doc:howto:gettingstarted

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What is needed

Subversion (SVN)

Since the documentation is stored in SVN, you'll need a SVN client. SVN is a common form of version control and every operating system has clients for this. A client does not mean a GUI although some people prefer GUI interfaces. The following list is not exhaustive put should provide an idea for what we're talking about.

Windows

The most common is TortoiseSVN. Here are the steps to checkout the sources of the PHP manual using it:

  • Download and install TortoiseSVN: http://tortoisesvn.net/
  • Open a new explorer window and go to the folder you wish to do the checkout into
  • Right click anywhere in the blank area to spawn the context menu, select “SVN Checkout...”
  • A new window will popup asking for details about the checkout, these values will be remembered, so you will not need to enter them again
  • Enter the following URL: “https://svn.php.net/repository/phpdoc/modules/doc-en/”, then OK to begin the checkout
Mac

The command-line works fine, download/install the sources (or binaries) from http://subversion.tigris.org/

Linux

The command-line works fine, download/install the sources (or binaries) from http://subversion.tigris.org/

The source files

Using SVN, checkout the source files of the PHP manual. These are the files you will edit and commit, and anyone (no account is required) may checkout these files. For example, using the command-line:

That will use svn:externals to checkout both the doc-base and en/ modules, into a local directory named phpdoc. Then, after the above you might:

  • cd phpdoc
  • vim en/preface.xml
  • php doc-base/configure.php

In other words, this will create a directory named 'phpdoc' with a subdirectory 'en' that contains all of the English files. And a 'doc-base' directory with files used to validate/build/help the process. Now, a translator will instead do something like the following (to checkout German):

Note: The above can all be done anonymously, therefore does not require a SVN account. Going through the above process is required before gaining SVN access, as is submitting a few patches to the phpdoc mailing list. After doing so, people realize your're both sane and serious, apply for SVN access and it will granted so you may commit changes to the PHP documentation yourself.

PHP

You'll need a recent version of PHP. Since the build system requires PHP 5.3, you should probably install it. However, building the manual is optional as validation (ensuring XML changes are valid) is a separate process and will work with any version of PHP 5.

PhD

The build system that builds both the downloadable and online versions of the PHP manual. It also builds the PEAR manual, and several other DocBook 5 based documents. Installing PhD is optional, however it's recommended so you may see what your changes will look like.

Note: doc-base/configure.php is not part of phd. configure.php is what turns all the XML files into one monolithic XML files that phd then processes, therefore, running configure.php before each use of phd is required.

A text editor

Any will do, as XML is simply text. Most text editors provide syntax highlighting for XML files.

Note: Please disable the 'remove ending whitespace' future of your text editor.

doc/howto/gettingstarted.1274279037.txt.gz · Last modified: 2017/09/22 13:28 (external edit)