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

Setting up a simple custom documentation system using Docsify with Mermaid

One of the simplest ways to set up a custom documentation system with a flavor of Mermaid is to use a documentation site generator. Although there are a few other options available, we are choosing Docsify, which generates HTML-based documentation on the fly.

Unlike GitBook, Gatsby, and so on, it does not generate static HTML files. Instead, it smartly loads and parses your Markdown files and displays them as a website. If you are more interested in setting up Mermaid-powered documentation that supports static site generation, and doesn't do this on the fly, please move on to the next section, Setting up your custom documentation system that supports Mermaid using Gatsby.

In Chapter 1, The Art of Documentation with Mermaid, we looked at the key features of Mermaid, so now, let's look at some key features of using Docsify as a base for documentation:

  • Adds documentation in Markdown files...