đź“š New documentation

Parse Server 📡
#1

We are looking to revamp the documentations, an often mentioned pain point in community feedback.

We want to close many of the open issues and pull requests over the next weeks. We also want to take a step back and reflect on how the docs are structured and what we expect from a modern documentation. We appreciate that there are more modern docs frameworks out there that exceed our current framework in terms of usability, readability, maintainability, responsive design and features.

We also want to look into consolidating the docs. So instead of having to browse (and maintain) separate docs for each SDK, we could have a single documentation where one could just switch the SDK to display the SDK specific code examples and conditions. This would for example make it easier to see whether a feature is available in each SDK, as that is not always uniform across SDKs.

Our current front-runner framework is Docusaurus, but we are open to suggestions.

  • What would you expect from the new docs?
  • Which features (dark mode, etc) should a new docs framework have?
  • Can you suggest any open source docs frameworks?

We’re excited to hear your suggestion!

4 Likes
#2
#3

I noticed that the server documentation is scattered between the Github Readme and the Server Guide.

In comparison Argo CD - Declarative GitOps CD for Kubernetes uses one main documentation and separates on job roles, e.g. “operator manual” vs “user guide”. The GitHub readme is just a short intro and points to the documentation.

2 Likes
#4

Thanks Frank, I believe that is something @dblythy also noted and if I’m not mistaken he already opened an issue or pull request for this. We’ll certainly consider consolidating this.

#5

Great suggestion @Frank500, unfortunately the PR I submitted is too far out of date with the GitHub readme so I’ll come back to that in the future.

Improving documentation coverage is definitely something that we will continue to work towards. Certain features are only documented on the GitHub readme, and not in the official guides (such as experimental features). We’ll definitely continue to spend time working on this.

We’ve also got a lot of work to do around the example project, such as cleaning up the example readme page, simplifying the test page to use the JS SDK, etc.

We’re also hoping to document the Dashboard better as well.

Our goal is to make Parse Server as easy as possible to get started with, as well as easy enough to understand the multiple configuration options.

If any new contributors are looking to get on board and help out with the project, documentation is a great place to start. Not only does it allow us to focus on bugs and features, but it’s a great way to get the hang of pull requests, git, and to learn first about new features that are introduced :blush:

1 Like
#6
#7

Here is a sample from a worthy documentation that is set up by Amazon Web Services - Documentation…open up docs for users/contributors to add some more complicated code samples, I appreciate the community and documentation. I use Parse in an IOS and Javascript environments, Kudos to the Team!

1 Like
#8

Interesting idea to write the docs as markdown on GitHub and use a generator to create HTML pages from it; not sure which framework would do that though.

#9

@Manuel may be parse documentation should move to https://docusaurus.io/, they have many plugin to build advanced docs architecture and search system.

It could be a good first step !

#10

Docusaurus is the suggested framework (top post); by “move” you mean they provide hosted docs?

#11

full guide documentation for unity please i’m struggling with everything!, if you could make a video tutorial connecting parse server to unity and sending and receiving data to the DB, there is latterly no support community for parse and unity anywhere!!!

#12

See Parse Server with Unity problems! - #2 by Manuel