Sugar on a Stick/Documentation SOP

Starting with the upcoming SoaS version (release date: 2010-05-11), a good amount of the related documentation will be created through publican. This SOP describes how to contribute changes to the documentation.

Viewing the Documentation

You can view a reasonably up-to-date version of the files here:

• Customization Guide
• Creation Kit

This is not a permanent location (the URLs above will likely be moving between now and May 2010), and these files may not be completely up-to-date; we are currently obtaining a more permanent infrastructure solution, but the links should suffice at present.

Contributing Content to the Documentation

Checking out the latest Version

Clone the GIT repository with the Sugar on a Stick documentation from GIT by running:

git clone git://git.sugarlabs.org/soas-docs/mainline.git soas-docs

Apply your Changes

• Edit away! - Try to follow these conventions here.
• Bump the edition tag in Book_Info.xml after a major change.
• Make sure to explain your change in Revision_History.xml

Generating HTML or PDF output

Install publican if you haven't already. On most Linux distributions, this will be:

sudo yum install publican

In the same directory as the file publican.cfg (this will almost certainly be /path/to/soas-docs/Customization Guide or /path/to/soas-docs/Creation Kit), run the following command.

publican build --format=html --lang=en-US

or

publican build --format=pdf --lang=en-US

...depending on what output format you would like. You will see output that looks like this.

[you@machine]$ publican build --format=html --lang=en-US
Setting up en-US
        Processing file tmp/en-US/xml/Common_Content/Conventions.xml
        Processing file tmp/en-US/xml/Common_Content/Feedback.xml
        Processing file tmp/en-US/xml/Common_Content/Legal_Notice.xml
        <snip more similar stuff>
Beginning work on en-US
        Starting html
        Using XML::LibXSLT on /usr/share/publican/xsl/html.xsl
Writing pref-Customization_Guide-Preface.html for preface(pref-Customization_Guide-Preface)
Writing sect-Creation_Kit-Preparation-Getting_Started.html for section(sect-Creation_Kit-Preparation-Getting_Started)
Writing chap-Customization_Guide-Preparation.html for chapter(chap-Customization_Guide-Preparation)
<snip more similar stuff>
Writing index.html for book
        Finished html

When the publican build is finished, you will find your generated docs in a folder called tmp/en-US in your current directory.

Create a Patch from your Changes

Create a patch using the following command:

git diff > product-name-change.patch

• product reflects the folder you made your change in, so either creation-kit or customization-guide
• name references to your personal name to track contributions
• change should be a one or two word description of your proposed change

Push your changes

If you don't have commit access

Send an email (with a subject line like this [PATCH] name-of-your-patch) to the SoaS mailing list together with your patch and an explanation of what you changed and why you think the change is necessary. Discussion will happen on list.

After that, your patch will be committed and pushed. At some point, you might also be granted access to the GIT repository so that you can commit changes directly without submitting the patches to the list.