Netdata Learn

This repository hosts the code for Netdata's documentation site, Netdata Learn built on Docusaurus. Docusaurus is a free, open-source project maintained by Facebook. The site is then deployed automatically to Netlify from the latest commit of the master branch, which we also use to maintain certain redirects.

Contributing to Netdata Learn

Most of the files in the /docs folder are "mirrors" of their original files found in the ingested repositories.

Generally speaking, the files in the /docs folder of repository should not be edited. The documentation contribution guidelines explains this architecture a bit further and explains some of the methods for making or suggesting edits.

Moreover, after taking a look at the documentation contribution guidelines, please also take a look at the style guide. We offer friendly advice on how to produce quality documentation, hoping that it will help you in your contribution.

Netlify status

master :
staging :
staging1 :

Installation

Prerequisites

• yarn version 1.22.19 or higher should be installed on the system, if you don't have it check the different package types listed in the yarn releases page
• node.js, version 12 - 16 should also be installed on the system, install node.js v16.19.1 from here
• Git installed on the system

Steps

Note, if you are using Windows, use Powershell or CMD for these commands, as for example the integrated terminal of VSCode might not find the commands.

1. Clone this repository

   git clone https://github.com/netdata/learn.git
   cd learn

2. Install dependencies.

   yarn install

3. Create a .env file in the project root. This file will be ignored by Git and should NOT be committed, as it will contain sensitive environment variables.

   touch .env

   Edit the .env file and add the following.

   GITHUB_TOKEN=<token>

   Generate a new GitHub personal access token here.

   • Set the token note as netdata-learn.
   • Check repo.
   • Click Generate.
   • Copy the token and replace <token> in the .env file with it.

Local development

To start a local version of Netdata Learn, running at port 3000 use:

yarn start

This command starts a local development server and opens up a browser window. Most changes are reflected live without having to restart the server. If you want to suppress warnings you can run yarn -s start.

Ingest and process documentation files

As explained in the contributing to Netdata Learn section above, all of the files in the /docs folder are mirrors of their original versions located in Netdata's repositories.

The organization of the files is handled by the map.tsv file, that contains metadata for every file. That file should only be edited by members of the Netdata team.

In the ingest GitHub action, the ingest script runs with the flag -f, which allows it to fail upon detecting broken links.

To run the ingest process refer to the Manual ingest via local environment section.

Ingested repositories

At the moment documentation is ingested from the following repos:

• netdata/netdata
• netdata/go.d.plugin
• netdata/.github
• netdata/agent-service-discovery
• netdata/netdata-grafana-datasource-plugin
• netdata/helmchart

Documentation arrives in this repository via the ingest.py script. This script clones the repos and processes all of Netdata's documentation, including changing file paths and overwriting links between documents, then places the files in the /docs folder.

Automated ingest via GitHub Actions

This repo uses a GitHub Action called ingest.yml to run the ingest/ingest.py process.

This action runs at 14:00 UTC every day.

If there are changes to any documentation file, the GitHub Action creates a PR that is then reviewed by a member of the Netdata team.

The action can be configured to automatically assign one or more reviewers. To enable automatic assignments, uncomment the # reviewers: line at the end of ingest.yml and add the appropriate GitHub username(s)either space or comma-separated.

Manual ingest via GitHub Actions

To run the action manually:

1. Click on the Actions tab at the top of the page.
2. Click on the Ingest workflow.
3. On the right-hand side of the screen, there's a small dropdown menu that reads Run workflow. Click on that, then Run workflow.

As with the automated ingest, the action creates a PR if there are any changes.

Manual ingest via local environment

You can also run the script manually in a local development environment. Most of the times you will make changes in any repo of the repos (or your forks) we mentioned above. To do that you need to setup your local environment for the ingest process to work. This script is a python script and has it's own dependencies (separate from the docusaurus framework).

To run the ingest process and spin up a local development environment:

Linux environments or WSL

Prerequisites

• Python v3.9+

Steps

1. Navigate under your netdata/learn local clone.

2. [Optional] Create a local test branch otherwise work on the master branch.

3. Create a python virtual environment.

python -m venv myenv

The name myenv is included in the .gitignore file of this repo.

