PHPDoc documentation generator in or out of Eclipse?

Question

I am developing with Eclipse + PDT. I've been adding phpdoc comments into my code, but actually never generated a resulting documentation in Eclipse. How should I do it - is there some functionality in Eclipse, or doc generation should be done externally?

Solution 1

To generate the documentation, you should use phpDocumentor, which can be installed as a PEAR package.

Then, you have to call it from command-line ; I've never seen it called from Eclipse PDT, actually.

A great solution is to have a continuous-integration platform (using phpUnderControl, for instance), and integrate to creation of the phpdoc in your build configuration file ; this way, the phpdoc is generated everytime someone commits (or once a day, or whenever you want ^^ ).

In Eclipse PDT, you can call "external tools" (see "Run > External Tools" in the menu) ; this would allow you to launch the phpdoc command (like you do from CLI) ; but it definitly is not as user-friendly as what Zend Studio offers -- not the same price either, though ^^

Solution 2

Another great tool to generate documentation is ApiGen. It doesn't need installation with PEAR (but includes it) and it can be used like a standalone package.

Solution 3

Yes there is a wizard to do this in Zend. Check out this brief guide.

Alternatively you can create an external launch configuration to invoke the standard phpDocumentor.

1. Select Run->External Tools->External Tools Configurations...
2. In the left hand pane, select Program then the new icon (left-most icon above the pane).
3. In the right hand pane, select the Main tab.
4. Enter generate_doc in the Name: field.
5. Enter the path to the phpdoc cli tool in the Location: field.
6. Enter any required arguments in the Arguments field, e.g. for the current project input ${project_loc}.
7. To run the external configuration, select Run.

To rerun the configuration you have a few choices:

1. Select the External Tools icon from the menu bar external tools icon http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/topic/org.eclipse.cdt.doc.user/images/icon%5Fext%5Ftools.png" then click generate_doc
2. Select Run->External Tools->generate_doc
3. Hit Alt+R, E, 1 (assuming generate_doc is the first item in the list, otherwise pick the appropriate number)

Comments

[AlexA]

Thanks, but I am using regular Eclipse + PDT, apparently there is no such an option.

[Lance Rushing]

I've used ant to build my php projects, and usually have a doc target. Eclipse plays very nice with ant. Also you run phing from eclipse.

[Suhail Gupta]

How do we install ApiGen for windows? I downloaded the phar package but have no clue as how to proceed.

[Davide Pastore]

@SuhailGupta take a look here: github.com/ApiGen/ApiGen

[Suhail Gupta]

So I included the path C:\wamp\www\apigen.phar into user variable PATHand also inside the System Path. But it doesn't work! Just prints nothing.

[Davide Pastore]

Try to open an issue here: github.com/ApiGen/ApiGen/issues

[Suhail Gupta]

I typed the command as php apigen generate --help and the output is Could not open input file: apigen

[Davide Pastore]

Try with apigen.phar

[Suhail Gupta]

Same Could not open input file: apigen.phar