Documenting#

PyAnsys documentation must not only be written but also maintained. If you are contributing to PyAnsys documentation, see the Google developer documentation style guide, which provides the general guidelines that you are to follow. This page supplies guidance specific to PyAnsys documentation.

Note

For comprehensive information on contributing new content or revising existing content in PyAnsys documentation, see Content writing.

When writing developer documentation, the relationship between code and documentation is key. To keep documentation up to date with evolving code, always perform these tasks:

  • Minimize the content footprint.

  • Write timeless documentation.

  • Support contributions from both inside and outside of the development team.

  • Perform periodic reviews.

Documentation sources#

The generation of PyAnsys documentation uses Sphinx and the Ansys-branded Sphinx theme to assemble content from these resources:

  • Docstrings in Python (PY) files

  • reStructuredText (RST) files

  • Examples in PY files

Docstrings#

You must format docstrings in PY files so that Sphinx can parse them. Sphinx provides these extensions for docstring formatting:

Using the numpydoc extension is preferred because it supports an API documentation structure with one page per method, providing Python community members with documentation like that generated for the numpy and pandas packages. If your API is very linear, you can use the napoleon extension because it supports a documentation structure where everything needed to solve a certain problem can be shown on one page.

The numpydoc manual explains how to use the numpydoc extension with Sphinx and includes a style guide. The napoleon extension, which parses both numpydoc and Google style docstrings, refers you to the Google Python Style Guide.

Regardless of the extension that you choose for generating documentation from docstrings, using numpy-style docstrings ensures that there is consistency within PyAnsys libraries. For more information, see Documentation style.

RST files#

To provide general usage information in your documentation, use your favorite editor to create RST (ReStructuredText) files that you then place in The doc directory. The index.rst file in the doc/source directory defines the first level of your documentation hierarchy. The toctree directive (which stands for “table of contents tree”) indicates the maximum number of heading levels that the documentation is to display. Following this directive are the directory names for your documentation sections.

Generic structure for PyAnsys library documentation.

Fig. 1 Generic structure for PyAnsys library documentation.#

Each documentation section has its own index.rst file, as shown by the preceding figure. The following RST files provide examples of how to create index.rst files.

Welcome to the library documentation
####################################

This is the content of the root `index.rst` file.

.. toctree::

    section_A/index
    section_B/index
Section A
#########

This is the content of the `section_A/index.rst` file.

.. toctree::

    section_1
    section_2
    ...
Section B
#########

This is the content of the `section_B/index.rst` file.

.. toctree::

    another_section
    ...

While you do not include the .rst extension when defining the section structure in the toctree directive, the index file referenced for each section should be named index.rst.

After you build documentation locally as described in Build documentation, the first-level heading in the index.rst file for each section is shown as a clickable link in the title bar of the library’s HTML documentation. For more information on defining the documentation structure, see Getting Started in the Sphinx documentation.

Indicating RST titles#

Within RST files, heading titles are to use sentence case per the capitalization guidelines in the Google developer documentation style guide. The line that follows the heading title must have a string of characters that is the same length as the heading title. If the length of the characters under the heading title is less than the length of the heading title, Sphinx generates a warning.

For consistency within PyAnsys libraries, the use of the following special characters is recommended for headings but is not enforced:

  • For section-level headings, use ###.

  • For subsection-level headings, use ===.

  • For subsubsection-level headings, use ---.

  • For subsubsubsection-level headings, use ~~~.

  • For paragraph-level headings, use +++.

For comprehensive syntax information, see the reStrucutredText Markup Specification.

Because you must be familiar with the content in this guide before contributing to a PyAnsys library, explore its pages and then the RST files in its repository. This should help you to understand the syntax and see how RST files are nested to create the structure of the guide.

Examples#

Examples come in two formats:

  • Basic code snippets demonstrating features

  • Full-fledged standalone examples that are meant to be run as downloadable scripts

Place basic code snippets in the doc/source directory. Place full-fledged standalone examples in the examples directory, which is at the root of the repository. All of these examples must be compliant with PEP 8. They are compiled dynamically during the build process. Always ensure that your examples run properly locally because they are verified through the CI performed by GitHub Actions.

