Book Image

The Official Guide to Mermaid.js

By : Knut Sveidqvist, Ashish Jain
Book Image

The Official Guide to Mermaid.js

By: Knut Sveidqvist, Ashish Jain

Overview of this book

Mermaid is a JavaScript-based charting and diagramming tool that lets you represent diagrams using text and code, which simplifies the maintenance of complex diagrams. This is a great option for developers as they’re more familiar with code, rather than using special tools for generating diagrams. Besides, diagrams in code simplify maintenance and ensure that the code is supported by version control systems. In some cases, Mermaid makes refactoring support for name changes possible while also enabling team collaboration for review distribution and updates. Developers working with any system will be able to put their knowledge to work with this practical guide to using Mermaid for documentation. The book is also a great reference for looking up the syntax for specific diagrams when authoring diagrams. You’ll start by learning the importance of accurate and visual documentation. Next, the book introduces Mermaid and establishes how to use it to create effective documentation. By using different tools, editors, or a custom documentation platform, you’ll also understand how to use Mermaid syntax for various diagrams. Later chapters cover advanced configuration settings and theme options to manipulate your diagram as per your needs. By the end of this book, you’ll be well-versed with Mermaid diagrams and how they can be used in your workflows.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Getting Started with Mermaid
7
Section 2: The Most Popular Diagrams
12
Section 3: Powerful Diagrams for the Advanced User

Summary

That's a wrap for this chapter! Let's recollect what we've learned. First, we understood the importance of documentation. We gained general insights that helped us distinguish between bad documentation and good documentation. We also explored the concept of efficient documentation and how Mermaid and Markdown can be a perfect solution to achieve this. We then learned about key features that make developers love and adopt Mermaid.

In the next chapter, you will learn about the core crux of getting started with Mermaid. You will be exposed to different ways in which Mermaid can be used and applied, be it adding Mermaid to your website or using different tools and editors' plugins that have already integrated and adopted Mermaid. We will also look at how to work with documentation using Markdown and using our own custom Mermaid-powered documentation system with version control.