npdoc2md 0.0.1
Scripts for autogenerating markdown docs from numpy-style docstrings.
License: MIT
Requires Python: >=3.5
Keywords: markdown numpy docs autogenerate script

# npdoc2md

A simple python utility for auto-converting numpy-style python docstrings to 
markdown for use with mkdocs, an entire package at a time. It also includes a second utility, `code2npdoc`, which will attempt to generate docstring templates given code for an entire project.

### Installation

The preferred method for installing npdoc2md is to use `pip`. (Python 3.5+ required)

```
pip install npdoc2md
```

If `pip` defaults to Python2, use `pip3`. You can also install from source:

```
git clone https://github.com/jwlodek/npdoc2md
cd npdoc2md
pip install .
```

### Usage

Below is the result of running `npdoc2md` with the `-h` flag:

```
usage: npdoc2md [-h] [-v] -i INPUT -o OUTPUT [-s SKIP [SKIP ...]] [-d]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         Use this flag to print out npdoc2md version info.
  -i INPUT, --input INPUT
                        The path to the target python project or file to
                        convert.
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        The output directory where the markdown files should
                        be placed.
  -s SKIP [SKIP ...], --skip SKIP [SKIP ...]
                        List of filenames/directories to skip.
  -d, --debug           Add this flag to print detailed log messages during
                        conversion.
```

Basic usage will require at least target and output locations that are valid.

```
npdoc2md -i C:\Users\jwlodek\demo -o C:\Users\jwlodek\demo_output
```

You can also specify to enable debug printing with `-d`, and files to skip with `-s` followed by a list of files. For example, to autogenerate [py_cui](https://github.com/jwlodek/py_cui) docs, the following command is run:

```
npdoc2md -i ..\..\..\py_cui -o ..\..\DocstringGenerated -s statusbar.py errors.py
```

which will ignore the `statusbar.py` and `errors.py` files.

The `npdoc2md` script will recursively search the target (if it is a folder) for files ending with the `.py` extension,
and will generate a markdown file for each one not specified in the ignore section. Any encountered `__init__.py` files will use their containing folder's name for the name of the output markdown file.

### Doc Rules

You must follow strict docstring style rules to use npdoc2md:

* Each class of function docstring must start and end with `"""`, and the initial description must be right after the initial `"""`. Ex: `"""Hello this is a function`
* Use numpy style guidelines for `Attributes`, `Parameters`, `Returns`, `Raises` lists
* The `Returns` list should give a return value name and type with the doc message. If it doesn't, a generic name will be assigned to the return variable

### Examples

As stated previously, [py_cui](https://github.com/jwlodek/py_cui) uses npdoc2md to auto-generate documentation to use with `mkdocs`.
You may also see the `Npdoc2md.md` file in this repository which was generated by running this script on itself:

```
npdoc2md -i .\npdoc2md.py -o .\example\.
```

### Generating template docs

Writing out all of the docstrings for a project is a lengthy process, so a second helper script was written to help with generating template np docs. It has the following usage:

```
usage: code2npdoc [-h] [-v] -i INPUT [-c] [-s SKIP [SKIP ...]] [-d]

A utility for auto-creating base numpy style docstrings for an entire python
project.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         Add this flag for displaying version information.
  -i INPUT, --input INPUT
                        Path to target python project or file
  -c, --createtemp      If this flag is set, code2npdoc will create a
                        temporary conversion folder without overriding your
                        sources.
  -s SKIP [SKIP ...], --skip SKIP [SKIP ...]
                        List of filenames/directories to skip.
  -d, --debug           Add this flag to print detailed log messages during
                        conversion.
```

With similar flags as the base `npdoc2md` script. Add the `-c` flag if you don't want your original file to be auto-overwritten. An example of running this script on the `npdoc2md` file is as follows:

```
code2npdoc -i npdoc2md.py -c
```

### License

MIT License  
Copyright (c) 2020, Jakub Wlodek