jsdoc

What is jsdoc?

JSDoc is a documentation generator for JavaScript. It parses comments in your source code with JSDoc tags and generates an HTML documentation website.

What are jsdoc's main functionalities?

Generating API documentation

This code sample shows how to use JSDoc comments to document a constructor function for a book. When JSDoc processes this, it will generate documentation for the Book function, including its parameters and their types.

/**
 * Represents a book.
 * @constructor
 * @param {string} title - The title of the book.
 * @param {string} author - The author of the book.
 */
function Book(title, author) {
  this.title = title;
  this.author = author;
}

Documenting a class and its methods

This code sample demonstrates how to document a class and its constructor, as well as a method within the class. JSDoc will generate documentation for the Point class, its constructor, and the getDistanceTo method, including parameter and return types.

/**
 * Class representing a point.
 */
 class Point {
   /**
    * Create a point.
    * @param {number} x - The x value.
    * @param {number} y - The y value.
    */
   constructor(x, y) {
     this.x = x;
     this.y = y;
   }

   /**
    * Get the distance from this point to another point.
    * @param {Point} point - The point to get the distance to.
    * @returns {number} The distance.
    */
   getDistanceTo(point) {
     // ... implementation ...
   }
 }

Documenting module exports

This code sample shows how to document a module and a function that it exports. JSDoc will generate documentation for the module and the exported function, including the function's parameters and return value.

/**
 * @module myModule
 */

/**
 * A function that does something.
 * @param {number} input - The input number.
 * @returns {number} The result.
 */
exports.myFunction = function(input) {
  // ... implementation ...
};

Other packages similar to jsdoc

typedoc

TypeDoc is a documentation generator that is similar to JSDoc but is specifically designed for TypeScript projects. It reads TypeScript source files and produces API documentation from the comments. Compared to JSDoc, TypeDoc is more suited for TypeScript due to its understanding of TypeScript-specific features.

esdoc

ESDoc is a good documentation generator for JavaScript (ES6) projects. It focuses on the ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) syntax and has features like coverage reporting, which shows how much of your code is documented. ESDoc also supports plugin architecture, allowing for additional functionality to be added.

README

JSDoc 3

An API documentation generator for JavaScript.

Want to contribute to JSDoc? Please read CONTRIBUTING.md.

Installation and Usage

You can run JSDoc on either Node.js or Mozilla Rhino.

Node.js

Native support for Node.js is available in JSDoc 3.3.0 and later. JSDoc supports Node.js 0.10 and later.

Installing JSDoc for Node.js

You can install JSDoc in your project's node_modules folder, or you can install it globally.

To install the latest alpha version:

npm install jsdoc@"<=3.3.0"

To install the latest development version:

npm install git+https://github.com/jsdoc3/jsdoc.git

Running JSDoc with Node.js

If you installed JSDoc locally, the JSDoc command-line tool is available in ./node_modules/.bin. To generate documentation for the file yourJavaScriptFile.js:

./node_modules/.bin/jsdoc yourJavaScriptFile.js

Or if you installed JSDoc globally, simply run the jsdoc command:

jsdoc yourJavaScriptFile.js

By default, the generated documentation is saved in a directory named out. You can use the --destination (-d) option to specify another directory.

Run jsdoc --help for a complete list of command-line options.

Mozilla Rhino

All versions of JSDoc 3 run on a customized version of Mozilla Rhino, which requires Java. You can run JSDoc 3 on Java 1.6 and later.

Installing JSDoc for Mozilla Rhino

To install JSDoc, download a .zip file for the latest development version or a previous release.

You can also use git to clone the JSDoc repository:

git clone git+https://github.com/jsdoc3/jsdoc.git

The JSDoc repository includes a customized version of Mozilla Rhino. Make sure your Java classpath does not include any other versions of Rhino. (On OS X, you may need to remove the file ~/Library/Java/Extensions/js.jar.)

Note: In JSDoc 3.3.0 and later, if you need to run JSDoc on Mozilla Rhino, do not install JSDoc with npm. Use one of the methods described above.

Running JSDoc with Mozilla Rhino

On OS X, Linux, and other POSIX systems, to generate documentation for the file yourJavaScriptFile.js:

./jsdoc yourJavaScriptFile.js

Or on Windows:

jsdoc yourJavaScriptFile.js

By default, the generated documentation is saved in a directory named out. You can use the --destination (-d) option to specify another directory.

Run jsdoc --help for a complete list of command-line options.

Templates and Build Tools

The JSDoc community has created numerous templates and other tools to help you generate and customize your documentation. Here are just a few:

Templates

• jaguarjs-jsdoc (example)
• DocStrap
• jsdoc3Template (example)

Build Tools

• JSDoc Grunt plugin
• JSDoc ant task

For More Information

• Documentation is available at Use JSDoc.
• Contribute to the docs at jsdoc3/jsdoc3.github.com.
• Ask for help on the JSDoc Users mailing list.
• Post questions tagged jsdoc to Stack Overflow.

License

JSDoc 3 is copyright (c) 2011-2014 Michael Mathews [e-mail] and the contributors to JSDoc.

JSDoc 3 is free software, licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See the file LICENSE.md in this distribution for more details.