Adding a new standalone example consists of placing it in an applicable subdirectory in the examples directory. If none of the existing directories match the category of your example, create a new subdirectory with a README.txt file describing the new category. Here is an example of what the structure for a PyAnsys library typically looks like:

.
├── doc
│   ├── conf.py
│   ├── index.rst
|   ├── make.bat
│   └── Makefile
├── my_python_module
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── mod.py
└── examples
    ├── plot_example.py
    ├── example.py
    └── README.txt (or .rst)

In the Sphinx configuration file (doc/conf.py), enable the Sphinx-Gallery extension:

extensions = [
    ...
    'sphinx_gallery.gen_gallery',
    ]

The following configuration declares the location of the examples directory to be ../examples and the output directory to be examples:

sphinx_gallery_conf = {
 'examples_dirs': '../examples',   # path to your example scripts
 'gallery_dirs': 'examples',  # path where the gallery generated outputs are to be saved
}

Because these examples are built using Sphinx-Gallery, you must follow its coding guidelines.

General example uses Python and Sphinx-Gallery.

Document Python code#

You can use the native sphinx.ext.autodoc extension to generate documentation from your Python code. When using this extension, you can include these directives in your RST files:

  • automodule: For documenting modules

  • autoclass: For documenting classes

  • autofunction: For documenting methods and functions

For a full list of auto directives, see Include documentation from docstrings in the Sphinx documentation.

Document classes#

There are two main ways of using Sphinx to document a class:

  • Manually describe why and how you use a class in RST files.

  • Automatically generate documentation for classes using the autoclass or autosummary directive in RST files.

Manually generate documentation#

To describe why and how to use a class in RST files, use the code-block directive:

Initialize ``my_module.MyClass`` with initial parameters. These
parameters are automatically assigned to the class.

.. code-block:: pycon

   >>> from my_module import MyClass
   >>> my_obj = MyClass(parm1="apple", parm2="orange")
   >>> my_obj.parm1
   'apple'

Initialize my_module.MyClass with initial parameters. These parameters are automatically assigned to the class.

>>> from my_module import MyClass
>>> my_obj = MyClass(parm1="apple", parm2="orange")
>>> my_obj.parm1
'apple'

Automatically generate documentation#

To automatically generate class descriptions from the numpydoc strings in your Python files, use either the autoclass or autosummary directive in your RST files. For information on docstrings and required docstring sections, see Numpydoc docstrings.

For simple classes, use the autoclass directive:

.. autoclass:: ansys_sphinx_theme.examples.samples.ExampleClass
   :members:
class ansys_sphinx_theme.examples.samples.ExampleClass(param1, param2, param3=0)#

The summary line for a class docstring should fit on one line.

Attributes should be documented inline with the attribute’s declaration.

Properties created with the @property decorator should be documented in the property’s getter method.

Parameters:
  • param1 (str) – Description of param1.

  • param2 (list of str) – Description of param2. Multiple lines are supported.

  • param3 (int, optional) – Description of param3.

Examples

An example of how to initialize this class should be given.

>>> from ansys_sphinx_theme import samples
>>> example = samples.ExampleClass('mystr', ['apple', 'orange'], 3)
example_method(param1, param2)#

Class methods are similar to regular functions.

Parameters:
  • param1 (str) – The first parameter.

  • param2 (str) – The second parameter.

Returns:

True if successful, False otherwise.

Return type:

bool

Notes

Do not include the self parameter in the Parameters section.

Examples

>>> example.example_method('foo', 'bar')
True
property readonly_property: str#

Properties should be documented in their getter method.

Examples

>>> example.readonly_property
"readonly_property"
property readwrite_property#

Set or return the readwrite property.

Properties with both a getter and setter should only be documented in their getter method.

If the setter method contains notable behavior, it should be mentioned here.

Examples

>>> example.readwrite_property
"readwrite_property"
>>> example.readwrite_property = 'hello world'
>>> example.readwrite_property
'hello world'

For complex classes with many methods, use the autosummary directive:

.. autoclass:: ansys_sphinx_theme.examples.samples.Complex

.. autosummary::
   :toctree: api/

   ansys_sphinx_theme.examples.samples.Complex.real
   ansys_sphinx_theme.examples.samples.Complex.imag
   ansys_sphinx_theme.examples.samples.Complex.abs
class ansys_sphinx_theme.examples.samples.Complex(real, imag=0.0)#

Custom implementation of a complex number.

