Java documentation can be generated using javadoc tool. It currently generates documentation in html 4.0 format. In java 9, we can generate documentation in html 5 format by using -html5 option in command line arguments.
Old style java documentation
Consider the following code in C:/JAVA folder.
Tester.java
/**
* @author Elavarasan
* @version 0.1
*/
public class Tester {
/**
* Default method to be run to print
* <p>Hello world</p>
* @param args command line arguments
*/
public static void main(String []args) {
System.out.println("Hello World");
}
}
Now run the javadoc tool of jdk 7 to generate documentation.
C:\JAVA>javadoc -d C:/JAVA Tester.java
Loading source file tester.java...
Constructing Javadoc information...
Standard Doclet version 1.7.0_21
Building tree for all the packages and classes...
Generating C:\JAVA\Tester.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\package-frame.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\package-summary.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\package-tree.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\constant-values.html...
Building index for all the packages and classes...
Generating C:\JAVA\overview-tree.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\index-all.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\deprecated-list.html...
Building index for all classes...
Generating C:\JAVA\allclasses-frame.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\allclasses-noframe.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\index.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\help-doc.html...
It will create the java documentation page in C:/JAVA directory and you will see the following output.
New java documentation with Search and HTML5 support
Run the javadoc tool of jdk 9 with -html5 flag to generate new type of documentation.
C:\JAVA> javadoc -d C:/JAVA -html5 Tester.java
Loading source file Tester.java...
Constructing Javadoc information...
Standard Doclet version 9.0.1
Building tree for all the packages and classes...
Generating C:\JAVA\Tester.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\package-frame.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\package-summary.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\package-tree.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\constant-values.html...
Building index for all the packages and classes...
Generating C:\JAVA\overview-tree.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\index-all.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\deprecated-list.html...
Building index for all classes...
Generating C:\JAVA\allclasses-frame.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\allclasses-frame.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\allclasses-noframe.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\allclasses-noframe.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\index.html...
Generating C:\JAVA\help-doc.html...
It will create the updated java documentation page in D:/test directory and you will see the following output.