# TechDocs Plugin

Welcome to the TechDocs plugin - Spotify's docs-like-code approach built directly into [Backstage](https://backstage.io). Watch [a video of our approach on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFGCaZmA6d4) to learn more.

**WIP: This plugin is a work in progress. It is not ready for use yet. Follow our progress on [the Backstage Discord](https://discord.gg/MUpMjP2) under #docs-like-code or on [our GitHub Milestone](https://github.com/spotify/backstage/milestone/15).**

## Getting started

Your plugin has been added to the example app in this repository, meaning you'll be able to access it by running `yarn start` in the root directory, and then navigating to [/docs](http://localhost:3000/docs).

You can also serve the plugin in isolation by running `yarn start` in the plugin directory.
This method of serving the plugin provides quicker iteration speed and a faster startup and hot reloads.
It is only meant for local development, and the setup for it can be found inside the [/dev](./dev) directory.

## Configuration

### Custom Storage URL

TechDocs currently reads a static HTML file, generated by Mkdocs (see our `packages/techdocs-container` folder for more documentation) and stored on an external server, and loads that into Backstage. By default, we have set up a mock server with some example documentation sites over in Google Cloud Storage:

```md
# Base URL

https://techdocs-mock-sites.storage.googleapis.com

# Home Page for the "mkdocs" docs

https://techdocs-mock-sites.storage.googleapis.com/mkdocs/index.html

# Home Page for the "backstage-microsite" docs

https://techdocs-mock-sites.storage.googleapis.com/backstage-microsite/index.html
```

Using your own setup (or ours which is being worked on as of Q3 2020), you can point it to your own server with your own hosted documentation sites. The only requirement is that it the output is from [Mkdocs](https://mkdocs.org) with the Material theme. You can always use our documentation generation tool located at `packages/techdocs-container` for easy setup.

To point TechDocs to your own server, simply update the `techdocs.storageUrl` value in your `app-config.yaml` file or set the environment variable `APP_CONFIG_techdocs_storageUrl` in your application:

```bash
git clone git@github.com:spotify/backstage.git
cd backstage/
yarn install
export APP_CONFIG_techdocs_storageUrl='"http://example-docs-site-server.com"'
yarn start
```
