Re: [Xen-API] improving the XenAPI docs

[Stephen Turner <Stephen.Turner@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for raising this, Dave. I think documenting the fields helpfully is 
important, but examples are key too because that's how people build code in 
practice.

One more thing I would add: there are too many hash tables (other_config, 
sm_config, etc.) where the possible (or perhaps I should say, understood) keys 
and values aren't documented.

Tina thought about this problem a lot and compiled a partial (but large) list 
of issues: see section 5 of 
https://info.citrite.net/display/UI/SDK+product+backlog+at+the+end+of+Clearwater.

-- 
Stephen Turner


-----Original Message-----
From: xs-devel-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:xs-devel-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dave Scott
Sent: 27 January 2015 21:03
To: xen-api@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: xs-devel
Subject: [xs-devel] improving the XenAPI docs

Hi,

Iâve been thinking about how to improve the XenAPI reference[1]. The things I 
like about the reference are:

- itâs generated from the IDL, so itâs always up to date
- itâs got everything in it

The things I donât like about the reference are:

- itâs got everything in itâ in alphabetical order, rather than in any kind of 
usefulness order
- the descriptions of fields/ functions areâ terse (and often tautologous)
- there are no in-line examples

Iâd like to improve the reference by making 2 extensions:

1. Iâd like to add tags to each field and function, and allow the docs to be 
searched by tag (e.g. find all the fields and functions related to âsnapshotsâ) 
A well-known tag name would be âcoreâ meaning âstuff you need to knowâ and I 
propose we either filter for that by default, or at least re-order the elements 
so we have core first.

2. Iâd like to create a sparse file overlay per-API in the xen-api repo. An 
overlay file â if it exists â would override whatever terse description exists 
in the raw IDL. The overlay would be written in markdown and would contain 
paragraphs of description, links and example usages. It would be easy to add an 
overlay to the repo without breaking the build (i.e. thereâs no need to keep 
all the docs inside the code as well-quoted strings where you have to satisfy 
the compiler).

Thoughts/ suggestions/ improvements welcome!

Cheers,
Dave

[1] Thereâs more than one copy on the web, but hereâs the one I was looking at: 
http://xapi-project.github.io/xen-api/index.html
_______________________________________________
Xen-api mailing list
Xen-api@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xen.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-api