Parameters:
  • real (float) – Real component of the complex number.

  • imag (float, optional) – Imaginary component of the complex number.

Examples

>>> my_num = Complex(real=1, imag=-1.0)
>>> my_num
(1.0 + 1.0j)

ansys_sphinx_theme.examples.samples.Complex.real

Real component of this complex number.

ansys_sphinx_theme.examples.samples.Complex.imag

Real component of this complex number.

ansys_sphinx_theme.examples.samples.Complex.abs

Return the absolute value of this number.

When you use the autosummary directive, each class has its own dedicated page. Each method and attribute in that class also has its own page.

Document multiple classes#

To document a set of small but highly cohesive classes, you can combine the two preceding approaches. To accomplish this, you include multiple autoclass directives in the same RST file with headings and text blocks as necessary to describe the relationships between the classes.

For example, the Granta MI BoM Analytics library uses this combined approach: Part compliance first describes the PartComplianceQuery class. It then describes the PartComplianceQueryResult and PartWithComplianceResult classes returned by the query. Because the classes are only ever encountered together in this context, they are documented on a single page.

In contrast, the RoHSIndicator and WatchListIndicator classes are shared across multiple queries. Consequently, these classes are documented separately.

Build documentation#

Sphinx is used to build the documentation. You configure the entire build process in the conf.py file, which is located in the doc/source directory.

The doc directory contains a Makefile file and a make.bat file for automating the building process. Different builders render different documentation output, such as HTML and PDF.

Build HTML documentation#

You can build HTML documentation locally with the command for your OS. On macOS or Linux, you use Makefile. On Windows, you use the make.bat file.

make html
make.bat html

The resulting HTML files are created in the doc/_build/html directory.

To view the HTML documentation in your browser, navigate to this directory and double-click the index.html file.

Build PDF documentation#

To build PDF documentation locally, you must add the following rules to the Makefile and make.bat files:

.PHONY: pdf

pdf:
        @$(SPHINXBUILD) -M latex "$(SOURCEDIR)" "$(BUILDDIR)" $(SPHINXOPTS) $(O)
        cd $(BUILDDIR)/latex && latexmk -r latexmkrc -pdf *.tex -interaction=nonstopmode || true
        (test -f $(BUILDDIR)/latex/*.pdf && echo pdf exists) || exit 1
:PHONY pdf

:pdf
        %SPHINXBUILD% -M latex %SOURCEDIR% %BUILDDIR% %SPHINXOPTS% %O%
        cd "%BUILDDIR%\latex"
        pdflatex \*.tex --interaction=nonstopmode

You can then build the PDF documentation locally with the command for your OS:

make pdf
make.bat pdf

The resulting PDF and intermediate LaTeX files are created in the doc/_build/latex directory.

Always verify the content of your PDF file.

Because warnings and errors that occur during the LaTeX building and rendering processes are ignored, it is possible that the PDF file has text formatting errors.

Enable multi-version documentation#

With the release of ansys/actions@v4 , libraries can benefit from multi-version documentation. Libraries taking advantage of this feature need to apply different configurations according to their level of maturity.

Follow these steps to enable multi-version documentation in your library:

  • Use ansys-sphinx-theme 0.8 or later for building your library’s documentation.

  • Include the following lines in The conf.py file:

    import os
    
    from ansys_sphinx_theme import get_version_match
    
    
    cname = os.getenv("DOCUMENTATION_CNAME", "<DEFAULT_CNAME>")
    """The canonical name of the webpage hosting the documentation."""
    
    html_theme_options = {
        "switcher": {
            "json_url": f"https://{cname}/versions.json",
            "version_match": get_version_match(__version__),
        },
        ...
    }
    

    About the DCOUMENTATION_CNAME environment variable

    The DOCUMENTATION_CNAME environment variable is expected to be declared in the YML file controlling the deployment of the documentation. The idea is that the canonical name (CNAME) is only defined in a single place, so it can be easily changed if required.

