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Markdown-based, Pandoc-powered documentation generator.

Project description

#######
Foliant
#######

**Foliant** is a documentation generator that builds PDF, Docx, and TeX
documents from Markdown source.


******
Get It
******

There are two options:

- Install Foliant with pip:

.. code-block:: shell

$ pip install foliant[all]

You'll also need to install Pandoc and a LaTeX distrubution:

- MacTeX for macOS with brew_
- MikTeX for Windows with scoop_
- TeXLive for Linux[*]_ with whater package manager you have

Then, use ``foliant`` command as described in Usage_.

.. _brew: http://brew.sh/
.. _scoop: http://scoop.sh/
.. _Foliant Dockerfile: https://github.com/foliant-docs/foliant/blob/master/Dockerfile#L5-L16
.. [*] Among Linux distrubutions, Foliant was only tested on Ubuntu Xenial.
See the full list of packages that must be installed in Ubuntu
in the official `Foliant Dockerfile`_.

- Pull the `official Foliant image`_ from Docker Hub and run it in a container:

#. In your project directory (see `Project Layout`_), create a file called
``Dockerfile`` with the following content:

.. code-block:: dockerfile
:caption: Dockerfile

FROM foliant/foliant

# If necessary, add fonts and install additional packages:
# RUN apt-get install wget; \
# wget http://www.paratype.ru/uni/public/PTSans.zip; \
# mkdir -p /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ptsans/; \
# unzip PTSans.zip -d /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ptsans/; \
# rm PTSans.zip; \
# fc-cache -fv
RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app

WORKDIR /usr/src/app

#. In your project directory, create a file called ``docker-compose.yml``
with the following content:

.. code-block:: yaml
:caption: docker-compose.yml

my-foliant-project:
build: .
volumes:
- .:/usr/src/app

#. Build your project's image and run a container with the same params as
the regular ``foliant`` command (see `Usage`_):

.. code-block:: shell

$ docker-compose run --rm my-foliant-project make pdf
Collecting source... Done!
Drawing diagrams... Done!
Baking output... Done!
----
Result: Dolor_sit_amet_16-12-2016.pdf

.. warning::

`Uploading to Google Drive`_ currently doesn't work if you run Foliant
in a container.

.. _official Foliant image: https://hub.docker.com/r/foliant/foliant/


*****
Usage
*****

.. code-block:: shell

$ foliant -h
Foliant: Markdown to PDF, Docx, and LaTeX generator powered by Pandoc.

Usage:
foliant (build | make) <target> [--path=<project-path>]
foliant (upload | up) <document> [--secret=<client_secret*.json>]
foliant (swagger2markdown | s2m) <swagger-location> [--output=<output-file>]
[--template=<jinja2-template>]
foliant (-h | --help)
foliant --version

Options:
-h --help Show this screen.
-v --version Show version.
-p --path=<project-path> Path to your project [default: .].
-s --secret=<client_secret*.json> Path to Google app's client secret file.
-o --output=<output-file> Path to the converted Markdown file
[default: swagger.md]
-t --template=<jinja2-template> Custom Jinja2 template for the Markdown
output.


``build``, ``make``
===================

Build the output in the desired format:

- PDF. Targets: pdf, p, or anything starting with "p"
- Docx. Targets: docx, doc, d, or anything starting with "d"
- TeX. Targets: tex, t, or anything starting with "t"
- Markdown. Targets: markdown, md, m, or anything starting with "m"
- Google Drive. Targets: gdrive, google, g, or anything starting with "g"

"Google Drive" format is a shortcut for building Docx and uploading it
to Google Drive.

Specify ``--path`` if your project dir is not the current one.

Example:

.. code-block:: shell

$ foliant make pdf


``upload``, ``up``
==================

Upload a Docx file to Google Drive as a Google document:

.. code-block:: shell

$ foliant up MyFile.docx


``swagger2markdown``, ``s2m``
=============================

Convert a `Swagger JSON`_ file into Markdown using swagger2markdown_ (which
is installed as an extra with ``pip install foliant[s2m]``).

If ``--output`` is not specified, the output file is called ``api.md``.

Specify ``--template`` to provide a custom Jinja2_ template to customize
the output. Use the `default Swagger template`_ as a reference.

