Documentation Standards
Contributions must follow these standards to match the style and tone of the rest of the Symfony documentation.
Sphinx
- The following characters are chosen for different heading levels: level 1
is
=
(equal sign), level 2-
(dash), level 3~
(tilde), level 4.
(dot) and level 5"
(double quote); - Each line should break approximately after the first word that crosses the 72nd character (so most lines end up being 72-78 characters);
- The
::
shorthand is preferred over.. code-block:: php
to begin a PHP code block unless it results in the marker being on its own line (read the Sphinx documentation to see when you should use the shorthand); - Inline hyperlinks are not used. Separate the link and their target definition, which you add on the bottom of the page;
- Inline markup should be closed on the same line as the open-string;
Example
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Example
=======
When you are working on the docs, you should follow the
`Symfony Documentation`_ standards.
Level 2
-------
A PHP example would be::
echo 'Hello World';
Level 3
~~~~~~~
.. code-block:: php
echo 'You cannot use the :: shortcut here';
.. _`Symfony Documentation`: https://symfony.com/doc
Code Examples
- The code follows the Symfony Coding Standards as well as the Twig Coding Standards;
- The code examples should look real for a web application context. Avoid abstract
or trivial examples (
foo
,bar
,demo
, etc.); - The code should follow the Symfony Best Practices.
- Use
Acme
when the code requires a vendor name; - Use
example.com
as the domain of sample URLs andexample.org
andexample.net
when additional domains are required. All of these domains are reserved by the IANA. - To avoid horizontal scrolling on code blocks, we prefer to break a line correctly if it crosses the 85th character;
- When you fold one or more lines of code, place
...
in a comment at the point of the fold. These comments are:// ...
(PHP),# ...
(Yaml/bash),{# ... #}
(Twig),<!-- ... -->
(XML/HTML),; ...
(INI),...
(text); - When you fold a part of a line, e.g. a variable value, put
...
(without comment) at the place of the fold; Description of the folded code: (optional)
- If you fold several lines: the description of the fold can be placed after the
...
; - If you fold only part of a line: the description can be placed before the line;
- If you fold several lines: the description of the fold can be placed after the
- If useful to the reader, a PHP code example should start with the namespace declaration;
- When referencing classes, be sure to show the
use
statements at the top of your code block. You don't need to show alluse
statements in every example, just show what is actually being used in the code block; - If useful, a
codeblock
should begin with a comment containing the filename of the file in the code block. Don't place a blank line after this comment, unless the next line is also a comment; - You should put a
$
in front of every bash line.
Formats
Configuration examples should show all supported formats using configuration blocks. The supported formats (and their orders) are:
- Configuration (including services): YAML, XML, PHP
- Routing: Attributes, Annotations, YAML, XML, PHP
- Validation: Attributes, Annotations, YAML, XML, PHP
- Doctrine Mapping: Attributes, Annotations, YAML, XML, PHP
- Translation: XML, YAML, PHP
- Code Examples (if applicable): PHP Symfony, PHP Standalone
Example
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// src/Foo/Bar.php
namespace Foo;
use Acme\Demo\Cat;
// ...
class Bar
{
// ...
public function foo($bar)
{
// set foo with a value of bar
$foo = ...;
$cat = new Cat($foo);
// ... check if $bar has the correct value
return $cat->baz($bar, ...);
}
}
Caution
In YAML you should put a space after {
and before }
(e.g. { _controller: ... }
),
but this should not be done in Twig (e.g. {'hello' : 'value'}
).
Files and Directories
- When referencing directories, always add a trailing slash to avoid confusions
with regular files (e.g. "execute the
console
script located at thebin/
directory"). - When referencing file extensions explicitly, you should include a leading dot
for every extension (e.g. "XML files use the
.xml
extension"). When you list a Symfony file/directory hierarchy, use
your-project/
as the top-level directory. E.g.1 2 3 4 5
your-project/ ├─ app/ ├─ src/ ├─ vendor/ └─ ...
Images and Diagrams
- Diagrams must adhere to the Symfony docs style. These are created using the Dia application, to make sure everyone can edit them. See the README on GitHub for instructions on how to create them.
All images and diagrams must contain alt descriptions:
- Keep the descriptions concise, do not duplicate information surrounding the figure;
- Describe complex diagrams in text surrounding the diagram instead of the alt description. In these cases, alt descriptions must describe where the longer description can be found (e.g. "These elements are described further in the next sections");
- Start descriptions with a capital letter and end with a period;
- Do not start with "A screenshot of", "Diagram of", etc. except when it's useful to know the exact type (e.g. a specific diagram type).
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.. image:: /_images/example-screenshot.png
:alt: Some concise description of the screenshot.
.. raw:: html
<object data="_images/example-diagram.svg" type="image/svg+xml"
alt="Some concise description."
></object>
English Language Standards
Symfony documentation uses the United States English dialect, commonly called American English. The American English Oxford Dictionary is used as the vocabulary reference.
In addition, documentation follows these rules:
Section titles: use a variant of the title case, where the first word is always capitalized and all other words are capitalized, except for the closed-class words (read Wikipedia article about headings and titles).
E.g.: The Vitamins are in my Fresh California Raisins
- Punctuation: avoid the use of Serial (Oxford) Commas;
- Pronouns: avoid the use of nosism and always use you instead of we. (i.e. avoid the first person point of view: use the second instead);
Gender-neutral language: when referencing a hypothetical person, such as "a user with a session cookie", use gender-neutral pronouns (they/their/them). For example, instead of:
- he or she, use they
- him or her, use them
- his or her, use their
- his or hers, use theirs
- himself or herself, use themselves
Avoid belittling words: Things that seem "obvious" or "simple" for the person documenting it, can be the exact opposite for the reader. To make sure everybody feels comfortable when reading the documentation, try to avoid words like:
- basically
- clearly
- easy/easily
- just
- logically
- merely
- obviously
- of course
- quick/quickly
- simply
- trivial
- Contractions are allowed: e.g. you can write
you would
as well asyou'd
,it is
as well asit's
, etc.