Question

For Starters, i would like to note, that this is my first post on Stackoverflow. However, during my web development career, i have used this site numerous times. And now i feel i need an assistance beyond just browsing though google.

So my question is does PHP have visual Documentation just like http://visualjquery.com/?

Because if not i was already considering writing it for myself. So does anyone know if it is actually around somewhere on the net?

I am sure writing my own visual PHP will make me know php a great deal better but i would be less eager knowing that the wheel is already invented by someone else?

So if anyone knows please do tell.. Thank you very much.

Answer 1

It looks like you simply want a different interface to the normal documentation.

The online PHP manual, and several others are built using a PHP-based Docbook renderer which could be extended (via additional packages and formats) to provide whatever kind of output you desire: including a fancy Visual Jquery-like one.

---

Alternatively, you could take an existing output format (for example, PhD can render XML/JSON/PHP) and add a simple visual UI on top. For example, the JSON output for the file() function is

{
    "name": "file",
    "purpose": "Reads entire file into an array",
    "manualid": "function.file",
    "version": "PHP 4, PHP 5",
    "params": [
        {
            "name": "filename",
            "type": "string",
            "optional": "false"
        },
        {
            "name": "flags",
            "type": "int",
            "optional": "true"
        },
        {
            "name": "context",
            "type": "resource",
            "optional": "true"
        }
    ],
    "return": {
        "type": "array",
        "description": "Returns the file in an array. Each element of the array corresponds to a\n   line in the file, with the newline still attached. Upon failure,\n   file returns FALSE.Each line in the resulting array will include the line ending, unless\n    FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES is used, so you still need to\n    use rtrim if you do not want the line ending\n    present.If PHP is not properly recognizing\nthe line endings when reading files either on or created by a Macintosh\ncomputer, enabling the\nauto_detect_line_endings\nrun-time configuration option may help resolve the problem."
    },
    "errors": null,
    "notes": [
        {
            "type": "warning",
            "description": "When using SSL, Microsoft IIS\nwill violate the protocol by closing the connection without sending a\nclose_notify indicator. PHP will report this as \"SSL: Fatal\nProtocol Error\" when you reach the end of the data. To work around this, the\nvalue of error_reporting should be\nlowered to a level that does not include warnings.\nPHP 4.3.7 and higher can detect buggy IIS server software when you open\nthe stream using the https:\/\/ wrapper and will suppress the\nwarning. When using fsockopen to create an\nssl:\/\/ socket, the developer is responsible for detecting\nand suppressing this warning."
        }
    ],
    "changelog": [
        {
            "version": "5.0.0",
            "change": "The context parameter was added"
        },
        {
            "version": "5.0.0",
            "change": "Prior to PHP 5.0.0 the flags parameter only\n        covered include_path and was\n        enabled with 1"
        },
        {
            "version": "4.3.0",
            "change": "file became binary safe"
        }
    ],
    "seealso": [
        {
            "type": "function",
            "name": "readfile"
        },
        {
            "type": "function",
            "name": "fopen"
        },
        {
            "type": "function",
            "name": "fsockopen"
        },
        {
            "type": "function",
            "name": "popen"
        },
        {
            "type": "function",
            "name": "file_get_contents"
        },
        {
            "type": "function",
            "name": "include"
        },
        {
            "type": "function",
            "name": "stream_context_create"
        }
    ]
}