How to contribute to the reference

The Spring Framework reference now uses asciidoctor. This document describes how to contribute documentation updates.

You can build the documentation using gradle using the reference task. For example, from the project root execute the following command:

the output will be available at spring-framework/build/reference/htmlsingle/index.html

One of the nice features about using asciidoctor is the support for live editing.

You will find a Guardfile already present at spring-framework/src/asciidoc/Guardfile. Make sure first to follow the setup instructions within the Editing AsciiDoc with Live Preview document. Once you have done that, there are additional gems to install to make it work (assuming that you are using LiveReload):

When running guard start within the src/asciidoc/ folder, any changes to the src/asciidoc/index.adoc file will automatically be written at src/asciidoc/build/index.html.

• If you are using LiveReload, make sure to select Allow access to file URLs in the LiveEdit plugin options of your browser.

• The icon used to enable LiveReload can be a bit confusing. The dot is empty when it is disabled and full when the plugin is active. Make sure to enable it on the tab displaying the index.html file.

• Ensure you are not running guard start at all as two instances could not run at the same time. To exit a current session in a clean way, just type e in the shell.

Some notes on documentation

• Documentation is wrapped at 90 chars, ensure that you manually wrap your edits

• Tabs are used for indentation, do not use spaces

• Follow the existing style when inserting source blocks

• Asciidoctor Quick Reference

• Asciidoctor Manual

• Asciidoctor Writers Guide