This is a web application that uses kramdown/Ruby to dynamically render documentation formatted in a user-specified flavor of Markdown.

Usage

When focused in the body of the browser, the following keys are bound:

Key	Description
a	Show pages sorted alphabetically
m	Show pages sorted by modified time
/	Move the cursor to the search box

Syntax

The is defined by the KRAMDOWN_PARSER environment varible. If MetadataGFM is used, then the syntax follows GitHub Flavored Markdown, and supports custom titles via Jekyll-style front matter.

Static Generation

./gen_static -f doc -o static_output -h IndexPage -t "Documentation Title"

Installation

gem install kramdown kramdown-parser-gfm kramdown-metadata-parsers rouge rexml

Offline Installation

Download the required gems from a computer with internet access. This command downloads the .gem files in the current directory.

gem fetch kramdown kramdown-metadata-parsers rouge rexml

Copy the .gem files to the computer without internet access and install.

gem install -f --local *.gem

Apache Configuration

Enable Modules

• cgi_module
• expires_module
• rewrite_module

Write configuration

Save this in /etc/httpd/sites or /etc/http/extras and make sure it's included in httpd.conf

<VirtualHost doc.example.com:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName doc.example.com
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/md-site/public"
    ErrorLog "/var/log/doc-example_error_log"

    # Determine this by running:
    #   gem env gemdir
    SetEnv GEM_PATH "/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.5.5"

    # Set to /sub/path if this is a sub app
    SetEnv SITE_PREFIX ""

    # Where the markdown documents live
    SetEnv PAGE_DIR "/var/doc"

    # This will be one of MetadataKramdown, MetadataMarkdown, MetadataGFM, Kramdown, Markdown, or GFM
    # Any of the Metadata* parsers support YAML frontmatter (title)
    # https://jekyllrb.com/docs/frontmatter/
    SetEnv KRAMDOWN_PARSER "MetadataGFM"

    # Whether or not to show exceptions in the browser
    SetEnv SHOW_DEBUG "False"

    # Title of the index and search pages
    SetEnv SITE_TITLE "Example Documentation"

    # Page that will load as the index
    SetEnv HOME_PAGE "IndexPage"
</VirtualHost>

# Can have multiple VirtualHost(s) using the same application
# Customize through SetEnv
<VirtualHost notes.example.com:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName notes.example.com
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/md-site/public"
    ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/notes-example_error_log"
    SetEnv GEM_PATH "/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.5.5"
    SetEnv SITE_PREFIX ""
    SetEnv PAGE_DIR "/var/notes"
    SetEnv KRAMDOWN_PARSER "MetadataGFM"
    SetEnv SHOW_DEBUG "False"
    SetEnv SITE_TITLE "Example Notes"
    SetEnv HOME_PAGE "IndexPage"
</VirtualHost>

<Directory "/Library/WebServer/md-site/public">
    Options +ExecCGI

    # Disallow .htaccess configuration
    AllowOverride None

    ExpiresDefault "now"

    # Only allow users from the localmachine
    Require local
    # This allows everyone
    #Require all granted

    AddHandler cgi-script .rb

    DirectoryIndex index.html index.rb

    RewriteEngine on

    # Debug mod_rewrite
    # LogLevel alert rewrite:trace1

    # FLAGS
    # L  : Last
    # NC : no case (case in-sensitive)
    # B  : Escape non-alphanumeric characters in backreferences before applying the transformation - Keep url encoding
    # PT : Don't run the result through the RewriteRules again

    RewriteRule alpha$ list.rb [L,PT]
    RewriteRule mtime$ list.rb?sort=mtime [L,PT]
    RewriteRule search$ search.rb [L,PT]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^.*\.(jpg|css|js|gif|png)$ [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^gem_test.rb$ [NC]
    RewriteRule ^/$ index.rb?file=HOME_PAGE [B,L,PT]
    RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ index.rb?file=$1 [B,L,PT]
    RewriteRule ^([^\.]+.md)$ index.rb?file=$1 [B,L,PT]
</Directory>