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.
The documents produced by this build process may be published only on https://www.elastic.co. They may not be published in any other form or on any other website without explicit permission.
Getting started
Requirements
You’ll need the following installed:
-
Python 3
-
Docker
Cloning the repository
Clone the docs repository with:
git clone [email protected]:elastic/docs.gitBuilding this README
You can test that everything is working correctly by building this README as follows:
cd docs/
./build_docs --doc README.asciidoc --openThis 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.asciidocEach 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 the
Elasticsearch 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 --openSingle- 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 --singleAnd 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 using docbook 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 the
conf.yaml
file, 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/csharpBuilding 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_diroption. For example, if you are working on changes that will be merged into the master branch of theelasticsearchrepo, run:./docs/build_docs --all --target_repo [email protected]: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 of
elasticsearch.
|
To run a full build to mimic the website build, omit the --sub_dir and
--keep_hash options:
./build_docs --all --target_repo [email protected]:elastic/built-docs.git --openRunning 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 buildor
@elasticmachine, run elasticsearch-ci/docsTo force all versions of the documentation to be rebuilt (not just the calculated subset), add a comment like this:
@elasticmachine, run elasticsearch-ci/docs rebuildAdding new docs or new branches
The documentation that appears on the http://www.elastic.co/guide
website is controlled by the
conf.yaml file in the docs repo.
You can add a new repository under the repos section, if it
doesn’t already exist, and you can add a new "book" under the
contents 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 docs
build
clicking 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 the
branches list. Everywhere else in conf.yaml, continue to use
branch-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 4Usually 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 XYZThis chapter would then be written to a file called
intro-to-xyz.html. If no ID is provided, then a
filename will be auto-generated. See Controlling chunking
for 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
titleabbrevattribute 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 ++++ <titleabbrev>XYZ Intro</titleabbrev> ++++ 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 an
open block
which 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 0and
[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
|
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:
.Paragraph title
Text of my paragraphText 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 <<admon-blocks>>.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:
.Optional title
This para must
be indentedThis 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'
|
|
^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 **):
This example co__mb**in**es__ bold and emphasisThis example combines 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
To facilitate consistency across the documentation, there are shared attributes for common terms and URLs: https://github.com/elastic/docs/blob/master/shared/attributes.asciidoc. There are also attributes related to the versions and branches that are used to build our books (for example: https://github.com/elastic/docs/blob/master/shared/versions/stack/master.asciidoc).
Books that use shared attributes files must declare a dependency on them in
conf.yaml like this:
-
repo: docs
path: shared/versions/stack/{version}.asciidoc
-
repo: docs
path: shared/attributes.asciidocor
-
repo: docs
path: shared/versions/stack/current.asciidoc
-
repo: docs
path: shared/attributes.asciidocThere 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 the
conf.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:
= 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:
: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
NOTEmust be enclosed in double quotes.
Both of the above render as:
|
Note
|
This note can be linked to using the 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:
* <<setup>>
* <<structure>>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:
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:
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.
If possible, use attributes defined in the shared attributes file to resolve links:
= 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:
.Optional title
* Point
* Point
** Sub-point
*** Sub-sub-point
* [ ] TODO
* [x] 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.-
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.
For more information, see https://asciidoctor.org/docs/user-manual/#unordered-lists
Ordered lists
Ordered lists use . instead of *, and will alternate
between numbers and letters automatically:
.Optional title
. foo
.. bar
... baz
.... balloo-
foo
-
bar
-
baz
-
balloo
-
-
-
For more information, see https://asciidoctor.org/docs/user-manual/#ordered-lists
Definition lists
Definition lists are used to define terms. The term must be
followed by a double colon :: eg:
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:
[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
|
| term five |
A definition can even include lists:
|
Blocks
Blocks are used for special blocks of content, such as Code blocks, Example blocks, Sidebars and Admonition 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:
.Optional title
[source,js]
----------------------------------
{
"query": "foo bar"
}
----------------------------------{
"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:
[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 ubiquitous curl 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 "View 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:
[source,console]
----------------------------------
GET /_search
{
"query": "foo bar" <1>
}
----------------------------------
<1> Here's the explanationWhich 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:
[source,kibana]
----------------------------------
GET /
----------------------------------Which renders as:
GET /For Elasticsearch Service do this:
[source,ess]
----------------------------------
GET /
----------------------------------Which renders as:
GET /For Elastic Cloud Enterprise do this:
[source,ece]
----------------------------------
GET /
----------------------------------Which renders as:
GET /Responses
If Console requests are followed by a "response" then it should be written
with the language set to console-response. That will allow
alternative 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:
and some code { "query": "foo bar"} |
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!
**********************************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:
Text explaining the first 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 in
conf.yaml.
-
repo: elasticsearch
path: docs/foo.asciidocThe 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 versions
0.90.0, 0.90.1, etc, which are all based on the
0.90 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.bar
|
Does XYZ. coming:[0.90.4,Replaces |
foo.baz
|
Does XYZ. deprecated:[0.90.4,Replaced by |
|
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 <<old-section>>]
Text about new functionality...
[[coming-section]]
==== New section not yet released
coming::[0.90.9,Replaces `foo.bar`. See <<old-section>>]
Text about new functionality...
[[old-section]]
==== 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 <<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’s video 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 add
respect_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 1To enable section chunking when building docs for the website,
add chunk: 1 to the
conf.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 chunkThe above would produce three HTML files, named for their IDs:
-
chapter-one.html -
section-one.htmlwhich 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
++++
<div class="tabs" data-tab-group="custom-tab-group-name"> (1)
<div role="tablist" aria-label="Human readable name of tab group">
<button role="tab"
aria-selected="true" (2)
aria-controls="cloud-tab-config-agent" (3)
id="cloud-config-agent"> (4)
Tab #1 title
</button>
<button role="tab"
aria-selected="false"
aria-controls="self-managed-tab-config-agent"
id="self-managed-config-agent"
tabindex="-1"> (5)
Tab #2 title
</button>
</div>
<div tabindex="0"
role="tabpanel"
id="cloud-tab-config-agent"
aria-labelledby="cloud-config-agent">
++++
// You must use a tagged region for Asciidoc content to render. For example:
// include::content.asciidoc[tag=central-config]
++++
</div>
<div tabindex="0"
role="tabpanel"
id="self-managed-tab-config-agent"
aria-labelledby="self-managed-config-agent"
hidden="">
++++
// You must use a tagged region for Asciidoc content to render. For example:
// include::content.asciidoc[tag=reg-config]
++++
</div>
</div>
++++-
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-controlsvalue must match thediv.idvalue of its corresponding content bucket -
The
button.idvalue must match thediv.aria-labelledbyvalue of its corresponding content bucket -
All unselected tabs must have a
tabindexof-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[]