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<h1><a href="../../index.html">Django 1.8.19 documentation</a></h1>
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<div class="yui-g" id="internals-contributing-writing-documentation">
<div class="section" id="s-writing-documentation">
<span id="writing-documentation"></span><h1>Writing documentation<a class="headerlink" href="#writing-documentation" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>We place a high importance on consistency and readability of documentation.
After all, Django was created in a journalism environment! So we treat our
documentation like we treat our code: we aim to improve it as often as
possible.</p>
<p>Documentation changes generally come in two forms:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>General improvements: typo corrections, error fixes and better
explanations through clearer writing and more examples.</li>
<li>New features: documentation of features that have been added to the
framework since the last release.</li>
</ul>
<p>This section explains how writers can craft their documentation changes
in the most useful and least error-prone ways.</p>
<div class="section" id="s-getting-the-raw-documentation">
<span id="getting-the-raw-documentation"></span><h2>Getting the raw documentation<a class="headerlink" href="#getting-the-raw-documentation" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Though Django’s documentation is intended to be read as HTML at
<a class="reference external" href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/">https://docs.djangoproject.com/</a>, we edit it as a collection of text files for
maximum flexibility. These files live in the top-level <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">docs/</span></code> directory of a
Django release.</p>
<p>If you’d like to start contributing to our docs, get the development version of
Django from the source code repository
(see <a class="reference internal" href="../../topics/install.html#installing-development-version"><span class="std std-ref">Installing the development version</span></a>). The development version has the
latest-and-greatest documentation, just as it has latest-and-greatest code.
We also backport documentation fixes and improvements, at the discretion of the
committer, to the last release branch. That’s because it’s highly advantageous
to have the docs for the last release be up-to-date and correct (see
<a class="reference internal" href="../../intro/whatsnext.html#differences-between-doc-versions"><span class="std std-ref">Differences between versions</span></a>).</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-getting-started-with-sphinx">
<span id="getting-started-with-sphinx"></span><h2>Getting started with Sphinx<a class="headerlink" href="#getting-started-with-sphinx" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Django’s documentation uses the <a class="reference external" href="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> documentation system, which in turn
is based on <a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/">docutils</a>. The basic idea is that lightly-formatted plain-text
documentation is transformed into HTML, PDF, and any other output format.</p>
<p>To actually build the documentation locally, you’ll currently need to install
Sphinx – <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pip</span> <span class="pre">install</span> <span class="pre">Sphinx</span></code> should do the trick.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">Building the Django documentation requires Sphinx 1.0.2 or newer. Sphinx
also requires the <a class="reference external" href="http://pygments.org">Pygments</a> library for syntax highlighting; building the
Django documentation requires Pygments 1.1 or newer (a new-enough version
should automatically be installed along with Sphinx).</p>
</div>
<p>Then, building the HTML is easy; just <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">make</span> <span class="pre">html</span></code> (or <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">make.bat</span> <span class="pre">html</span></code> on
Windows) from the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">docs</span></code> directory.</p>
<p>To get started contributing, you’ll want to read the <span class="xref std std-ref">reStructuredText
Primer</span>. After that, you’ll want to read about the
<span class="xref std std-ref">Sphinx-specific markup</span> that’s used to manage
metadata, indexing, and cross-references.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-writing-style">
<span id="writing-style"></span><h2>Writing style<a class="headerlink" href="#writing-style" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>When using pronouns in reference to a hypothetical person, such as “a user with
a session cookie”, gender neutral pronouns (they/their/them) should be used.
