DevDocs format for integration into IDE (API)

[edno]

For now, it's not possible to query with CURL-like libs using the OpenSearch URL as JavaScript is not supported.
It should be good to have an output raw format like pure HTML, XML or JSON. This might be implemented thru a JSON API

[Thibaut]

I agree this would be great but it'd require a search back-end (right now it's all done in the browser). Short-term this isn't one of my priorities.

[jbrooksuk]

Is there any such API for DevDocs?

[Thibaut]

@jbrooksuk No. This is a major undertaking which most DevDocs users probably don't need, so I'd rather focus on other things for now. However, if a software / IDE vendor is interested in integrating with DevDocs and needs this, I'm happy to chat about it.

[jbrooksuk]

Thanks for your reply @Thibaut - do you know of any service which does provide an API?

[Thibaut]

@jbrooksuk I don't, sorry. But it shouldn't be too hard to implement this on top of DevDocs's metadata and generated files:
http://maxcdn-docs.devdocs.io/html/index.json
http://maxcdn-docs.devdocs.io/html/db.json
The problem for me is more about maintaining a search API (more servers, support, maintenance, etc.) than implementing it (which is pretty straightforward).

[trollixx]

Hi. I am a developer of Zeal offline documentation browser. I would like to add support for DevDocs.io as another source of documentation in addition to Dash docsets. Zeal has it's own search capabilities, so it wouldn't require any API support.

My questions are:

1. Is it fine to download index.json and db.json from maxcdn-docs.devdocs.io in Zeal?
2. Where is the proper place to obtain a list of all DevDocs documentation? I've seen that file, but I cannot find docs.json file, which is referenced in some places.

[Thibaut]

Hi @trollixx

Glad to hear you're looking to make DevDocs's documentation available in Zeal.

Is it fine to download index.json and db.json from maxcdn-docs.devdocs.io in Zeal?

Yes, but:

• I never purge the cache on that CDN, so something like maxcdn-docs.devdocs.io/css/index.json is not guaranteed to be up-to-date. To get the correct version you need to append the mtime of that particular doc (defined in docs.json) as a query param (e.g. maxcdn-docs.devdocs.io/css/index.json?1420139789).
• I can't guarantee that I won't make breaking changes to the data format of the these files, or their location. When I do, I'll try to remember to let you know about it.
• Please attribute each document to devdocs.io in a way that your users will notice. It takes a lot of work to maintain these docs / metadata.

Where is the proper place to obtain a list of all DevDocs documentation?

Currently the docs.json file doesn't have a unique URL (it gets deployed with a different filename every time it changes, like the other assets). I'll make devdocs.io/docs.json redirect to the most recent version for you this week-end. However, please make sure Zeal doesn't request that file too often (on boot is ok), since it goes through my server — not the CDN.

[trollixx]

@Thibaut, thanks for the answer.

No any hurry at this point, such change would not happen quickly. I just wanted to confirm your acceptance of a third-party app providing access to DevDocs documentation. I still need to do a lot work to make Zeal more friendly to different formats and documentation sources.

I'll let you know, when I start working on such feature.

[Thibaut]

I'll let you know, when I start working on such feature.

Cool 👍

[gregberger]

I'd be interested too to have access to such a thing as devdocs.io/docs.json as i'm using an Alfred workflow with Devdocs integration (https://github.com/yannickglt/alfred-devdocs) that has an hardcoded list of docs in it... would be great to have the ability to fetch the list dynamically.

[Thibaut]

@naabys Oops, I broke devdocs.io/docs.json when I made the CDN urls protocol-relative. It's fixed now.

[gregberger]

@Thibaut thanks a lot !

[RiverSongFox]

Hello, could you give me a hint about data format, please?

• What is meaning of type in docs.json while there is name and slug?
• What types/slug from index.json is used for?

[Thibaut]

Hey

What is meaning of type in docs.json while there is name and slug?

It determines which CSS and JS to use when displaying the doc in the app.

What types/slug from index.json is used for?

This kind of URL: http://devdocs.io/css-backgrounds-borders/

[dsevillamartin]

Where exactly do you find the content of each page for the documentation with DevDocs' "API"?
I am trying to get MDN documentation for JavaScript, but all I see in docs.json is the page paths, in http://maxcdn-docs.devdocs.io/javascript/index.json it's the same but just for javascript, and http://maxcdn-docs.devdocs.io/javascript/db.json just gives an index page with all the content.

Thanks for the great service, by the way!

[Thibaut]

@datitisev DevDocs doesn't have an API. Individual pages are accessible via this type of URL: http://docs.devdocs.io/javascript/index.html?1475425795 (docs.devdocs.io + doc slug + entry path + .html + doc mtime), but I make no guarantee that this won't change in the future.

[dsevillamartin]

@Thibaut Oh, that's what I think I meant. I didn't know how I would get any of the data in the index.json.
Thanks for the url! And thanks, once again, for the great service. 👍

[astoff]

I wrote a DevDocs package for Emacs (https://github.com/astoff/evdocs/) which I've submitted for distribution in the usual channels.
As far as I can tell, I'm following all the guidelines for third-party apps mentioned above, and ample credit to devdocs.io is given. In any case, I thought it made sense to give you guys a heads up.

[MasterEnoc]

@astoff Make a PR adding your project to the table in https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/devdocs#related-projects.

[laoshaw]

I can find https://devdocs.io/docs/javascript/index.json but where is db.json located by URL path these days?

https://docs.devdocs.io/javascript/db.json -- docs.devdocs.io is unreachable

ok found it: documents.devdocs.io that is

[Strooss]

I can find https://devdocs.io/docs/javascript/index.json but where is db.json located by URL path these days?

https://docs.devdocs.io/javascript/db.json -- docs.devdocs.io is unreachable

ok found it: documents.devdocs.io that is

Does this link still works? it don't work for me