Uniform-API-Viewer is a project mainly written in JavaScript, it's free.
Dataformat & Viewer-Application for uniform API documentations.
It bugs me up, that many many frameworks/librarys out there still come up with ugly structured and designed API documentations and/or manuals. However, once checked how to use the docs, I always find the information I am looking for. But at the end, those repetetive procedures become the less quick and intuitive the scruffier those informations are structured.
To avoid such "workflow blockers" in the future, I decided to develop "something" that gives me API docs and other references straight to my fingertips. Nothing should be more than three clicks away and everything should be formated in a typographically pleasuring way so that specific things can be found straightaway.
Further, all API documentations should be joined into a single data file, that will be part of the Viewer Application. So they will always be available -- regardless whether a connection to the internet will be available or not.
This project's intention primarily targets dynamic (scripting) languags; especially JavaScript with its jungle of libraries, frameworks and their respective masses of 3rd-party plugins/additions. Although the popular projects like jQuery, YUI and since this week even MooTools already have official platforms for publishing 3rd-party plugins/additions, where links to author websites and API documentations can be found, though, they're kind of cluttered. That's why one of the main purposes of this project is it to include even API docs of 3rd-party plugins for miscellaneous frameworks/libraries, giving developers all those stuff right under their belt. Everytime and everywhere.
Essentially, the UAV project is divided into two main parts:
1. A XML-dialect used to uniformly describe APIs, called _Uniform API Document (UAPID)_
2. The Viewer-Application for UAPID filesThe UAPID- dataformat is a custom XML-dialect modelled to meet the requirements of describing Application Programming Interfaces of miscellaneous dynamic (scripting) languages with all their specifics. To assert that UAPIDs will always be consistent and to allow 3rd-party developers to contribute their own UAPIDs, I modelled a full-fledged XML Schema that can be used for reference purposes when writing XSL Transformations or converters.
In the near future, I intend to release XSLTs which use publicly available API docs as source and transform them to suitable UAPIDs. Meaning that every user can update his UAPIDs on his own. Another mark in the roadmap will be the creation of an online UAPID repository, where users can "compile" custom UAPID-libraries.
Further details can be found in the repository folder called "UAPID Specification".
Just serving as simple and robust Viewer Application with emphases on typographic pleasure, usability and a few decent but handy extra-features. No blown up memory hug or exposee for what's possible with JavaScript animations. Cause it bases on the latest version of the Adobe AIR-platform, every developer, whether working on a Windows, Mac OS or *nix machine can leverage the conveniences of UAP.
Well, despite XML isn't as compact as JSON, it is literally still the most versatile data basis for my purposes. With the XML Schema for Uniform API Documents I defined a reference structure that serves as basis for any internal XSLT-heavy convertions, while remaining flexible for any further developments (maybe using YUI Doc for generating coherent API references). Althoug the guys around Dojo have created a similar approach with JSON Schema, its implementation isn't as mature and as widely adopted as those of XML Schema yet. Beside that, if anybody wants to have UAPIDs written in the JSONotation, converting them from XML to JSON should be a breeze.
As already stated above, at its sum, it is. Beside that, I have always opened a bunch of tabs with iGoogle, Google Reader and other interesting stuff ... and I dunno why, but their always attracting my attention in a magical way it can't resist. ;-) So having everything at Space 3 (yeah, Hackintosh) calms and keeps my focus where it remains to -- the code.
* XML
* XML Schema
* XSLT 2.0 (using Saxon EE)Tools with a GUI for editing and authoring UAPIDs will follow. Probably something based on XHTML, CSS & JavaScript.
* Adobe AIR 2.0b (using the JS-bridge)
* HTML & CSS
* JavaScript* Testing & finishing the UAPID schema
* Building a workflow for authoring UAPIDocuments
* Developing a prototype of the Viewer Application
* Testing & finishing the Viewer Application