Mendix Documentation

This repository contains the Mendix documentation, which is served on https://docs.mendix.com.

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Development

There are two ways to develop the documentation: you can run it locally (which is faster) or use Docker. With Docker, you will not have to install Hugo and Node, but you need Docker and Docker Compose.

Local Development

The Mendix documentation is built on top of Hugo and Node.JS. When you want to develop the documentation locally, you need to have both installed.

Prerequisites

Hugo is a static page generator that runs on Go. Make sure you install Hugo following these guides.

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime. You can install it by downloading the installer here. We are using the Current version (8.x.x).

Installing Dependencies

  1. Open a terminal window. In Windows, you can run this by pressing Win + R, typing cmd, and pressing Enter.

  2. Go to the folder where the documentation resides: cd C:\Projects\Mendix\docs (assuming you have put it in this folder).

  3. Check if you have both Hugo and Node.JS installed correctly by typing these commands in your terminal and pressing Enter):

    hugo version

    It should show you the version: Hugo Static Site Generator v0.31.1 xxxx. Note: It is important to match this version number! Because of breaking changes this will not work with Hugo version >= 0.32

    node -v

    It should show you the version: v8.1.3 (the version number you installed)

  4. If both commands work, there is one more command you need to type to install the dependencies:

    npm install

    This will take a while. It will install all the dependencies you need. You can also use yarn. Make sure yarn is installed and run yarn.

Running the Server

Running the server is done by executing the following command: npm run serve.

It takes a few seconds (Windows can take longer) to build the site and setup the server.

When it's done, open a browser and go to http://localhost:4000.

Gulp Tasks

Make sure you have Gulp installed first (npm install gulp -g). By running gulp help, you can access the different tasks that are used when building the website.

Please note that the task check:html is currently broken in Windows.

Using Docker for Development

A Docker setup potentially makes development and deployment easier.

To use it, follow these steps:

  1. Install Docker and Docker Compose.

  2. Build the Docker images with:

    docker-compose build

  3. Then run:

    docker-compose up

    This will start up the server and watches for changes. You should be able to visit http://localhost:4000/ to view the site.

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