Example:

.. code-block:: shell

$ foliant s2m http://example.com/api/swagger.json -t templates/swagger.md.j2

.. _Swagger JSON: http://swagger.io/specification/
.. _swagger2markdown: https://github.com/moigagoo/swagger2markdown
.. _Jinja2: http://jinja.pocoo.org/
.. _default Swagger template: https://github.com/moigagoo/swagger2markdown/blob/master/swagger.md.j2


``apidoc2markdown``, ``a2m``
============================

Convert Apidoc_ files into Markdown using apidoc2markdown_ (which
is installed as an extra with ``pip install foliant[a2m]``).

If ``--output`` is not specified, the output file is called ``api.md``.

Specify ``--template`` to provide a custom Jinja2_ template to customize
the output. Use the `default Apidoc template`_ as a reference.

Example:

.. code-block:: shell

$ foliant a2m /path/to/api_data.json -t templates/apidoc.md.j2

.. _Apidoc: http://apidocjs.com/
.. _apidoc2markdown: https://github.com/moigagoo/apidoc2markdown
.. _Jinja2: http://jinja.pocoo.org/
.. _default Apidoc template: https://github.com/moigagoo/apidoc2markdown/blob/master/apidoc.md.j2


**************
Project Layout
**************

For Foliant to be able to build your docs, your project must conform
to a particular layout::

.
│ config.json
│ main.yaml

├───references
│ ref.docx

├───sources
│ │ chapter1.md
│ │ introduction.md
│ │
│ └───images
│ Lenna.png

└───templates
basic.tex
company_logo.png

.. important::

After ``foliant make`` is invoked, a directory called ``foliantcache``
is created in the directory where you run Foliant. The ``foliantcache``
directory stores temporary files and included repos.

The ``foliantcache`` directory should not be tracked by your version control
system, because it will double your repo size at best. Add ``foliantcache``
to ``.gitignore`` or ``.hgignore``.


config.json
===========

Config file, mostly for Pandoc.

.. code-block:: js

{
"title": "Lorem ipsum", // Document title.
"file_name": "Dolor_sit_amet", // Output file name. If not set, slugified
// `title` is used.
"second_title": "Dolor sit amet", // Document subtitle.
"lang": "english", // Document language, "russian" or "english."
// If not specified, "russian" is used.
"company": "My Company", // Your company name to fill in latex template.
// Shown at the bottom of each page.
"year": "2016", // Document publication year.
// Shown at the bottom of each page.
"title_page": "true", // Add title page or not.
"toc": "true", // Add table of contents or not.
"tof": "true", // Add table of figures or not.
"template": "basic", // LaTeX template to use. Do NOT add ".tex"!
"version": "1.0", // Document version. If set to "auto"
// the version is generated automatically
// based on git tag and revision number in master.
"date": "true", // Add date to the title page and output
// file name.
"type": "", // Document type to show in latex template.
"alt_doc_type": "", // Additional document type in latex template.
"filters": ["filter1", "filter2"] // Pandoc filters.
"git": { // Git aliases for includes.
"foliant": "git@github.com:foliant-docs/foliant.git" // Git alias.
}
}

For historic reasons, all config values should be strings, even if they
*mean* a number or boolean value.


main.yaml
=========

Contents file. Here, you define the order of the chapters of your project:

.. code-block:: yaml

--- # Contents
chapters:
- introduction
- chapter1
- chapter2
...


references
==========

Directory with the Docx reference file. It **must** be called ``ref.docx``.


sources/
========

Directory with the Markdown source file of your project.


images/
=======

Images that can be embedded in the source files. When embedding an image,
**do not** prepend it with ``images/``:

.. code-block:: markdown

![](image1.png) # RIGHT
![](images/image1.png) # WRONG


templates/
==========

LaTeX templates used to build PDF, Docx, and TeX files. The template
to use in build is configured in ``config.json``.


********************************************
Including External Markdown Files in Sources
********************************************

Foliant allows to include Markdown sources from external files. The file can
be located on the disk or in a remote git repository.

When you include a file from a git repo, the whole repo is cloned. The repo
is cloned only once and is updated during subsequent includes.

Foliant attempts to locate the images referenced in the included documents.
First, it checks the path specified in the image directive and 'image'
and 'graphics' directories. If the image is not there, it goes one level up
and repeats the search. If it reaches root and doesn't find the image,
it returns '.'.


