Documentation generator for Spring Boot configuration

Provides annotation processor, which collects Javadoc from Spring Boot configuration properties classes and value elements and generates Markdown or HTML documentation for available configuration options using environmental properties. Also supports documentation for JSR 303 validation annotations.

Example output

Currently, it is not possible to switch from the environmental variables format. Initially, the configuration was intended for container customization using environmental variables.

Other solutions

If this project does not suit your needs (for example, you do not want to use environmental variables), take a look at Spring Configuration Property Documenter, or for a complex documentation solution Jamal.

Basic installation & usage

The annotation processor is available in processor module and can be used with any build ecosystem (even with just plain javac).

Example usage with Maven:
Creates a profile with id configuration-doc that defines the compiler plugin in annotation processing mode. One annotation processor is specified, and one compiler arg for processor configuration is present as an example (it is not necessary as HTML is a default format).
Executing this profile (maven compile -P configuration-doc) should generate file springboot-configuration.html.

<profiles>
    <profile>
        <id>configuration-doc</id>
        <build>
            <plugins>
                <plugin>
                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                    <configuration>
                        <proc>only</proc>
                        <annotationProcessorPaths>
                            <path>
                                <groupId>cz.lukaskabc.cvut.processor</groupId>
                                <artifactId>spring-boot-configuration-docgen-processor</artifactId>
                                <version>1.0</version>
                            </path>
                        </annotationProcessorPaths>
                        <compilerArgs>
                            <arg>-Aconfigurationdoc.format=HTML</arg>
                        </compilerArgs>
                        <source>${java.version}</source>
                        <target>${java.version}</target>
                    </configuration>
                </plugin>
            </plugins>
        </build>
    </profile>
</profiles>

Customization

The annotation processor supports several arguments which control its output and none of them are required. Every argument can be specified as shown in the example above.

<arg>-Aconfigurationdoc.ARGUMENT_NAME=VALUE</arg>

-A stands for argument for annotation processor
configurationdoc. is a prefix used by this processor
followed by the argument name
and the value if required

Supported arguments are:

Argument name	description
output_file	Specifies path to the output file Default: springboot-configuration
configuration_package	Allows to limit documentation only to a specific package
format	Supported formats: HTML and MD, note that HTML is supported in many Markdown parsers Default: HTML
template	Path to the FreeMarker template used for generation
order	Alphabetical order for environmental variables in documentation (ASC, DESC, NONE) Default: ASC
env_prefix	Global prefix for all generated environmental variables
prepend_required	Prepends all "required" variables
deprecated_last	Moves "deprecated" variables to the end
do_not_merge	Disables documentation chaining, which is used for merging Javadoc comments from upper contexts (class attributes)
no_html	When Markdown format is used, this processor generates some HTML tags (like <br>); using this argument will disable them

Javadoc tags
If you want to exclude some parameters from documentation, you can use the Javadoc tag @hidden.

Although the documentation processor tries to resolve default values for configuration parameters, there are cases when it is not possible or simply inaccurate for your exact use case.
For this case, the processor supports the Javadoc tag @configurationdoc.default, whose value will override the automatically resolved value.
You might need to add it as custom tag if Javadoc tool is used (Maven Javadoc plugin).

Templates

The processor uses the Apache FreeMarker™ template engine for generating the output file. There are two internal templates prepared for HTML and Markdown formats and global directives (macros), which can also be used in custom templates specified by the template argument.

For example, if you need to add custom configuration parameters that are not explicitly part of the application code, you can copy the internal template and add lines to the table manually. Alternatively, you can create some "dummy" attribute with @Value annotation somewhere and add documentation to it.

The processor uses FreeMarker square bracket syntax.
For further reference, please use FreeMarker documentation.

Bachelor thesis

This project initially started as a bachelor's thesis at Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

The goal was to create a tool that could be easily integrated into existing Java projects, and will generate documentation from Spring Boot configuration classes (ConfigurationProperties) using Javadoc comments. Configuration is in form of environmental variables. Emphasis was placed on using Markdown for the output format to facilitate posting the documentation on GitHub in a README file or similar. The project was primarily developed to generate documentation of TermIt.