PHPDoc documentation generator in or out of Eclipse?

Question

I am developing with Eclipse + PDT. I've been adding phpdoc comments into my code, but actually never generated a resulting documentation in Eclipse. How should I do it - is there some functionality in Eclipse, or doc generation should be done externally?

Answer 1

Yes there is a wizard to do this in Zend. Check out this brief guide.

Alternatively you can create an external launch configuration to invoke the standard phpDocumentor.

1. Select Run->External Tools->External Tools Configurations...
2. In the left hand pane, select Program then the new icon (left-most icon above the pane).
3. In the right hand pane, select the Main tab.
4. Enter generate_doc in the Name: field.
5. Enter the path to the phpdoc cli tool in the Location: field.
6. Enter any required arguments in the Arguments field, e.g. for the current project input ${project_loc}.
7. To run the external configuration, select Run.

To rerun the configuration you have a few choices:

1. Select the External Tools icon from the menu bar then click generate_doc
2. Select Run->External Tools->generate_doc
3. Hit Alt+R, E, 1 (assuming generate_doc is the first item in the list, otherwise pick the appropriate number)

Answer 2

To generate the documentation, you should use phpDocumentor, which can be installed as a PEAR package.

Then, you have to call it from command-line ; I've never seen it called from Eclipse PDT, actually.

A great solution is to have a continuous-integration platform (using phpUnderControl, for instance), and integrate to creation of the phpdoc in your build configuration file ; this way, the phpdoc is generated everytime someone commits (or once a day, or whenever you want ^^ ).

In Eclipse PDT, you can call "external tools" (see "Run > External Tools" in the menu) ; this would allow you to launch the phpdoc command (like you do from CLI) ; but it definitly is not as user-friendly as what Zend Studio offers -- not the same price either, though ^^