Instead of:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>he or she... use they.</li>
<li>him or her... use them.</li>
<li>his or her... use their.</li>
<li>his or hers... use theirs.</li>
<li>himself or herself... use themselves.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-commonly-used-terms">
<span id="commonly-used-terms"></span><h2>Commonly used terms<a class="headerlink" href="#commonly-used-terms" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Here are some style guidelines on commonly used terms throughout the
documentation:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><strong>Django</strong> – when referring to the framework, capitalize Django. It is
lowercase only in Python code and in the djangoproject.com logo.</li>
<li><strong>email</strong> – no hyphen.</li>
<li><strong>MySQL</strong>, <strong>PostgreSQL</strong>, <strong>SQLite</strong></li>
<li><strong>SQL</strong> – when referring to SQL, the expected pronunciation should be
“Ess Queue Ell” and not “sequel”. Thus in a phrase like “Returns an
SQL expression”, “SQL” should be preceded by “an” and not “a”.</li>
<li><strong>Python</strong> – when referring to the language, capitalize Python.</li>
<li><strong>realize</strong>, <strong>customize</strong>, <strong>initialize</strong>, etc. – use the American
“ize” suffix, not “ise.”</li>
<li><strong>subclass</strong> – it’s a single word without a hyphen, both as a verb
(“subclass that model”) and as a noun (“create a subclass”).</li>
<li><strong>Web</strong>, <strong>World Wide Web</strong>, <strong>the Web</strong> – note Web is always
capitalized when referring to the World Wide Web.</li>
<li><strong>Web site</strong> – use two words, with Web capitalized.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-django-specific-terminology">
<span id="django-specific-terminology"></span><h2>Django-specific terminology<a class="headerlink" href="#django-specific-terminology" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<ul class="simple">
<li><strong>model</strong> – it’s not capitalized.</li>
<li><strong>template</strong> – it’s not capitalized.</li>
<li><strong>URLconf</strong> – use three capitalized letters, with no space before
“conf.”</li>
<li><strong>view</strong> – it’s not capitalized.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-guidelines-for-restructuredtext-files">
<span id="guidelines-for-restructuredtext-files"></span><h2>Guidelines for reStructuredText files<a class="headerlink" href="#guidelines-for-restructuredtext-files" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>These guidelines regulate the format of our reST (reStructuredText)
documentation:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first">In section titles, capitalize only initial words and proper nouns.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Wrap the documentation at 80 characters wide, unless a code example
is significantly less readable when split over two lines, or for another
good reason.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">The main thing to keep in mind as you write and edit docs is that the
more semantic markup you can add the better. So:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>Add ``django.contrib.auth`` to your ``INSTALLED_APPS``...
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Isn’t nearly as helpful as:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>Add :mod:`django.contrib.auth` to your :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`...
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This is because Sphinx will generate proper links for the latter, which
greatly helps readers. There’s basically no limit to the amount of
useful markup you can add.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Use <code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">intersphinx</span></code> to reference Python’s and Sphinx’
documentation.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-django-specific-markup">
<span id="django-specific-markup"></span><h2>Django-specific markup<a class="headerlink" href="#django-specific-markup" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Besides the <span class="xref std std-ref">Sphinx built-in markup</span>, Django’s
docs defines some extra description units:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first">Settings:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">..</span> <span class="n">setting</span><span class="p">::</span> <span class="n">INSTALLED_APPS</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To link to a setting, use <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`</span></code>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Template tags:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">..</span> <span class="n">templatetag</span><span class="p">::</span> <span class="n">regroup</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To link, use <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:ttag:`regroup`</span></code>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Template filters:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">..</span> <span class="n">templatefilter</span><span class="p">::</span> <span class="n">linebreaksbr</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To link, use <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:tfilter:`linebreaksbr`</span></code>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Field lookups (i.e. <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Foo.objects.filter(bar__exact=whatever)</span></code>):</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">..</span> <span class="n">fieldlookup</span><span class="p">::</span> <span class="n">exact</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To link, use <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:lookup:`exact`</span></code>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">django-admin</span></code> commands:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">..</span> <span class="n">django</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">admin</span><span class="p">::</span> <span class="n">migrate</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To link, use <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:djadmin:`migrate`</span></code>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">django-admin</span></code> command-line options:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">..</span> <span class="n">django</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">admin</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">option</span><span class="p">::</span> <span class="o">--</span><span class="n">traceback</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To link, use <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:djadminopt:`--traceback`</span></code>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Links to Trac tickets (typically reserved for minor release notes):</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>:ticket:`12345`
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-documenting-new-features">
<span id="s-id4"></span><span id="documenting-new-features"></span><span id="id4"></span><h2>Documenting new features<a class="headerlink" href="#documenting-new-features" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Our policy for new features is:</p>
<blockquote>
<div>All documentation of new features should be written in a way that
clearly designates the features are only available in the Django
development version. Assume documentation readers are using the latest
release, not the development version.</div></blockquote>
<p>Our preferred way for marking new features is by prefacing the features’
documentation with: “<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">..</span> <span class="pre">versionadded::</span> <span class="pre">X.Y</span></code>”, followed by a mandatory
blank line and an optional content (indented).</p>
<p>General improvements, or other changes to the APIs that should be emphasized
should use the “<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">..</span> <span class="pre">versionchanged::</span> <span class="pre">X.Y</span></code>” directive (with the same format
as the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">versionadded</span></code> mentioned above.</p>
<p>These <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">versionadded</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">versionchanged</span></code> blocks should be “self-contained.”