Basic Usage
===========

Here is a local include:

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ ../../external.md }}

.. note::

If you use Foliant in a Docker container, local includes pointing outside
the project directory will not be resolved. That's because only the project
directory is mounted inside the container.

To work around that, mount the directories with the localy included files
manually.

Here is an include from git:

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ <git@github.com:foliant-docs/foliant.git>path/to/external.md }}

Repo URL can be provided in https, ssh, or git protocol.

.. note::

If you use Foliant in a Docker container, use https protocol. Otherwise,
you'll be prompted by git to add the repo host to ``known_hosts``.

If the repo is aliased as "myrepo" in `config.json`_, you can use the alias
instead of the repo URL:

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ <myrepo>path/to/external.md }}

You can also specify a particular revision (branch, tag, or commit):

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ <myrepo#mybranch>path/to/external.md }}


Extract Document Part Between Headings
======================================

It is possible to include only a part of a document between two headings,
a heading and document end, or document beginning and a heading.

Extract part from the heading "From Head" to the next heading of the same level
or the end of the document:

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ external.md#From Head }}

From "From Head" to "To Head" (disregarding their levels):

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ external.md#From Head:To Head }}

From the beginning of the document to "To Head":

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ external.md#:To Head }}

All the same notations work with remote includes:

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ <myrepo>external.md#From Head:To Head }}


Heading Options
===============

If you want to include a document but set your own heading, strip the original
heading with ``nohead`` option:

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ external.md#From Head | nohead }}

If there is no opening heading, the included content is left unmodified.

You can also set the level for the opening heading for the included source:

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ external.md#From Head | sethead:3 }}

The options can be combined:

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ external.md#From Head | nohead, sethead:3 }}


File Lookup
===========

You can include a file knowing only its name, without knowing the full path.
Foliant will look for the file recursively starting from the specified
directory: for a remote include, it's the repo root directory; for a local one,
it's the directory you specify in the path.

Here, Foliant will look for the file in the repo directory:

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ <myrepo>^external.md }}

In this case, Foliant will go one level up from the directory with
the document containing the include and look for ``external.md`` recursively:

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ ../^external.md }}


Nested Includes
===============

Included files can contain includes themselves.


Include Frenzy!
===============

.. code-block:: markdown

{{ <myrepo#mybranch>path/^external.md#From Heading:To Heading | nohead, sethead:3 }}


*************************
Uploading to Google Drive
*************************

To upload a Docx file to Google Drive as a Google document, use
``foliant upload MyFile.docx`` or `foliant build gdrive`, which is
a shortcut for generating a Docx file and uploading it.

For the upload to work, you need to have a so called *client secret* file.
Foliant looks for ``client_secrets.json`` file in the current directory.

Client secret file is obtained through Google API Console. You probably don't
need to obtain it yourself. The person who told you to use Foliant should
provide you this file as well.


**************************
Embedding seqdiag Diagrams
**************************

Foliant lets you embed `seqdiag <http://blockdiag.com/en/seqdiag/>`__
diagrams.

To embed a diagram, put its definition in a fenced code block:

.. code-block:: markdown

```seqdiag Optional single-line caption
seqdiag {
browser -> webserver [label = "GET /index.html"];
browser <-- webserver;
browser -> webserver [label = "POST /blog/comment"];
webserver -> database [label = "INSERT comment"];
webserver <-- database;
browser <-- webserver;
}
```

This is transformed into ``![Optional single-line caption. (diagrams/0.png)``,
where ``diagrams/0.png`` is an image generated from the diagram definition.


Customizing Diagrams
====================

To use a custom font, create the file ``$HOME/.blockdiagrc`` and define
the full path to the font (`ref <http://blockdiag.com/en/seqdiag/introduction.html#font-configuration>`__):

.. code-block:: shell

$ cat $HOME/.blockdiagrc
[seqdiag]
fontpath = /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif.ttf

You can define `other params <http://blockdiag.com/en/seqdiag/sphinxcontrib.html#configuration-file-options>`__
as well (remove ``seqdiag_`` from the beginning of the param name).


***************
Troubleshooting
***************

LaTeX Error: File \`xetex.def' not found.
=========================================

Install graphics.def with MikTeX Package Manager (usually invoked with ``mpm``
command).

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