“The docs-as-code approach has become the industry standard for publishing technical documentation.”
In the demo, you can hear about:
Docs-as-code approach for technical documentation at Autodesk: the source is on GitHub, and among the text-based formats, they also support other formats for generating reference documentation.
Utilities that help develop documentation and APIs like API linter, runnable sample codes, dynamic content, menu injection, etc.
Custom pipeline that runs in Jenkins, compiles docs to HTML, reviews builds for pull requests and more. Autodesk also has a custom GitHub application to support the pipeline.
The internal developer portal is based on Backstage framework and uses the same documentation pipeline as the external portal.
Current challenges with the pipeline include dependency on Jenkins, difficulties in onboarding, an abundance of configuration options, and potential challenges in adding new features.
A reimagined pipeline’s prototype (built-in viewer, local object storage, support live updates, etc.).
Plans for the future
Using other languages for SDKs.
Unifying the developer documentation support to also include desktop products.
Incrementally moving all developer docs.
Rearchitect the pipeline.
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