cdocparser

CDocParser

CDocParser is a language agnostic C and ///-Style comments parser that uses block and line comments to make it easier to generate documentation.

Install

$ npm install --save cdocparser

Usage

CDocParser consists of two parts the CommentExtractor and a CommentParser.

var CDocParser = require('cdocparser');
var extractor = new CDocParser.CommentExtractor(/* contextParser */ );
var parser = new CDocParser.CommentParser(/* Annotations */);

var comments = extractor.extract(/* code */);
var parsedComments = parser.parse(comments);

console.log(parsedComments);

API

CommentExtractor

The ComemntExtractor is used to extract C and ///-Style comments from source and attach context information to it.

new CommentExtractor(contextParser, [opts])

Create a CommentExtractor to extract block comment like:

/**
 *
 *  CDocComment
 *
 */

You need to pass in a function that is used to generate a context object used to specify the context of the comment. A context obj:

{
  type : 'contextType'
}

The type attribute is mandatory, you can add as much attributes as you would like.

To support custom comment formats set lineCommentStyle and/or blockCommentStyle in the opts argument, shown here with default values:

new CommentExtractor(contextParser, {
  lineCommentStyle: '///',
  blockCommentStyle: '/**'
})

The default regex can be found in index.js (var defaultDocCommentRegEx = ...).

#extract(code)

This method will return an Array of all comments in the form of

[
  {
    lines: [],
    type: 'block|line|poster',
    commentRange: { start : 1, end : 2 }, 
    context: [context object generated by contextParser]
  }
]

CommentParser

new CommentParser(annotations, config)

Create a new CommentParser where annotations is an object like:

{
  _: {
    alias: {
      'aliasName': 'aRealAnnotation'
    }
  },

  aRealAnnotation: {
    parse : function (annotationLine) {
    
    },
    default : function(){
      return 5;
    }
  }
}

This object is used to provide parser for various types of annotations. It also includes tha ability to include aliases.

#parse ( comments [, id ])

This methods takes a comments array provided by CommentExtractor#extract and parses all annotations. The resulting object will look like:

{
  "[context.type]" : [
    {
      description : "[Contains all comment lines without an annotation]",
      [annotationName] : [resultOfAnnotationParser]
    }
  ]
}

Annotations API

The annotations object is build up from two different kind of object. A annotation object and a alias.

The global structure looks like:

{
  _ : {
    [alias object]
  },
  [annotation object],
  [annotation object]
}

A annotation object

Overview

name : {
  parse : function(line){

  },

  autofill : function(comment){

  },

  default : function(comment){

  },

  multiple : true
}

Each annotation must have a parse method, optionally you can have a default and extend methods. The optional multiple key is used to indicate if an annotation can be used multiple times.

parse method

The parse method is used to parse the actual string after the @name. All values returned from that method will be wrapped in an array.

Example:

Implementing a name annotation:

/**
 * @name Fabrice Weinberg 
 */

function(line){
  return {
    name : line
  }
}

default method

The default method is used to add a default value.

Example:

function(comment){
  return [{
    name : 'Default Name'
  }]
}

Note: Please keep in mind that you need to wrap values in an Array to align with hand written annotations

autofill method

The autofill method is used to extend hand written annotations by autofilled ones.

Example:

function(comment){
  // Access the parsed comment here. 
}

Note: Extended annotations can be disabled by using the @allowExtend annotation.

multiple key

The multiple key is used to determine if this can be used mutliple times per comment.

Note: A warning will be emitted if a annotation is used more than once. Only the first value is used.

Development

Use mocha test to run the unit tests.

Changelog

0.11.1

• Fix unclear error level in messages. (See #12)

0.11.0

• Add the ability to pass in a id string to the parse function. Used for error reporting.

0.10.0

• return a flat array of comments.
• added indexBy and indexByType to restore the previous behaviour.

0.9.1

• Prevent negative indexes. (See PR#10)
• Unify error messages.

0.9.0

• Include commentRange in object returned by the annotation parser.

0.8.1

• Fix regression in lineNumberFor reporting wrong line numbers.

0.8.0

• Add the ability to specify lineCommentStyle and blockCommentStyle. (See PR#8)

0.7.0

• Extend type key of each comment to differentiate between line and block.

0.6.0

• Include line numbers in each found comment block. (See PR#6)

0.5.0

• Add multiple key, to indicate if a annotation can be used more than once per comment.

0.4.0

• Add autofill as an annotation feature.
• Remove the array wrapping of default values.

0.3.8

• Add type check for poster comments

0.3.7

• Fix broken API in 0.3.5 and 0.3.6

0.3.5

• Use raw arrays returned from default as value.

0.3.4

• Pass in the parsed item to the default function

0.3.3

• Fix a bug with line comments that are indented

0.3.2

• Add allowedOn key to annotations to only apply them to comments from a specific type

0.3.0

• Add support for /// comments
• Add a lineNumberFor function as a second parameter that will convert char indices to line numbers

0.2.2

• Add a poster comment to apply annotations to all items in the file that are documented.
• Emits a warning if you use more than on poster comment per file. Only the first one will be used.

0.2.1

• Emits a warning if a annotation was not found instead of throwing an exception.

0.2.0

• Throw an error if annotation was not found

0.1.1

• Ignore annotations that return undefined.

0.1.0

• Restructure annotation function. Add default value and parse function.