VoloDocs is a cross-platform web application that allows you to easily create beautiful documentation and build developer communities. It simplifies software documentation with the help of GitHub integration. You use the power of GitHub for versioning, hosting of your docs. You let your users to edit a document.
## Main Features
- Serves documents from your GitHub repository.
- Supports Markdown / HTML document formatting.
- Supports versioning (integrated to GitHub releases).
- Support multiple projects.
- Allows users to edit a document on GitHub.
- Cross-platform; deployable to Windows / Linux / macOS.
## GitHub Repository
It's free & open-source. You can browse VoloDocs source-code and contribute on GitHub:
When you extract the `VoloDocs.zip` file, you will see a `Web` folder and a `Migrator` folder. `Web` folder contains the website files and `Migrator` contains the application to build your database. Before publishing your website, you need to create a new database or update your existing database to the latest. If this is the first time you install VoloDocs, `Migrator` will create a new database for you, otherwise it updates to the latest version. The only setting you need to configure, is the `ConnectionString` which is located in the `appsettings.json` file. See the next section to learn how to configure your VoloDocs application.
To update your existing database or create your initial database, go to `Migrator` folder in your VoloDocs directory.
Open `appsettings.json` in your text editor and set your database connection string. If you don't know how to write the connection string for your database system, you can check out https://www.connectionstrings.com/.
After you set your connection string, run `Migrate.bat` for Windows platform and `VoloDocs.Migrator` for other operating systems. That's it now configure your website.
- ### Configuring Website
Go to `Web` folder in your VoloDocs directory. Open `appsettings.json` in your text editor. Set your connection string (same as in the `Migrator`'s `appsettings.json`). Set `title` of your website. This will be written on the left-upper corner of your website. That's it! Now you can publish your website.
If you want to run
- ### Publishing Website
In the previous step, you created or updated your database. Ensure that your database exists on the specified connection string.
- If you get the below error, it means don't have the hosting bundle installed on the server. See [this document](https://docs.microsoft.com/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/iis/#install-the-net-core-hosting-bundle) to learn how to install it or [download Hosting Bundle](https://www.microsoft.com/net/permalink/dotnetcore-current-windows-runtime-bundle-installer) and run on your server.
```
Handler "aspNetCore" has a bad module "AspNetCoreModuleV2" in its module list using IIS
```
- Further information about hosting VoloDocs check out [Microsoft's official document for hosting ASP.NET Core application on IIS](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/iis).
- #### Publishing to Azure
Microsoft has a good document on how to deploy your ASP.NET Core web app to Azure App Service. We recommend you to read this document https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-web-get-started-dotnet.
- #### Running the Application From Command Line
Alternatively you can run the application from command line, navigate to `VoloDocs\Web` folder and run the below command in your command line for Windows:
```powershell
dotnet VoloDocs.Web.dll
```
- ### First Run
To start the website, navigate to your address (as configured in the previous section).
When you first open the website, you need to create a project.
To create a personal access token in GitHub, you need to visit the **Settings** of the user account and under **Developer settings** you will find **Personal access tokens**. Select **Generate new token**, enter in a name as the Token description and enable the repo checkbox. Alternatively, to enter generate new token, browse to https://github.com/settings/tokens/new.
To access public repositories, check `public_repo` under the `repo` section. This will enable VoloDocs to access your public GitHub repositories. Click `Generate Token` button on the bottom of the page.
To access public repositories, check all items under the `repo` section. This will enable VoloDocs to access your private GitHub repositories. Click `Generate Token` button on the bottom of the page.
To learn your GitHub username, click on your profile picture on the top-right corner of the GitHub page. You will see your username right after the text "Signed in as ..."
