Documentation Builder Updates: Docs now at https://erpnext.org/docs

[rmehta]

Hello all,

We made a few changes to the way documentation is built. There were 2 motivations

1. The GitHub pages template was not very easy to build and maintain esp for large docs like erpnext/frappe.
2. Consistency in the design and layouts.
3. Improve the search ranking for erpnext.org

The changes are:

1. The docs are now built in a target “app”
2. Docs are built in the www folder and rendered via frappe

The way to define them would still be the same. (i.e in the docs/user folder of your app)

ERPNext Docs: https://erpnext.org/docs
Frappe Docs: https://frappe.io/docs

[JoEz]

Nice job! Probably, if I’ve seen correctly, the only things left out is the search function inside docs.

[Chude_Osiegbu]

I’d like to know what the community’s thoughts are on the ability to be able to customize ERPNext documentation specifically (and app documentation in general). A typical implementation may involve the addition of custom functionality through custom fields and scripts. How do we also customize the documentation so that the information that needs to be added is in the context of what was modified.

I’d raised this topic and have got some responses. The custom app seems to be the closest now but since the new information to be added doesn’t exist in the context of what was modified, I think that this is not the best approach.

Customizing Documentation

Hi @Chude_Osiegbu, If you make a custom app and create the corresponding documentation with the document generator from Frappe (https://frappe.io/docs/user/en/guides/app-development/generating-docs), the documentation will be automatically added to this link when you update your bench. If you have only some custom scripts in ERPNext, you can either modify ERPNext’s documentation locally (not recommended for updates) or create a custom app dedicated for the documentation I guess. Your proposal…

[rmehta]

@Chude_Osiegbu

I’d like to know what the community’s thoughts are on the ability to be able to customize ERPNext documentation specifically (and app documentation in general). A typical implementation may involve the addition of custom functionality through custom fields and scripts. How do we also customize the documentation so that the information that needs to be added is in the context of what was modified.

Don’t customize, contribute!

[Chude_Osiegbu]

Sure, but let me give an example:

Let’s assume I implement for a customer who has need for 5 custom fields and a custom script in Sales Invoice that is particular to them alone, It would be nice to be able to add what this customisation does to the manual in the Sales Invoice area so that they are able to get contextual information when going through the manual. The alternative would be to document this update somewhere different from the manual which for me isn’t ideal. In this case, it doesn’t make sense for me to contribute the changes back to ERPNext/Frappe because they don’t add value to a generalised solution.

A lot of the value that consultants and system integrators will add is through these one-off customizations so for me it makes sense to be able to enhance the manual contextually with these documentation on improvements.

[rmehta]

In that case you can maintain the additional docs in your own app. That feature still exists!