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Electron Documentation Styleguide

These are the guidelines for writing Electron documentation.

Titles

  • Each page must have a single #-level title at the top.
  • Chapters in the same page must have ##-level titles.
  • Sub-chapters need to increase the number of # in the title according to their nesting depth.
  • All words in the page's title must be capitalized, except for conjunctions like "of" and "and" .
  • Only the first word of a chapter title must be capitalized.

Using Quick Start as example:

# Quick Start

...

## Main process

...

## Renderer process

...

## Run your app

...

### Run as a distribution

...

### Manually downloaded Electron binary

...

For API references, there are exceptions to this rule.

Markdown rules

  • Use bash instead of cmd in code blocks (due to the syntax highlighter).
  • Lines should be wrapped at 80 columns.
  • No nesting lists more than 2 levels (due to the markdown renderer).
  • All js and javascript code blocks are linted with standard-markdown.

Picking words

  • Use "will" over "would" when describing outcomes.
  • Prefer "in the ___ process" over "on".

API references

The following rules only apply to the documentation of APIs.

Page title

Each page must use the actual object name returned by require('electron') as the title, such as BrowserWindow, autoUpdater, and session.

Under the page tile must be a one-line description starting with >.

Using session as example:

# session

> Manage browser sessions, cookies, cache, proxy settings, etc.

Module methods and events

For modules that are not classes, their methods and events must be listed under the ## Methods and ## Events chapters.

Using autoUpdater as an example:

# autoUpdater

## Events

### Event: 'error'

## Methods

### `autoUpdater.setFeedURL(url[, requestHeaders])`

Classes

  • API classes or classes that are part of modules must be listed under a ## Class: TheClassName chapter.
  • One page can have multiple classes.
  • Constructors must be listed with ###-level titles.
  • Static Methods must be listed under a ### Static Methods chapter.
  • Instance Methods must be listed under an ### Instance Methods chapter.
  • All methods that have a return value must start their description with "Returns [TYPE] - Return description"
    • If the method returns an Object, its structure can be specified using a colon followed by a newline then an unordered list of properties in the same style as function parameters.
  • Instance Events must be listed under an ### Instance Events chapter.
  • Instance Properties must be listed under an ### Instance Properties chapter.
    • Instance properties must start with "A [Property Type] ..."

Using the Session and Cookies classes as an example:

# session

## Methods

### session.fromPartition(partition)

## Properties

### session.defaultSession

## Class: Session

### Instance Events

#### Event: 'will-download'

### Instance Methods

#### `ses.getCacheSize(callback)`

### Instance Properties

#### `ses.cookies`

## Class: Cookies

### Instance Methods

#### `cookies.get(filter, callback)`

Methods

The methods chapter must be in the following form:

### `objectName.methodName(required[, optional]))`

* `required` String - A parameter description.
* `optional` Integer (optional) - Another parameter description.

...

The title can be ### or ####-levels depending on whether it is a method of a module or a class.

For modules, the objectName is the module's name. For classes, it must be the name of the instance of the class, and must not be the same as the module's name.

For example, the methods of the Session class under the session module must use ses as the objectName.

The optional arguments are notated by square brackets [] surrounding the optional argument as well as the comma required if this optional argument follows another argument:

required[, optional]

Below the method is more detailed information on each of the arguments. The type of argument is notated by either the common types:

If an argument or a method is unique to certain platforms, those platforms are denoted using a space-delimited italicized list following the datatype. Values can be macOS, Windows, or Linux.

* `animate` Boolean (optional) _macOS_ _Windows_ - Animate the thing.

Array type arguments must specify what elements the array may include in the description below.

The description for Function type arguments should make it clear how it may be called and list the types of the parameters that will be passed to it.

Events

The events chapter must be in following form:

### Event: 'wake-up'

Returns:

* `time` String

...

The title can be ### or ####-levels depending on whether it is an event of a module or a class.

The arguments of an event follow the same rules as methods.

Properties

The properties chapter must be in following form:

### session.defaultSession

...

The title can be ### or ####-levels depending on whether it is a property of a module or a class.

Documentation Translations

Translations of the Electron docs are located within the docs-translations directory.

To add another set (or partial set):

  • Create a subdirectory named by language abbreviation.
  • Translate the files.
  • Update the README.md within your language directory to link to the files you have translated.
  • Add a link to your translation directory on the main Electron README.

Note that the files under docs-translations must only include the translated ones, the original English files should not be copied there.