Plugin Models representation in Docs Modal

[smk4664]

As ...

P.D. - Plugin Developer

I want ...

A way to store my model documentation.

So that ...

My users can click on the help icon on the Object Edit View and see the documentation for the plugin model.

I know this is done when...

• I can create a Nautobot Plugin and have the ability to specify a docs directory.
• The Docs directory of my plugin gets loaded to DOCS_ROOT like Static files go to STATIC ROOT.
• I can view the docs for my plugin model on the Object Edit view by clicking on the blue help icon.

Optional - Feature groups this request pertains to.

• Automation
• Circuits
• DCIM
• IPAM
• Misc (including Data Sources)
• Organization
• Plugins (and other Extensibility)
• Security (Secrets, etc)
• Image Management
• UI/UX
• Documentation
• Other (not directly a platform feature)

Database Changes

No response

External Dependencies

No response

[glennmatthews]

I’d really like to see us tackle inline help more holistically - the current pattern (where you can access only the docs/models/<app>/<model>.md within the application, and it’s rendered on-the-fly without support for things like cross-reference links between pages) is very much less than desirable. I’d rather see us render the entire docs tree as part of the package build and embed the rendered HTML into the package so that all of the docs can be accessed offline.

NetBox did something similar in netbox-community/netbox#6769 and netbox-community/netbox@3ec0fe5, though our approach will need to be somewhat different as we want to render the docs at build time, not at install time.

[glennmatthews]

That said we will also need a pattern for allowing plugin docs to additionally be included in plugin packages and making them accessible as well - AFAIK NetBox hasn't addressed that requirement.

[smk4664]

Sure, I will try to tackle both then.

[smk4664]

After reviewing what Netbox did, this is very similar to what I had in mind. I am working on a proof of concept with the test plugin.