Documentation Tools

Documentation in an application is often seen as an optional feature of the application. The application will still work as planned even though no documentation is needed. However, an application that does not have any documentation is a ticking time bomb.

Documentation is virtually a guide for users and other developers if they want to assist in dealing with the application. That means without the documentation, users will not be able to use the application to its fullest content. For developers, an application without any documentation increases the difficulty in troubleshooting since the application virtually does not have any profile.

If you take this problem for Ajax and JavaScript based applications, the problem increases significantly. JavaScript is a loose form of programming wherein developers could freely create JavaScript based functions and expects them to be read by major browsers.

In the case of Ajax based applications, the problem is not only based on using JavaScript coding, this programming technique is not only based on JavaScript but also on other programming languages are there.

The options of programming languages are virtually unlimited as long as the developer is able to harness the difference of the programming languages with JavaScript. Without documentations, a developer will never have any idea on how to improve or even maintain the application.

Two Tools for Documentations

Documentations may be important but creating them is always a challenge. Fortunately, there are tools that could aid you in your documentation:

• jGrouseDoc

A highly recommended tool for documentation is it can dig deeper to functions. But aside from tracking functions, it can also document variables and other components that could affect the application. Its efficiency is actually based on its ability to monitor the comments within the application. Since almost every part of the application is embedded with comments, this tool can easily create documentations.

• JSdoc Toolkit 

At first glance, this toolkit for documentation creation is almost the same with jGrouseDoc since it uses the comments to generate documentation. But the output of this toolkit for documentation is very different. Instead of creating a separate API as documentation, the output could come in plain format such as HTML, XML or even JSON. Highly recommended for developers who wanted to create lightweight application, JSdoc Toolkit should be able to create documentations fast without dragging the application.

Auto-Generate vs. Own Creation

Of course, these tools are only optional. A developer could always create documentation without the aid of 3rd party applications. Basically, the previously mentioned tools just record the comments which were also created by developers. That means creating documentations only require careful review of the comments so that it could be considered as part of the documentation.

Documentation may not be a big part of JavaScript and Ajax processes. But they are very important since they provide the information needed by developers to maintain and troubleshoot the application. With the help of comments used in the application, 3rd party applications could be used to generate documentations so that little to no effort will be required.