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

JSDoc supports Node.js 0.10 and later. You can install JSDoc in your project's node_modules folder, or you can install it globally.

To install the latest version available on NPM:

npm install jsdoc

To install the latest development version:

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

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.

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 (example)
• jsdoc3Template (example)
• minami
• docdash(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-present 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.

Changelog

3.4.1 (September 2016)

Enhancements

• When installing JSDoc from NPM, all dependencies are now pulled from NPM. (#961)
• The configuration setting tags.allowUnknownTags may now contain an array of tag names that should be allowed. (#1159)

Bug fixes

• When an ES2015 module's default export is a class, JSDoc now documents the class correctly. (#1113, #1120)
• JSDoc no longer crashes when an ES2015 module exports an anonymous class. (#1113)
• JSDoc no longer crashes when the experimental object spread operator is used. (#1141)
• In ES2015 methods, JSDoc now autodetects whether a parameter is a default or repeatable parameter. (#1144)
• The Markdown plugin now works correctly with inline tags that contain special characters, such as {@link chat."#channel"}. (#1035)
• When JSDoc is run in a directory that has a plugins/ or templates/ directory, JSDoc can now discover plugins and templates in other directories. (#1081)

Templates

• The default template now uses appropriate styles for displaying tables. (#1064)
• The default template's CSS file no longer uses the same style for both <h2> and <h3> elements. (#1108)
• JSDoc now includes a silent template that generates no output. This template makes it easier to use JSDoc as a linter to check for syntax errors and unrecognized tags in documentation comments. (#1160)