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

Adding Mermaid to a simple web page

In this section, we will explain how easy it is to add Mermaid to a web page and how to add diagrams to one. A text editor for editing text files is also required. The good thing is that basic ones are always included with any operating system. In Windows, Notepad is built-in, in macOS, there is TextEdit, and for Linux, the text editor depends on which distribution you are using.

A more enthusiastic user might want to look at the large number of more competent text editors to choose from. The following is a list of the most popular editors:

Figure 2.1 – List of commonly used editors

Figure 2.1 – List of commonly used editors

To add Mermaid to a simple web page, follow these instructions:

  1. Based on your preference, choose any text editor from the preceding list. More advanced editors will have more functionalities, such as color coding for text so that it's easy to read the various types of files, macros, add-ons, and extensions...