Getting Started

Traditionally, Javadocs have mixed minor markup with HTML which, if you’re writing for HTML Javadoc output, becomes unreadable and hard to write over time. This is where lightweight markup languages like AsciiDoc thrive. AsciiDoc straddles the line between readable markup and beautifully rendered content.

Asciidoclet incorporates an AsciiDoc renderer (Asciidoctor via the Asciidoctor Java integration library) into a simple Doclet that enables AsciiDoc formatting within Javadoc comments and tags.

Example

Here’s an example of a class with traditional Javadoc.

A Java class with traditional Javadoc

/**
 * <h1>Asciidoclet</h1>
 *
 * <p>Sample comments that include {@code source code}.</p>
 *
 * <pre>{@code
 * public class Asciidoclet extends Doclet {
 *     private final Asciidoctor asciidoctor = Asciidoctor.Factory.create();
 *
 *     {@literal @}SuppressWarnings("UnusedDeclaration")
 *     public static boolean start(RootDoc rootDoc) {
 *         new Asciidoclet().render(rootDoc);
 *         return Standard.start(rootDoc);
 *     }
 * }
 * }</pre>
 *
 * @author <a href="https://github.com/johncarl81">John Ericksen</a>
 */
public class Asciidoclet extends Doclet {
}

This is the same class with Asciidoclet.

A Java class with Asciidoclet Javadoc

/**
 * = Asciidoclet
 *
 * Sample comments that include `source code`.
 *
 * [source,java]
 * --
 * public class Asciidoclet extends Doclet {
 *     private final Asciidoctor asciidoctor = Asciidoctor.Factory.create();
 *
 *     @SuppressWarnings("UnusedDeclaration")
 *     public static boolean start(RootDoc rootDoc) {
 *         new Asciidoclet().render(rootDoc);
 *         return Standard.start(rootDoc);
 *     }
 * }
 * --
 *
 * @author https://github.com/johncarl81[John Ericksen]
 */
public class Asciidoclet extends Doclet {
}

The result is readable source and beautifully rendered Javadocs, the best of both worlds!