Zowe CLI Web Help Generator

About the Generator

This repository introduces utilities that extract the command tree from the CLI and its installed plug-ins, store the relevant command groups for third party conformant plug-ins in a legal-approved way (without exposing proprietary code), and generate web help with those plug-ins included on demand.

To contribute your plug-in's web help, follow the steps below for installing and using the project.

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Installing

1. Clone this repository from GitHub:

   git clone https://github.com/zowe/zowe-cli-web-help-generator.git
   cd zowe-cli-web-help-generator

2. Install project dependencies:

   npm install --prod

   Note: If you plan to modify the scripts in this repo, omit the --prod flag to also install dev dependencies.

3. Install the plug-in you want to contribute into Zowe CLI, if it is not already installed. If you do not have a globally installed Zowe CLI available, run:

   npx zowe plugins install <plugin name or path here>

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Contributing to the web help

To add your conformant plug-in's commands, perform the following steps:

Note: All steps should be performed in the root of this project.

1. Ensure the plug-in you want to contribute to the web help is installed in Zowe CLI.

   If it is not already installed, see Step 3 in the Installing section.

2. Define command groups that your plug-in contributes.

   • Copy the template file zowe.template.json to a new file named zowe.json. This file will be ignored by git.
   • Customize this file to include the full names of command group(s) of your plug-in(s), like the following:

     {
       "commandGroups": ["zowe-cli-sample"]
     }

   Note: No @zowe scoped plug-ins should be included in this repository, and the above is merely for demonstration purposes.

3. (Optional) Include your copyright notice, which will show as a comment in the generated output.

   Create a file named .copyright and add your copyright notice there. This file will be ignored by git. If no copyright is supplied, the following default copyright will be added:

   Copyright Contributors to the Zowe Project.
   

4. Use the web help generator to extract help from your plug-in's command definitions.

   Run the following command:

   npm run contribute

   This will retrieve the CLI command tree from Zowe CLI and all installed plug-ins, and extract the above command group(s) to .jsonc files in the "commandGroups" directory.

5. Commit new files back to the GitHub repository.

   • Commit the newly created .jsonc files to git. Ensure the commit is signed off (it must include a "Signed-off-by" line).

     git commit -s -m "Add <plugin name> plug-in"

   • Create a pull request in this repository that contributes the new files so that your plug-in will be included in web help for the next Zowe release.

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Generating the web help

To preview web help with your plug-in included locally, perform the following steps:

1. Ensure the latest CLI and plug-ins are installed to generate up-to-date help.

   Install the latest version of Zowe CLI, and all @zowe scoped plug-ins (CICS, DB2, FTP, and MQ for Zowe v2) if they are not already installed. If you do not have a globally installed Zowe CLI available, the CLI can also be accessed in this repository by running npx zowe.

2. Build web help that includes all plug-ins contributed to this repository.

   In the root of this project, run:

   npm run build

   This will generate the CLI command tree from the CLI and @zowe packages, merge all of the command groups in the defined folders, and generate the web help in the "generatedWebHelp" directory.

3. Open the file "generatedWebHelp/index.html" in your browser to view the generated web help.