- 0.6.6
- 0.8.0
- latest_stable
- Documentation version: 0.8.2
Documentation System¶

Describes the OpenRAVE documentation system and all necessary function calls for generating and maintaining the documents. Meant for developers.
Because documentation is uploaded to `http://www.openrave.org/docs/`_ , its HTML/CSS is managed by openrave.org system.
Installation¶
apt-get remove python-sphinx
apt-get install python-pygments python-setuptools python-lxml python-matplotlib dvipng dia-common python-svn
pip install --upgrade docutils sphinx sphinx-gettext-helper
doxygen version 1.8.2 or later is required.
breathe is used for converting doxygen to python comments so that python users can be internal help for the C++ bindings. The breathe sources are in docs/breathe.
If using latex, install:
apt-get install dot2tex texlive-base texlive-latex-base texlive-pictures texlive-fonts-recommended
For japanese fonts install:
apt-get install latex-cjk-japanese
Getting Started¶
OpenRAVE uses:
- doxygen for the core system and c++ documentation
- reStructuredText for all other documentation.
Go into docs directory and execute following script to generate all documentation for all the English language:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8 make html_en
If c++ header files documentation changed, then have to call with a rebuild to openravepy docs:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8 make openravepy_changed build/en/coreapixml/index.xml
LANG=ja_JP.UTF-8 make openravepy_changed build/ja/coreapixml/index.xml
make openravepy_internal_doc
Create the packages to be sent to the doc server:
cd docs
LANG=en_US.UTF-8 make openravejsonzip
Most build files are stored in the docs/build directory. All images are saved into docs/images, including automatically generated ones.
Because generation can take a long time, developers should execute the individual commands pertaining to the part of the system they are maintaining. The commands are given in the following sections.
Python (reStructuredText)¶
Compiling the python documentation is divided into several steps.
# Take in the doxygen comments from the C++ API and creates python/bindings/docstrings.cpp, which is then compiled into the openravepy_int module.
# Generate rst files from all the openravepy modules using sphinx-autopackage-script/generate_modules.py.
# Generate rst files from the interfaces documentation and testing results.
# Compile with sphinx-build
In order to generate files managed by openrave.org, it has to be called with:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8 make json_en
Because the documentation for openravepy is built from the install directory, whenever a change to the openravepy documentation made openrave has to be reinstalled with make install.
C++ Core Documentation (doxygen)¶
Compiling HTML and Latex:
cd docs
LANG=en_US.UTF-8 make doxygenhtml_installed_en
firefox build/en/coreapihtml/index.html
evince build/en/coreapilatex/refman.pdf
The script internally makes these calls:
cd docs
doxygen build/Doxyfile.html.en
doxygen build/Doxyfile.latex.en
The build/Doxyfile.html.en file is generated from Doxyfile.html and Doxyfile.en. The separation is necessary in order to provide better localization support for multiple languages.
The mainpage and bulk of the documentation is in docs/mainpage.dox. Installation instructions are in docs/install.dox.
Use the en, ja, ~ tags to switch between language modes.
To reference image in docs/images/tutorial0_myimage.png, write:
\image html tutorial0_myimage.png
\image latex tutorial0_myimage.png "My Caption" width=15cm
Interfaces¶
To build the webpage of interface descriptions, run
LANG=en_US.UTF-8 make source/interface_types
This outputs a set of reStructuredText files, which can be used by sphinx to build up the page.
Robots Database¶
Generate a set of webpages for each robot using the statistics file output from test/test_ikfast.py.
An image of all the robots in openrave can be extracted using the build_ikdatabase.py script:
cd docs
LANG=en_US.UTF-8 make ikfaststats=ikfaststats.pp ikfast
Internationalization¶
Use gettext internationalization to store separate translation files for each language Sphinx Internationalization, Japanese Tutorial.
The translation PO files are stored in `https://openrave.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/openrave/trunk/docs/locale`_. Anyone is welcome to send diff files of translations.
In order to test how the translation looks for the Japanese language, execute
LANG=ja_JP.UTF-8 make html_ja
Note that both LANG and language have to be set.
Questions/Feedback
Having problems with OpenRAVE?
- Search for information in the archives of the openrave-users mailing list, or post a question.
- If you notice errors , please open a ticket and let us know!