External Data

Main Page > External Data

Jump to Table of Contents

YUIDoc generates a data.json file after it parses your API documentation. The external.data config option enables you to import a YUIDoc data.json file from another project and mix it into your own documentation.

This feature is handy when you are extending another project and would like to link back to their API documentation. For example, importing YUI Library's data.json file would enable YUIDoc to automatically link back to Base, EventTarget, and other core YUI objects that your own API might be extending or mixing in.

Currently, importing external data enables YUIDoc to resolve HTML links @extends or @use keywords, but does not cause YUIDoc to generate complete documentation for the external API. Future versions of YUIDoc may provide the option to mix in the data natively and reproduce the external API right along with your own.

Configuration

Create an external object under the options object in your yuidoc.json file and give it a property called data pointing to the URL of the external data.json file you wish to import. data can be a string or an array of strings.

{
  "options": {
    "external": {
      "data": "http://yuilibrary.com/yui/docs/api/data.json"
    }
  }
}

NOTE: YUIDoc currently fetches external data on each run with no caching.