  • Enable documentation deployment for development and stable versions. For more information, see Deploy documentation.

With all the previous configuration, your library is ready to use multi-version documentation in an automated way. This means that every time you release a new version, a link to the documentation for this version is added to the drop-down button in the upper right corner of the documentation’s title bar. You use this drop-down button to switch from viewing the documentation for the latest stable release to viewing the documentation for the development version or previously released versions.

Controlling the number of versions shown in the drop-down button

Only the development branch and the last three stable versions are shown by default in the documentation drop-down button. To show more versions, use the render-last variable in the ansys/actions/doc-deploy-stable action.

If you require support for migrating to the multi-version documentation, contact the PyAnsy core team.

Deploy documentation#

PyAnsys libraries use GitHub Actions to deploy their documentation online to GitHub Pages. This documentation is hosted on the gh-pages branch of the library’s repository. Documentation deployment is done by uploading the HTML documentation artifact to the gh-pages branch of the library’s repository. For more information, see Creating a GitHub Pages site in the GitHub documentation.

To deploy both development and stable documentation in an automated way, add the doc-deploy-dev and doc-deploy-stable jobs:

env:
  DOCUMENTATION_CNAME: '<library>.docs.pyansys.com'

jobs:

    # Artifacts for HTML documentation need to be generated before
    # executing the deployment jobs

    doc-deploy-dev:
      name: "Deploy development documentation"
      # Deploy development only when merging or pushing to the 'main' branch
      if: github.event_name == 'push' && !contains(github.ref, 'refs/tags')
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      needs: build-library
      steps:
        - uses: ansys/actions/doc-deploy-dev@v4
          with:
            doc-artifact-name: '<html-artifact-name>'
            cname: ${{ env.DOCUMENTATION_CNAME }}
            token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

    doc-deploy-stable:
      name: "Deploy stable documentation"
      # Deploy release documentation when creating a new tag
      if: github.event_name == 'push' && contains(github.ref, 'refs/tags')
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      needs: release
      steps:
        - uses: ansys/actions/doc-deploy-stable@v4
          with:
            doc-artifact-name: '<html-artifact-name>'
            cname: ${{ env.DOCUMENTATION_CNAME }}
            token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Deploy to another repository#

If you are planning to deploy documentation to a repository other than the one for your library, make sure you create this repository before deploying your documentation for the first time.

Using the {{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} token when deploying to another repository is not possible due to the level of credentials of this token. Instead, use the secrets generated by the PyAnsy Bot app.

For deploying the documentation to another repository, use this workflow:

env:
  DOCUMENTATION_CNAME: '<library>.docs.pyansys.com'
  DOCUMENTATION_REPOSITORY: '<organization-name>/<repository-name>'

jobs:

    # Artifacts for HTML documentation need to be generated before
    # executing the deployment jobs

    generate-token:
      name: "Generate deployment token"
      id: get_workflow_token
      uses: peter-murray/workflow-application-token-action@v1
      with:
        application_id: ${{ secrets.BOT_APPLICATION_ID }}
        application_private_key: ${{ secrets.BOT_APPLICATION_PRIVATE_KEY }}

    doc-deploy-dev:
      name: "Deploy development documentation"
      # Deploy development only when merging or pushing to the 'main' branch
      if: github.event_name == 'push' && !contains(github.ref, 'refs/tags')
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      needs: build-library
      steps:
        - uses: ansys/actions/doc-deploy-dev@v4
          with:
            doc-artifact-name: '<html-artifact-name>'
            cname: ${{ env.DOCUMENTATION_CNAME }}
            token: ${{ steps.get_workflow_token.outputs.token }}
            external-repository: ${{ env.DOCUMENTATION_REPOSITORY }}

    doc-deploy-stable:
      name: "Deploy stable documentation"
      # Deploy release documentation when creating a new tag
      if: github.event_name == 'push' && contains(github.ref, 'refs/tags')
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      needs: release
      steps:
        - uses: ansys/actions/doc-deploy-stable@v4
          with:
            doc-artifact-name: '<html-artifact-name>'
            cname: ${{ env.DOCUMENTATION_CNAME }}
            token: ${{ steps.get_workflow_token.outputs.token }}
            external-repository: ${{ env.DOCUMENTATION_REPOSITORY }}

Multi-version migration from ansys/actions@v3 to ansys/actions@v4#

Projects using the multi-version feature should upgrade to ansys/actions@v4 or higher to benefit from stable links. This is achieved by introducing a new layout that is not compatible with older ansys/actions versions.

