What’s Up, Javadocs?
It doesn’t take much to make me happy — a good book, an episode of The Daily Show with John Stewart, a glass of Hawaiian Punch with white wine, perhaps even a delicately prepared veal scallopini for special occasions.
And I’m really ecstatic now that the Javadocs for NetWeaver is being revised and improved.
In case you missed it, the Javadocs for NetWeaver ’04 SPS15 were released about a week ago, with a new look and a few new tricks:
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Links to other NetWeaver packages: Until now, when a class referenced another class in a package in another area of NetWeaver, there was no link to other package. Nothing. If you wanted to learn more about the other class, you had to find it yourself.
But now, for example, when wizard framework classes and interfaces reference HTMLB controls, there are links to the HTMLB Javadocs.
Even more striking, this is also true for portal and PRT APIs. So when the navigation service, wizard framework, editor framework, page builder and other APIs reference IPortalComponentRequest, you can navigate directly to this common interface.
- Links to standard Java classes: You now get links to standard Java packages. The links take you to the published Javadocs at java.sun.com.
- PRT and portal APIs united: Since most developers use PRT and portal APIs together — and don’t care that they reside on different layers of the portal — both sets of APIs are published together under Enterprise Portal.
- New format: The Javadocs are published in a new, crisp style, that conforms to SAP’s look and feel. The benefit is that they are easier to read, with special fonts and colors, more constrained use of emphasis, and better visual structure.
In addition, we are in the midst of an overhaul of the content of the Javadocs for the portal, improving the text, eliminating unused packages and creating better links. Hopefully, you will see the results in the upcoming releases.
You can find the Javadocs at http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/javadocs.
As I told you, it doesn’t take much to make me happy.
linking the doc together definitely is one big step into the right direction and something I regulary missed; it will make my life easier again. Thanks for that!
Best regards, Detlev
The style is also, ummmhhh, "not that great", and buggy, check https://media.sdn.sap.com/javadocs/NW04/SPS15/hb/com/sapportals/htmlb/MessageBar.html (last three methods are rendered less bold than the other methods).
Maybe a combination of graphical designers *and* hardcore Java developers should be asked to create a usable style (contrast is too low; font size differences are too small between headings and entries...).
Hope it helps to improve this, Detlev
eh, don't be too rigorous - of course there are some unlinked things, still, but for the most of them they are linked. That special case in fact references a deprecated API which is not published after all.
It's just a single step in improving the javadocs. Not a 'final polish', I must admit.
Armin
Write me a blog when that happens.
Thanks for your note.
First, the change is much about style, but not primarily. The reason I wrote it is that the Javadocs now enable linking between most areas in NetWeaver -- which nakes it easier to navigate within Javadocs while working with the portal.
Second, this is only one weblog out of about 26 that I have written and out of the hundreds overall that have written about portal features. There have been weblogs about building site maps, how to work with the PCD, significant improvements in activity reporting, and much more.
Third, we have significantly improved the portal developer guide -- completely rewritting the PRT guide, and adding or reorganizing key sections of the portal guide (see navigation, wizards and editors and others).
Finally, if there are areas that you would like to see covered better, or you think there needs to be better tutorials, or you have any other suggestions, please let me know and I will try to incorporate them in the documentation.
Thanks again for your comment.
Daniel