185 in accordance with the `Creative Commons 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>`_ license.
186 All documentation files need to be licensed using the text below.
187 The license may be applied in the first lines of all contributed RST
192 .. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
193 .. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
194 .. Copyright YEAR ONAP or COMPANY or INDIVIDUAL
196 These lines will not be rendered in the html and pdf files.
198 When there are subsequent, significant contributions to a source file
199 from a different contributor, a new copyright line may be appended
200 after the last existing copyright line.