In other words, since we only keep these annotations around for two releases,
it’s nice to be able to remove the annotation and its contents without having
to reflow, reindent, or edit the surrounding text. For example, instead of
putting the entire description of a new or changed feature in a block, do
something like this:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>.. class:: Author(first_name, last_name, middle_name=None)
A person who writes books.
``first_name`` is ...
...
``middle_name`` is ...
.. versionchanged:: A.B
The ``middle_name`` argument was added.
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Put the changed annotation notes at the bottom of a section, not the top.</p>
<p>Also, avoid referring to a specific version of Django outside a
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">versionadded</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">versionchanged</span></code> block. Even inside a block, it’s often
redundant to do so as these annotations render as “New in Django A.B:” and
“Changed in Django A.B”, respectively.</p>
<p>If a function, attribute, etc. is added, it’s also okay to use a
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">versionadded</span></code> annotation like this:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">..</span> <span class="n">attribute</span><span class="p">::</span> <span class="n">Author</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">middle_name</span>
<span class="o">..</span> <span class="n">versionadded</span><span class="p">::</span> <span class="n">A</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">B</span>
<span class="n">An</span> <span class="n">author</span><span class="s1">'s middle name.</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>We can simply remove the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">..</span> <span class="pre">versionadded::</span> <span class="pre">A.B</span></code> annotation without any
indentation changes when the time comes.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-an-example">
<span id="an-example"></span><h2>An example<a class="headerlink" href="#an-example" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>For a quick example of how it all fits together, consider this hypothetical
example:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first">First, the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ref/settings.txt</span></code> document could have an overall layout
like this:</p>
<div class="highlight-rst"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gh">========</span>
<span class="gh">Settings</span>
<span class="gh">========</span>
<span class="cp">...</span>
<span class="p">..</span> <span class="nt">_available-settings:</span>
<span class="gh">Available settings</span>
<span class="gh">==================</span>
<span class="cp">...</span>
<span class="p">..</span> <span class="nt">_deprecated-settings:</span>
<span class="gh">Deprecated settings</span>
<span class="gh">===================</span>
<span class="cp">...</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Next, the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">topics/settings.txt</span></code> document could contain something like
this:</p>
<div class="highlight-rst"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>You can access a :ref:`listing of all available settings
<span class="nt"><available-settings></span>`. For a list of deprecated settings see
<span class="na">:ref:</span><span class="nv">`deprecated-settings`</span>.
You can find both in the :doc:`settings reference document
<span class="nt"></ref/settings></span>`.
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>We use the Sphinx <code class="xref rst rst-role docutils literal"><span class="pre">doc</span></code> cross reference element when we want to
link to another document as a whole and the <code class="xref rst rst-role docutils literal"><span class="pre">ref</span></code> element when
we want to link to an arbitrary location in a document.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Next, notice how the settings are annotated:</p>
<div class="highlight-rst"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">setting</span><span class="p">::</span> ADMINS
<span class="gh">ADMINS</span>
<span class="gh">------</span>
Default: <span class="s">``()``</span> (Empty tuple)
A tuple that lists people who get code error notifications. When
<span class="s">``DEBUG=False``</span> and a view raises an exception, Django will email these people
with the full exception information. Each member of the tuple should be a tuple
of (Full name, email address). Example<span class="se">::</span>
<span class="s"> (('John', 'john@example.com'), ('Mary', 'mary@example.com'))</span>
Note that Django will email <span class="ge">*all*</span> of these people whenever an error happens.
See <span class="na">:doc:</span><span class="nv">`/howto/error-reporting`</span> for more information.
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This marks up the following header as the “canonical” target for the
setting <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ADMINS</span></code>. This means any time I talk about <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ADMINS</span></code>,
I can reference it using <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:setting:`ADMINS`</span></code>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>That’s basically how everything fits together.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-improving-the-documentation">
<span id="s-id5"></span><span id="improving-the-documentation"></span><span id="id5"></span><h2>Improving the documentation<a class="headerlink" href="#improving-the-documentation" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>A few small improvements can be made to make the documentation read and
look better:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first">Most of the various <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">index.txt</span></code> documents have <em>very</em> short or even
non-existent intro text. Each of those documents needs a good short
intro the content below that point.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">The glossary is very perfunctory. It needs to be filled out.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Add more metadata targets. Lots of places look like:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>``File.close()``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>... these should be:</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">..</span> <span class="n">method</span><span class="p">::</span> <span class="n">File</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>That is, use metadata instead of titles.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Whenever possible, use links. So, use <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:setting:`ADMINS`</span></code> instead
of <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">``ADMINS``</span></code>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Use directives where appropriate. Some directives
(e.g. <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">..</span> <span class="pre">setting::</span></code>) are prefix-style directives; they go <em>before</em>
the unit they’re describing. These are known as “crossref” directives.
