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

Chapter 6: Using Flowcharts

A flowchart is a diagram that visualizes a process or an algorithm by showing the steps in order, as well as the different paths the execution can take. Flowcharts are among the most used types of diagrams in the world. Their strength lies in their simplicity as they are easy to understand. There are many types of standardized flowcharts, where different meanings have been applied to the various shapes that are available.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use Mermaid to generate flowcharts. You will learn how to create different shapes, their meanings, and the different types of lines you can create between the shapes. These shapes and lines can be used to create custom flowcharts, where you decide on the meaning of the shapes yourself or some of the specialized types of flowcharts.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Setting up your flowchart
  • Shapes and their meanings
  • How to create lines or edges between shapes...