The following are the standards to be used by Cacti Group members and Contributes when maintaining the documentation of Cacti or any of its plugins. These standards have also been applied to the Travis CI checker on GitHub.
Please report any errors or corrections on the Cacti Documentation GitHub repository which is located at https://github.com/cacti/documentation/ where all changes can be tracked. Any Pull Requests will be welcome to help speed up changes by allowing the Cacti Group to simply verify the changes are correct before submitting them.
All documentation should be marked as copyright to the Cacti Group. This is done by simply adding the following text to the bottom of the page (including the blank line):
---
<copy>Copyright (c) 2004-2023 The Cacti Group</copy>When creating documentation titles, they should:
use the # symbol with 1 - 5 hashes
The actual count of hashes represents the sub-level of the title.
not have multiple level 1 headers
MD025 Multiple top level headers in the same document
not have punctuation at the end of the header
MD026 Trailing punctuation in header
not use ---- or ==== on a line that
follows a header
MD003 Header style
increment down only one sub-level at a time
You may go back up any number of levels
# Main Title 1
## Main Title 1.Sub Title 1
### Main Title 1.Sub Title 1.Sub Title 1
### Main Title 1.Sub Title 1.Sub Title 2
## Main Title 1.Sub Title 2
### Main Title 1.Sub Title 2.Sub Title 1
### Main Title 1.Sub Title 2.Sub Title 2
# Main Title 2
### Main Title 2.Invalid Sub Title 1.Invalid Sub Title 1not use other title definition symbols
Whilst they are valid markdown, they will result in style errors.
Failure to follow this will result in an MD001 error
during Travis CI checks.
# Welcome
Welcome to us
## Using the software 1.2
To use most functions of our software, navigate the menus
#### Accessing the menus 1.2.1.1
The menus are located at the top of the page ...
# Welcome
Welcome to us
## Using the software 1.2
To use most functions of our software, navigate the menus
### Accessing the menus 1.2.1
The menus are located at the top of the page ...All titles should be separated with blank lines either side of the title. The only exception to this is if the title is on the first line of the page. They should also have a single space between the hash symbols and text.
# Welcome
Welcome to us
## Using the software 1.2
To use most functions of our software, navigate the menus
### Accessing the menus 1.2.1
The menus are located at the top of the page ...
# Welcome
Welcome to us
## Using the software 1.2
To use most functions of our software, navigate the menus
### Accessing the menus 1.2.1
The menus are located at the top of the page ...Titles for examples, images and tables are the only exception to the
Title Level rule. These are normally set to 6 (Six) hash symbols (e.g.,
######). The format of the text should be such that it
reads the type of caption, a number, full stop, then the description
###### <caption type> <number>. <description>
###### Example 5. Example of this captionAny text written outside of code blocks must:
be formatted such that it does not exceed 79 characters. This is to make it easier to read and adjust the paragraphs in any editor.
MD013 Line length
have blank lines between paragraphs
not have multiple blank lines
MD012 Multiple consecutive blank lines
not have trailing spaces
MD009 Trailing spaces
not use HTML outside of fenced code blocks
MD033 Inline HTML
All tables should have a caption applied to them in the style that was listed above.
All lists should:
use a single - (dash) character for bullet
points
use the same indentation for the same level
MD005 Inconsistent indentation for list items at the same level
start at the beginning of a line (no spaces/indents) for the top level
MD006 Consider starting bulleted lists at the beginning of the line
use a digit following by a full stop for numbered lists
should have a single space between the list item marker and the start of the text
have blanks lines around items in the same fashion as titles
MD030 Spaces after list markers
wrap text with indentation as they are exempt from the text-width formatting rule
- wrap text with indentation as they are exempt from the text-width
formatting rulemay include sub-items in a similar fashion to titles by:
indenting sub-items or examples by two spaces per level
indenting one level at a time
include examples such as:
- may include sub-items in a similar fashion to titles by:
- indenting sub-items or examples by three spaces per level
- indenting one level at a time
- include examples such as:
```markdown
- may include sub-items in a similar fashion to titles by:
- indenting sub-items or examples by three spaces per levelInline code can be included using the single backtick (`) method to produce code-like references. An example of this would be to:
use the \`--help\` parameter on the commandWhich would produce:
use the --help parameter on the command
All code blocks must be:
surround by blank lines to separate them from other text
MD031 Fenced code blocks should be surrounded by blank lines
fenced with three backticks (```) and not any other code block fencing characters.
have a language applied to them by entering the name after the three backticks.
MD040 Fenced code blocks should have a language specified
an exception to the above text formatting rules as they may contain example lines that are required to be on a single line.
Where possible, it is advised to try and make use of continuation lines (\) so that these are easily readable on any screen.
```markdown
This is a markdown example, <b> will display <b> not start a bold HTML style
Also ` will actually be displayed not interpretedThe style used on the fenced code block should match the contents of
the code block. In the above example, we used markdown as
we were displaying a markdown example. The following table is a basic
example what is most commonly used in the documentation:
| Type | Markdown Language | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| C++ | c++ | Formats code block as C++ |
| PHP | php | Formats code block as PHP |
| SQL | sql | Formats code block as SQL |
| Script | bash | Formats code block as bash script |
| sh | Formats code block as posix script | |
| Shell | console | Formats code block as command line example |
| Markdown | markdown | Formats code block as Markdown |
All URLs should be formatted in the markdown format and not just inserted directly into the text. The format for this is:
[text for link](https://url/wanted)Failing to do this will result in
MD034 Bare URL used
This would produce: text for link
Horizontal rules should be made using three or more consecutive hyphens on a single line. Again, these should be surrounded by spaces.
Paragraph 1 text
---
Paragraph 2 textBefore testing your changes make sure you add the necessary links to README.md for any new files
Running this script will help you check for any missing links.
bin/check_missing_link.shTo locally test the changes made to any Markdown document, you will need to have ruby installed and then run:
gem install mdlIf this pre-requisite has already been completed, then you can simply type the following into your shell
cd <cacti_docs>
bin/check_markdown_style.shWhich will generate the same output that is seen on the Travis CI build status. You should ensure that any reported errors are corrected before submitting your pull request.
Documentation-Standards.md:221: MD031 Fenced code blocks should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:230: MD031 Fenced code blocks should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:232: MD031 Fenced code blocks should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:265: MD031 Fenced code blocks should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:268: MD031 Fenced code blocks should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:290: MD031 Fenced code blocks should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:292: MD031 Fenced code blocks should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:161: MD032 Lists should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:250: MD032 Lists should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:253: MD032 Lists should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:256: MD032 Lists should be surrounded by blank lines
Documentation-Standards.md:236: MD033 Inline HTML
Documentation-Standards.md:240: MD033 Inline HTML