Documentation Checklist

Documentation Checklist#

Tags: documentor reference

This page lists items you should check when you are creating new documentation. We recommend reviewing this list before you create a pull request.

All Documentation Checklist#

Your Audience#

Make sure your documentation is targeted to the right audience and organized under that audience’s section of the documentation. Each topic in the documentation is for one of the following audiences:

  • Educators

  • Site Operators

  • Developers

Ensure that new topics are stored in the directory for the appropriate audience, under the source directory.

For more information, see Documentation Audiences.

Topic Types#

Each topic in the documentation is one of four types:

  • How to

  • Reference

  • Concepts

  • Quickstarts

Ensure that you have clearly identified the types of new topics you have created, and have stored new files in the directory for that topic type.

For more information, see About Open edX® Documentation Standards.

New Topics in TOCs#

Every new topic must be added to a table of contents. Add each new topic to the audience home page in the appropriate place.

RST Standards#

Ensure that the new documentation adheres to RST standards and Open edX best practices. You should use Documentation Templates as much as possible, and review Documentor Guidelines.

Images#

All new images should be placed in the source/_images directory and referenced in the RST file as:

Line of content, followed by a line with an image.

.. image:: /_images/image-file-name

Or, a line of content, followed by a clickable thumbnail of a large image.

.. thumbnail:: /_images/image-file-name

“See Also” Table#

‘See Also’ tables are an important way that users find related documents for the topic they are exploring. Good docs will have thorough, accurate, and relevant links in the See Also section.

.. seealso::


  :ref:`Offering Differentiated Content` (concept)
  :ref:`Configure Your Course for Content Experiments` (how-to)

See directives syntax for more information.

Review Documentation in the Pull Request#

When you create a pull request, a version of the documentation with your changes is automatically built, as a website that matches https://docs.openedx.org except for your changes. You can tell that the site built for your pull request is different than the main Open edX documentation because the URL includes your pull request number, and because the following warning appears at the top of each page:

../../_images/pr_doc_warning.png

You must ensure that the documentation for the pull request builds successfully, with no errors or warnings. You can access documentation build information in the pull request. The following example shows a successful documentation build:

../../_images/pr_doc_link.png

In the pull request, click Details to see the documentation with your changes. Ensure the changes are published in the way you expect.

If there is an error when building the documentation, the pull request will indicate that checks failed, and the Details link will take you to the error message. If you are able to fix the issue indicated by the error message, do so; if not, contact the Open edX team for assistance.

Migrating Docs Checklist#

Some checklist items are specific to migrating 2U/Edx.org legacy docs into Open edX® Docs. During migration, documentors are using this Open edX Doc Migration Tracking sheet.

Remove or modify references that are specific to 2U/EdX.org#

When migrating legacy documentation from 2U/EdX.org, remove references that are applicable only to the 2U or EdX.org users.

Modify references that may have come from 2U/EdX.org but are also applicable to Open edX® LMS users.

Clear any .. only:: formatting#

This type of formatting is left over from legacy documentation and won’t render in Open edX® Docs. It is typically seen as .. only:: Open_edX or .. only:: Partners followed by intended text. For example:

.. only:: Open_edX

Here some text only intended for Open edX users.

or

.. only:: Partners

Here some text only intended only for 2U/EdX.org users.

To clear it, remove the .. only:: line and unindent the text. For 2U/Edx.org specific text, see point above.

Tasks You Are Unable to Do#

Submit a Github Issue#

If there is a task that should be done on a document, but for whatever reason you are unable to do it, you can Submit a Docs Issue with a description of the issue. Tickets are open to be reviewed and fixed by members of the community.

Submit a Docs Issue

See also

Update An Existing Doc via GitHub (how-to)

Add New Documentation via GitHub (how-to)

Report a problem with the docs (how-to)

About Open edX® Documentation Standards (concept)

Documentor Guidelines (reference)

Documentation Maintenance Process (reference)

Guidelines for Writing Global English (reference)

Open edX Documentation Writing Style Guide (reference)

Documentation Templates (reference)

Quick Reference: Writing RST (reference)

Documentation Audiences (concept)

Maintenance chart

Review Date

Working Group Reviewer

Release

Test situation
Contents