Writing documentation for VirtueMart¶

The documentation for VirtueMart has been written in the DocBook XML format. Docbook is "just" an XML Subset, that means plain text with XML Tags. This format allows a flexible export into various output formats like PDF, RTF, WordXML, HTML and CHM.

How to get it¶

You can download the XML source from SVN. The subdirectory of the trunk is named "documentation". Currently you'll find the User_Manual, Developer_Manual and Installation_Manual.

How to edit¶

To edit these documents, you can use a Text Editor. But MUCH MUCH more comfortably you can work with a WYSIWYG DocBook XML Editor called "XXE": the XMLMind XML Editor http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/.

Creating/Compiling the Documentation¶

From time to time you might want to create Manuals in readable formats. A comfortable command-line tool for this is the "Ede" (http://www.e-novative.info/software/ede.php), which is a collection of all the tools and scripts you need to export HTML, PDF or CHM files.