To perform the migration, follow these steps:

  • Update all the continuous integration YML files to use ansys/actions@v4 or higher.

  • Make sure that the "json_url" key points to f"https://{cname}/versions.json". Note that the release/ substring is dropped.

  • Apply previous steps as fix patches in all the desired versions to be included in the multi-version documentation.

Access online documentation#

Documentation for the latest stable release of a PyAnsys library is accessible from its repository. The canonical name for the documentation of the project is constructed using the following structure:

https://<product>.docs.pyansys.com

You can generally access the latest development version of the documentation by adding the dev path to the URL:

https://<product>.docs.pyansys.com/dev

Warning

PyAnsys projects support now multi-version documentation, meaning that stable and development versions are collected under the same website. A drop-down button for selecting the desired version should be available in the top right corner of the documentation’s navigation bar.

For example, consider the PyAEDT documentation:

GitHub Actions automatically keep the latest development versions of both the library and its documentation up to date.

To make documentation changes, you create a branch with a name that begins with a prefix of doc/ that is then followed by a short description of what you are changing. For more information, see Branching model.

As you are making changes in this branch, you want to periodically generate the documentation locally so that you can test your changes before you create a GitHub pull request. For more information, see Build documentation.

Using PyMeilisearch as search engine#

PyMeilisearch is a Python client library that enables you to utilize MeiliSearch, an open source search engine, to provide fast and relevant search capabilities for your application’s data.

By completing the following steps, you can effectively enable and use PyMeilisearch as a search engine for multi-version documentation in your project.

  1. Use ansys-sphinx-theme>=0.9 for building the documentation in your project.

  2. Include the following lines in the conf.py file:

    import os
    
    from ansys_sphinx_theme import convert_version_to_pymeilisearch
    
    
    cname = os.getenv("DOCUMENTATION_CNAME", "<DEFAULT_CNAME>")
    """The canonical name of the webpage hosting the documentation."""
    
    html_theme_options = {
        "use_meilisearch": {
          "api_key": os.getenv("MEILISEARCH_API_KEY", ""),
          "index_uids": {
            f"<your-index-name>{convert_version_to_pymeilisearch(__version__)}": "index name to be displayed",  # noqa: E501
          },
        },
        ...
    }
    
  1. In these lines, replace <your-index-name> with the desired name for your MeiliSearch index.

    The convert_version_to_pymeilisearch function converts your package’s version into a format suitable for MeiliSearch indexing.

  2. Enable documentation index deployment for development and stable versions using GitHub Actions:

    jobs:
      doc-deploy-index:
        name: "Index the documentation and scrap using PyMeilisearch"
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        needs: doc-deploy
        if: github.event_name == 'push'
        steps:
          - name: Scrape the stable documentation to PyMeilisearch
            run: |
              VERSION=$(python -c "from <your-package> import __version__; print('.'.join(__version__.split('.')[:2]))")
              VERSION_MEILI=$(python -c "from <your-package> import __version__; print('-'.join(__version__.split('.')[:2]))")
              echo "Calculated VERSION: $VERSION"
              echo "Calculated VERSION_MEILI: $VERSION_MEILI"
    
          - name: "Deploy the latest documentation index"
            uses: ansys/actions/doc-deploy-index@v4.1
            with:
              cname: "<library>.docs.pyansys.com/version/$VERSION"
              index-name: "<index-name>v$VERSION_MEILI"
              host-url: "<meilisearch-host-url>"
              api-key: ${{ secrets.MEILISEARCH_API_KEY }}
    
  1. Replace <your-package>, <your-index-name>, and <library> with appropriate values for your project.

    The version of your package is automatically calculated and used for indexing, ensuring that your documentation remains up to date. For more information, see the PyMeilisearch and ansys-sphinx-theme-doc documentation.