48 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
48 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
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# For Developers
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While `mdbook` is mainly used as a command line tool, you can also import the
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underlying library directly and use that to manage a book. It also has a fairly
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flexible plugin mechanism, allowing you to create your own custom tooling and
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consumers (often referred to as *backends*) if you need to do some analysis of
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the book or render it in a different format.
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The *For Developers* chapters are here to show you the more advanced usage of
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`mdbook`.
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The two main ways a developer can hook into the book's build process is via,
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- [Preprocessors](preprocessors.md)
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- [Alternative Backends](backends.md)
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## The Build Process
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The process of rendering a book project goes through several steps.
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1. Load the book
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- Parse the `book.toml`, falling back to the default `Config` if it doesn't
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exist
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- Load the book chapters into memory
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- Discover which preprocessors/backends should be used
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2. For each backend:
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1. Run all the preprocessors.
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2. Call the backend to render the processed result.
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## Using `mdbook` as a Library
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The `mdbook` binary is just a wrapper around the `mdbook` crate, exposing its
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functionality as a command-line program. As such it is quite easy to create your
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own programs which use `mdbook` internally, adding your own functionality (e.g.
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a custom preprocessor) or tweaking the build process.
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The easiest way to find out how to use the `mdbook` crate is by looking at the
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[API Docs]. The top level documentation explains how one would use the
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[`MDBook`] type to load and build a book, while the [config] module gives a good
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explanation on the configuration system.
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[`MDBook`]: https://docs.rs/mdbook/*/mdbook/book/struct.MDBook.html
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[API Docs]: https://docs.rs/mdbook/*/mdbook/
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[config]: https://docs.rs/mdbook/*/mdbook/config/index.html
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