To view current PDF version of the documentation, click here.

VMware vCloud Director provider documentation (maintainer notes)

Repository contains documentation related to VMware vCloud Director provider. Documentation should be compiled into PDF and shipped to customers.

NOTE: README.md is intended for documentation maintainers only and should not be included in the final PDF nor shipped to customers. All .adoc files, however, are actually part of the documentation.

Compile into PDF

First navigate to master.adoc and uncomment appropriate variable set (either ManageIQ or CloudForms).

Then install asciidoctor-pdf gem and use it like this to compile .adoc documentation into a PDF file:

bundle exec asciidoctor-pdf vcd_installation_guide/master.adoc -o ./PREVIEW.pdf

Command above will create file ./PREVIEW.pdf that can be used as documentation preview.

Documentation guides

When adding new sections to the documentation, we need to follow some guides in order to be as compatible with other documentation as possible.

Menu navigation

Menu navigation must be bolded and use ITEM -> ITEM syntax.

Correct: User -> Settings -> Profile

Wrong:

• User -> Settings -> Profile (because it's italics)
• User>Settings>Profile (wrong separator)
• User->Settings->Profile (missing spaces)

Referencing form fields

Any references must be bolded. Please do not use italics, nor quotes.

Correct: Select option VMware WebMKS in Remote Console section.

Wrong:

• Select option "VMware WebMKS" in Remote Console section. (because of "")
• Select option VMware WebMKS in Remote Console section. (because it's italics)

Capitalize titles and lists

Titles must have all nouns capitalized. Furthermore, list items must have a form of sentence, not just plain nouns.

Correct:

• Catalog, service dialog and catalog item preparation.
• Catalog item ordering with customization.
• Order approval, which results in actual provisioning to happen.

Wrong (because items are not nice sentences):

• catalog, service dialog and catalog item preparation
• catalog item ordering with customization
• order approval, which results in actual provisioning to happen

Use variable for product names {vcd}, {product-title} etc.

It was a great mess with "vCloudDirector", "vCD", "VMware vCloudDirector" "vCloud" etc. therefore we introduced it as an asciidoc variable. It's defined in master.adoc along with some other handy variables that are available in all subsequent sections. Do use them!

Also, please pay attention to difference between:

• :product-title: Red Hat ManageIQ (a product)
• :product-appliance: ManageIQ appliance (a concrete virtual machine instance with MIQ, addressible by IP)
• :vcd: VMware vCloud Director (a product)
• :vcd-host: {vcd} host (a concrete virtual machine instance with vCD, addressible by IP)
• :vcd-provider: {vcd} provider (refers to vCD integration into MIQ - with inventoring, eventing and all)

Do not mix them because it makes documentation very difficult to follow then.

Correct: "{vcd-provider} supports establishing remote console against running virtual machines." (value will be inserted upon PDF creation)

Wrong: "VMware vCloud Director provider supports establishing remote console against running virtual machines." (because it hardcodes the "VMware vCloud Director provider" string)

Wrong: "vCloudDirector supports establishing remote console against running virtual machines." (because it hardcodes utterly wrong string "vCloudDirector")

Wrong: "{vcd} supports establishing remote console against running virtual machines." (because we refer to vCD as product, but we actually mean the CFME provider)

Wrong: "{vcd-host} supports establishing remote console against running virtual machines." (because we refer to a concrete vCD instance, but we actually mean the CFME provider)

Reference to other sections

Please do not use links when referencing to other sections of our documentation because links don't work in PDF. Use anchors instead.

Correct: "More details on this matter can be found in <<VAppProvisioninVCD>> section." (link will be inserted upon PDF creation)

Wrong: "More details on this matter can be found in link:vcd-vapp-provision.adoc[vApp Provisioning in vCloudDirector through Red Hat ManageIQ] section." (because it uses direct link that won't work in PDF. Moreover, it hardcodes the link title. Using anchor uses the document title.)

Don't title images

Images don't have titles in CFME docs therefore we shouldn't be creating them either IMAO. Not sure on this one. You can still add alt attribute.

Correct: image::../../images/vcd-vapp04-itemtype.png[alt="Select Orchestration stack"] (alt attribute won't be rendered)

Wrong: image::../../images/vcd-vapp04-itemtype.png[title="Select Orchestration stack"] (because image has title rendered)