Package com.sun.javadoc

The Doclet API (also called the Javadoc API) provides a mechanism for clients to inspect the source-level structure of programs and libraries, including javadoc comments embedded in the source.

See:
Description

Interface Summary

ClassDoc	Represents a java class or interface and provides access to information about the class, the class's comment and tags, and the members of the class.
ConstructorDoc	Represents a constructor of a java class.
Doc	Represents Java language constructs (package, class, constructor, method, field) which have comments and have been processed by this run of javadoc.
DocErrorReporter	This interface provides error, warning and notice printing.
ExecutableMemberDoc	Represents a method or constructor of a java class.
FieldDoc	Represents a field in a java class.
MemberDoc	Represents a member of a java class: field, constructor, or method.
MethodDoc	Represents a method of a java class.
PackageDoc	Represents a java package.
Parameter	Parameter information.
ParamTag	Represents an @param documentation tag.
ProgramElementDoc	Represents a java program element: class, interface, field, constructor, or method.
RootDoc	Represents the root of the program structure information for one run of javadoc.
SeeTag	Represents a user-defined cross-reference to related documentation.
SerialFieldTag	Documents a Serializable field defined by an ObjectStreamField.
SourcePosition	This interface describes a source position: filename, line number, and column number.
Tag	Represents a simple documentation tag, such as @since, @author, @version.
ThrowsTag	Represents a @throws or @exception documentation tag.
Type	Represents a java type.

Class Summary

Doclet

This is an example of a starting class for a doclet, showing the entry-point methods.

Package com.sun.javadoc Description

The Doclet API (also called the Javadoc API) provides a mechanism for clients to inspect the source-level structure of programs and libraries, including javadoc comments embedded in the source. This is useful for documentation, program checking, automatic code generation and many other tools.

Doclets are invoked by javadoc and use this API to write out program information to files. For example, the standard doclet is called by default and writes out documentation to HTML files.

The invocation is defined by the abstract Doclet class -- the entry point is the start method:

    public static boolean start(RootDoc root)

The RootDoc instance holds the root of the program structure information. From this root all other program structure information can be extracted.

Terminology

When calling javadoc, you pass in package names and source file names -- these are called the specified packages and classes. You also pass in Javadoc options; the access control Javadoc options (-public, -protected, -package, and -private) filter program elements, producing a result set, called the included set, or "documented" set. (The unfiltered set is also available through allClasses(false).)

Throughout this API, the term class is normally a shorthand for "class or interface", as in: ClassDoc, allClasses(), and findClass(String). In only a couple of other places, it means "class, as opposed to interface", as in: isClass(). In the second sense, this API calls out three kinds of classes: ordinary classes, errors and exceptions). Throughout the API, the detailed description of each program element describes explicitly which meaning is being used.

A qualified class or interface name is one that has its package name prepended to it, such as java.lang.String. A non-qualified name has no package name, such as String.

Example

The following is an example doclet that displays information in the @param tags of the processed classes:

import com.sun.javadoc.*;

public class ListParams extends Doclet {

    public static boolean start(RootDoc root) {
        ClassDoc[] classes = root.classes();
        for (int i = 0; i < classes.length; ++i) {
            ClassDoc cd = classes[i];
            printMembers(cd.constructors());
            printMembers(cd.methods());
        }
        return true;
    }

    static void printMembers(ExecutableMemberDoc[] mems) {
        for (int i = 0; i < mems.length; ++i) {
            ParamTag[] params = mems[i].paramTags();
            System.out.println(mems[i].qualifiedName());
            for (int j = 0; j < params.length; ++j) {
                System.out.println("   " + params[j].parameterName()
                    + " - " + params[j].parameterComment());
            }
        }
    }        
}

Interfaces and methods from the Javadoc API are marked in red. Doclet is an abstract class that specifies the invocation interface for doclets, Doclet holds class or interface information, ExecutableMemberDoc is a superinterface of MethodDoc and ConstructorDoc, and ParamTag holds information from "@param" tags.

This doclet when invoked with a command line like:

    javadoc -doclet ListParams -sourcepath <source-location> java.util

producing output like:

    ...
    java.util.ArrayList.add
       index - index at which the specified element is to be inserted.
       element - element to be inserted.
    java.util.ArrayList.remove
       index - the index of the element to removed.
    ...

See Also:

Doclet, RootDoc