Javadoc
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Javadoc (also capitalized as JavaDoc or javadoc) is an API documentation generator for the Java programming language. Based on information in Java source code, Javadoc generates documentation formatted as HTML and other formats via extensions.[1] Javadoc was created by Sun Microsystems and is owned by Oracle today.
The content and formatting of a resulting document are controlled via special markup in source code comments. As this markup is de facto standard and ubiquitous for documenting Java code,[2] many IDEs extract and display the Javadoc information while viewing the source code, often via hover over an associated symbol. Some IDEs, like IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans and Eclipse, support generating Javadoc template comment blocks.[3] The @tag syntax of Javadoc markup has been re-used by other documentation generators, including Doxygen, JSDoc, EDoc and HeaderDoc.
Javadoc supports extension via doclets and taglets, which allow for generating different output formats and for static analysis of a codebase. For example, JDiff reports changes between two versions of an API.
Although some criticize Javadoc and API document generators in general, one motivation for creating Javadoc was that more traditional (less automated) API documentation is often out-of-date or does not exist due to business constraints such as limited availability of technical writers.[4]
Javadoc has been part of Java since its first release, and is often updated with each release of the Java Development Kit.[5]
Javadoc and the source code comments used by Javadoc, do not affect the performance of a Java executable since comments are ignored by the compiler.
Markup
Javadoc ignores comments unless they are specially marked. A Javadoc comment is marked with an extra asterisk after the start of a multi-line comment: /**. Following lines are presceded with an *, and the entire comment block should be terminated with a */.
An example of a method Javadoc comment follows:
/**
* Description of what the method does.
*
* @param input Description of parameter.
* @return Description of return value.
* @throws Exception Description of exception.
*/
public int methodName(String input) throws Exception { ... }
Some HTML tags, such as <p>, <head>, and <nav>, as supported in Javadoc.[1]
Markdown
From Java 23 onwards, Javadoc supports the Markdown standard CommonMark on comment lines that start with /// instead of the older multiline format.[6]
Doclets
A Doclet program works with Javadoc to select which content to include in the documentation, format the presentation of the content and create the file that contains the documentation.[7] A Doclet is written in Java and uses the Doclet API,
The StandardDoclet[2] included with Javadoc generates API documentation as frame-based HTML files. Other Doclets are available on the web Script error: No such module "Unsubst"., often for free. These can be used to:
- Create other types of documentation (non-API)
- Output to a format other than HTML, such as PDF
- Output as HTML with additional features such as a search or with embedded UML diagrams generated from the Java classes
Tags
Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Some of the available Javadoc tags[8] are listed in the table below:
| Syntax | Usage | Applies to | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />@author name | Identifies the author such as "Pat Smith" | Class, Interface, Enum | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />{@docRoot} | Represents the relative path to the generated document's root directory from any generated page | Class, Interface, Enum, Field, Method | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />@version version | Version information | Module, Package, Class, Interface, Enum | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />@since since-text | Describes when this functionality first existed | Class, Interface, Enum, Field, Method | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />@see reference | Links to other element of documentation | Class, Interface, Enum, Field, Method | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />@param name description | Describes a method parameter | Method | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />@return description | Describes the return value | Method | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />@exception classname description @throws classname description |
Describes an exception that may be thrown from this method | Method | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />@deprecated description | Marks the method as outdated | Class, Interface, Enum, Field, Method | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />{@inheritDoc} | Copies the description from the overridden method | Overriding Method | 1.4.0 |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />{@link reference} | Link to other symbol | Class, Interface, Enum, Field, Method | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />{@linkplain reference} | Identical to {@link}, except the link's label is displayed in plain text than code font
|
Class, Interface, Enum, Field, Method | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />{@value #STATIC_FIELD} | Return the value of a static field | Static Field | 1.4.0 |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />{@code literal} | Formats literal text in the code font; equivalent to {@literal} |
Class, Interface, Enum, Field, Method | 1.5.0 |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />{@literal literal} | Denotes literal text; the enclosed text is interpreted as not containing HTML markup or nested javadoc tags | Class, Interface, Enum, Field, Method | 1.5.0 |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />{@serial literal} | Denotes a default serializable field | Field | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />{@serialData literal} | Denotes data written by the writeObject( ) or writeExternal( ) methods
|
Field, Method | |
| <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />{@serialField literal} | Denotes an ObjectStreamField component
|
Field |
See also
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
- ↑ IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans Script error: No such module "webarchive". and Eclipse
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ JavaSE 13 Documentation Comment Specification
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
External links
- Javadoc Tool Home Page
- Java Platform, Standard Edition Javadoc Guide
- JSR 260 Javadoc Tag Technology Update Java Specification Request (defines new Javadoc tags)
- Improve on Javadoc with ashkelon
- Various Java documentations converted to Windows Help format