[Phpwm] Web application documentation - write once / output multiple formats

[Ian Munday]

On 29 May 2009, at 10:50, Lester Caine wrote:

> Ian Munday wrote:
>> Slightly off-topic perhaps, but I'm wondering how people provide /
>> deliver document for their applications?
>>
>> Historically, I've manually created HTML pages that I bring together
>> with a simple table of contents (TOC) and which then load in a pop-up
>> window.  I can link to specific pages from within my application to
>> make it 'context-sensitive'.  A real requirement going forward is to
>> improve the way help documentation is delivered in HTML (i.e. make it
>> searchable), and also to provide multiple formats.  I also want a
>> write-once, but output in multiple formats solution.  (Longer term  
>> I'm
>> also thinking multiple languages - clearly each language will need to
>> be written.)
>>
>> The formats that have been identified as most useful / relevant to  
>> the
>> type of applications I'm involved in are:
>>
>>   *  HTML - searchable and with a tree-like TOC - a good example is http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/1.0/help.html?content=WSF3A57C22-0CDF-4401-9C10-2D0B3B7C7E40.html
>>   *  PDF
>>   *  CHM
>>
>> Has anyone found a good solution to this problem?
>
> Take a look at http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=doc
> http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=devel&sub=doc#docmatrix has  
> all
> the docs on how to set things up ...
>
> Personally I just work with wiki pages and output them as pdf where
> required, and since the applications are now all PHP, you simply open
> the help in a pop-up window ...


On 29 May 2009, at 11:22, Gavin Kimpson wrote:

> DocBook is used for the PHP documentation....


DocBook seems to be the solution I'm looking for if I want flexibility  
of output format.

The Firebird documentation subproject looks a really useful link -  
thanks for providing that.

Regards,

Ian