4. Activate your environment.

source myenv/bin/activate

5. Install the required packages, via pip

pip install -r .learn_environment/ingest-requirements.txt

6. Run the ingest process to fetch the documents you are working on from one or multiple repos.

python ingest/ingest.py --repos <owner>/<repo>:<branch>

for example, let's assume that you made some changes in the markdown files of netdata/netdata repo (branch: patch1) and on your own fork user1/go.d.plugin repo (branch: user1-patch).

python ingest/ingest.py --repos netdata/netdata:patch1 user1/go.d.plugin:user1-patch

7. Build a local website,

yarn start

Update news on the Learn homepage

There are two parts to the news section on the Learn homepage: the timeline and the latest release.

Timeline

The timeline section on the Learn homepage should be updated whenever the team publishes new docs/guides or when an existing doc/guide receives a major overhaul/improvement.

1. Open the /src/data/News.js file.

2. Find the News array near the top of the page.

3. Duplicate an existing item and replace the title, href, date, type, and description fields.

   1. title can be pulled directly from .md file.
   2. href field is the full path, including the root /, to that document.
   3. date is the date that doc was published/updated.
   4. type is one of the following: Doc, Guide, Video
   5. description can be pulled directly from .md file. It must be surrounded by the <> … </> tags to React-ify it and escape any troublesome characters.

4. The end result should look something like this:

   const updates = [
     {
       title: <>Monitor any process in real-time with Netdata</>,
       href: '/guides/monitor/process',
       date: 'December 8, 2020',
       type: 'Guide',
       description: (
         <>
           Tap into Netdata's powerful collectors, with per-second utilization metrics for every process, to troubleshoot faster and make data-informed decisions.
         </>
       ),
     },
     ...
   ]

5. If you added one news item, delete the oldest item from the list. Try to maintain only 6 items in the list at any one time.

6. Save the file, commit, and push your code. Create a new PR, check the deploy preview, get a review, and merge it.

Latest release

Update the latest release section when there is a new release of Netdata, like 1.31.0 → 1.32.0.

1. Open the /src/data/News.js file.

2. Find the ReleaseVersion and ReleaseDate variables, and the ReleaseNotes array.

3. Update the version and date.

4. Update the major features in ReleaseNotes, which are then converted into the list.

5. The end result should look something like this:

   export const ReleaseVersion = '1.31.0'
   
   export const ReleaseDate = 'May 19, 2021'
   
   export const ReleaseNotes = [
     'Re-packaged and redesigned dashboard',
     'eBPF expands into the directory cache',
     'Machine learning-powered collectors',
     'An improved Netdata learning experience',
   ]

6. Save the file, commit, and push your code. Create a new PR, check the deploy preview, merge it.

Edit CSS

Global CSS rules are stored in /src/css/custom.css file.

The various pages and components that make up Learn also come with extra CSS using Tailwind, which uses utility classes to create styling. You can find these utility classes throughout the components and pages.

For example, the following utility classes style the hero text on the Learn homepage.

<div className="z-10 relative w-full md:w-3/4 lg:w-1/2">
  <h1 className="text-2xl lg:text-5xl text-text font-semibold mb-6 dark:text-gray-50">{siteConfig.title}</h1>
  <p className="prose text-lg lg:text-xl text-text dark:text-gray-50">{siteConfig.tagline}</p>
</div>

Build

yarn build

This command generates static content into the build directory and can be served using any static contents hosting service.

Custom (swizzled) Docusaurus components

Every .js file in the /src/theme folder is a component that has been customized from the defaults supplied by Docusaurus. This process is called swizzling.

If you update Docusaurus, these swizzled components aren't updated. This could create some breakage if there are major changes to the default versions of these components in the Docusaurus core. The only solution is to merge the existing customizations with the new version of the file or remove the customizations altogether.

To merge:

1. Make a copy of the component (xyz.js) in the /src/theme folder and save it outside the repo.
2. Delete the file/folder for that component.
3. Run yarn run swizzle @docusaurus/theme-classic NAME, replacing NAME with the name of the component, like DocItem or Seo. You may also have to add a -- --danger to the end: yarn run swizzle @docusaurus/theme-classic NAME -- --danger.
4. Open the newly-created .js file in the /src/theme folder.
5. Add the customization (the code between BEGIN EDIT/END EDIT) comments, back into the file in the appropriate place.
6. Start Docusaurus with yarn start and test.

Deployment

Deployment is handled automatically through Netlify. Each new commit to the master branch deploys the latest version of Netdata Learn.

If there are questions about deployment, please create an issue.

Redirects

If a document is moved from one location to another, the ingest script is responsible for generating relative redirects.

There is also a static.toml file, containing more complex, static redirects.