Others (e.g. <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">..</span> <span class="pre">class::</span></code>) generate their own markup; these should go
inside the section they’re describing. These are called
“description units”.</p>
<p>You can tell which are which by looking at in
<code class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">_ext/djangodocs.py</span></code>; it registers roles as one of the other.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Add <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">..</span> <span class="pre">code-block::</span> <span class="pre"><lang></span></code> to literal blocks so that they get
highlighted.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">When referring to classes/functions/modules, etc., you’ll want to use
the fully-qualified name of the target
(<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:class:`django.contrib.contenttypes.models.ContentType`</span></code>).</p>
<p>Since this doesn’t look all that awesome in the output – it shows the
entire path to the object – you can prefix the target with a <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">~</span></code>
(that’s a tilde) to get just the “last bit” of that path. So
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:class:`~django.contrib.contenttypes.models.ContentType`</span></code> will just
display a link with the title “ContentType”.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-spelling-check">
<span id="s-documentation-spelling-check"></span><span id="spelling-check"></span><span id="documentation-spelling-check"></span><h2>Spelling check<a class="headerlink" href="#spelling-check" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Before you commit your docs, it’s a good idea to run the spelling checker.
You’ll need to install a couple packages first:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyenchant/">pyenchant</a> (which requires
<a class="reference external" href="http://www.abisource.com/projects/enchant/">enchant</a>)</li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi/sphinxcontrib-spelling/">sphinxcontrib-spelling</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Then from the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">docs</span></code> directory, run <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">make</span> <span class="pre">spelling</span></code>. Wrong words (if any)
along with the file and line number where they occur will be saved to
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">_build/spelling/output.txt</span></code>.</p>
<p>If you encounter false-positives (error output that actually is correct), do
one of the following:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Surround inline code or brand/technology names with grave accents (`).</li>
<li>Find synonyms that the spell checker recognizes.</li>
<li>If, and only if, you are sure the word you are using is correct - add it
to <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">docs/spelling_wordlist</span></code> (please keep the list in alphabetical order).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-translating-documentation">
<span id="translating-documentation"></span><h2>Translating documentation<a class="headerlink" href="#translating-documentation" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>See <a class="reference internal" href="localizing.html#translating-documentation"><span class="std std-ref">Localizing the Django documentation</span></a> if
you’d like to help translate the documentation into another language.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-django-admin-man-page">
<span id="s-django-admin-manpage"></span><span id="django-admin-man-page"></span><span id="django-admin-manpage"></span><h2><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">django-admin</span></code> man page<a class="headerlink" href="#django-admin-man-page" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Sphinx can generate a manual page for the
<a class="reference internal" href="../../ref/django-admin.html"><span class="doc">django-admin</span></a> command. This is configured in
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">docs/conf.py</span></code>. Unlike other documentation output, this man page should be
included in the Django repository and the releases as
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">docs/man/django-admin.1</span></code>. There isn’t a need to update this file when
updating the documentation, as it’s updated once as part of the release process.</p>
<p>To generate an updated version of the man page, run <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">make</span> <span class="pre">man</span></code> in the
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">docs</span></code> directory. The new man page will be written in
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">docs/_build/man/django-admin.1</span></code>.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yui-b" id="sidebar">
<div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
<div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
<h3><a href="../../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Writing documentation</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#getting-the-raw-documentation">Getting the raw documentation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#getting-started-with-sphinx">Getting started with Sphinx</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#writing-style">Writing style</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#commonly-used-terms">Commonly used terms</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#django-specific-terminology">Django-specific terminology</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#guidelines-for-restructuredtext-files">Guidelines for reStructuredText files</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#django-specific-markup">Django-specific markup</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#documenting-new-features">Documenting new features</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#an-example">An example</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#improving-the-documentation">Improving the documentation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#spelling-check">Spelling check</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#translating-documentation">Translating documentation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#django-admin-man-page"><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">django-admin</span></code> man page</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
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