How do you read JavaDoc?

Question

What tools/websites do you use to read JavaDocs?

I currently use Firefox with 20+ tabs open when working on a J2EE project to have all the documentation available which is not very usable, is eating too much memory and is not searchable.

What I would expect from such a tool/website:

• Aggregate JavaDocs from different locations
• Direct access to types like Ctrl+T in Eclipse or similar
• Fulltext search
• Cross referencing between all the Java libraries I've chosen
• For a tool: offline support
• Speed

not mandatory:

• possibility to annotate things
• support for different versions of a library (+ diffing ?)
• IDE integration

Edit:

Thanks for your answers. I knew most of the sites but gave them another try. Here is my judgement:

• built-in Eclipse/IDE features
  • tightly integrated
  • offline/online support
• gotapi
  • looks well organized
  • can't get it to work right now (Ubuntu with Firefox 3.0.1), search loads forever
• javadoconline.com
  • works
  • clean looks
  • finds matches in more than one version of the api and allows easy switching
  • simple but working
  • fast
• jdocs
  • seems very sophisticated
  • sometimes slow
  • some recent versions of libraries seem to be missing (Seam 2.0.0, Hibernate Validators) but it looks like you can add them yourself
  • IDE integration (not tested)
  • wiki style comments to each item
• docjar.com
  • works
  • fast
  • cluttered UI
• javadoc_isearch
  • greasemonkey script for firefox which makes navigating javadocs easier
  • works smooth and perfectly

Answer 1

I haven't found anything that satisfies all your needs, but I have found two sites that have improved my javadoc viewing needs:

• http://www.javadoconline.com/
• http://www.jdocs.com/

Answer 2

Eclipse integrates well with Javadoc and has an HTML-like viewer for it. You can attach source and javadoc to binaries that will show up when you select a class.

Answer 3

Doxygen (http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/) might fit the bill.

EDIT: I may have misread your question, doxygen is a tool to generate documentation and models based off your code and javadoc.

Answer 4

Something like this may be useful?

http://www.docjar.com/

Answer 5

Personally, I've never had a problem with the built-in javadoc browsing tools offered by my IDE.

Currently, I use IntelliJ Idea -- Ctl-Q brings up the javadoc for the method under the cursor, with the hyperlinks to other parts of the documentation functional.

I would imagine NetBeans and Eclipse offer similar functionality.

Answer 6

gotapi is a great site for browsing javadoc, along with a ton of other language docs. I can generally find what I'm looking for faster there as it adds a nice search feature.

Answer 7

I use http://www.teria.com/~koseki/tools/gm/javadoc_isearch/ for FF. Lets me easily browse other libraries as well.

Answer 8

If you use Eclipse, it offers support for Javadocs. For example, hovering your mouse over a method call will display a tooltip showing you the Javadoc for that method. Documentation for the core Java classes are supported out of the box. However, if your project uses any additional libraries (JAR files), some configuration is required in order to plug their Javadocs into Eclipse.

1. Go to the "Java Build Path" section of your project properties.
2. Go to the "Libraries" tab and click the "plus" icon next to the JAR file.
3. Click "Javadoc location", then the "Edit..." button.

This will let you specify where the Javadocs for that JAR are located. It will even let you specify a website URL, so you don't have to download the Javadocs yourself!

Answer 9

You can find Stanford University's JavaDoc here.