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My company has developed several projects. With time, we have found that certain functionalities were implemented more than once in more than one project.

Now we're aiming at extracting the common code into reusable components.

However, we need a tool to work as a cataloge for all reusable components, so that whenever a developer needs to search if a functionality was already implemented into a component, he can search this "reusable components" tool and if found, he can read a quick description of what this component does.

My question is: Are there any free tools out there we can use to document our reusable components?

Thanks...

SaryAssad
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  • You should use Github. It's awesome for things like code. – Jessedc Oct 01 '12 at 12:52
  • If you are in a .net environment, you can set up a custom NuGet repository for all your reusable components. http://docs.nuget.org/docs/creating-packages/hosting-your-own-nuget-feeds – Steve Czetty Oct 02 '12 at 15:48

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Yes, there are free tools out there, such as doxygen and Javadoc, which can be used to help in documenting your code and components.

All such tools, though, require assistance from programmers; both the tools I've mentioned require adherence to some discipline in making comments in the code in particular formats. Automatic generation of useful documentation from code which has not been specially annotated is, I confidently assert, well beyond the capabilities of any available (free or costly) documentation tool.

If you edit your question with details of the programming languages and other tools you use you may get more useful answers than this one.

albert
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High Performance Mark
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  • I don't want to document my code. I want to document my components. I want a cataloge style tool that would show the "name" of my component and its "description" (what it does). This tool should not care what programming language I'm using. @Jessedc – SaryAssad Oct 01 '12 at 13:39
  • Well, if you study a bit more, you'll find that Doxygen can be used for all sorts of documentation besides 'automatic' documentation of marked-up source code. But perhaps you don't need anything more than a word processor or even a wiki ? – High Performance Mark Oct 01 '12 at 13:45
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I think you are looking for a wiki.

For example, take a look at DokuWiki. It's free software. It only needs a server with PHP (no database).

Each snippet/component can be on its own page (markup for code with syntax highlighting available). And you can link all pages. So you'll organize a structure that suits your needs by linking pages.

All users can edit (if you want to allow that) the pages. And you can restrict the access to the wiki (so only your employees can read/edit the wiki).

There are many other wiki softwares, of course.

unor
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  • Thank you. It seems that what I actually need is simply a wiki or a knowledge base. So far the difference that I know between them is that knowledge bases grant "editing" privilege only to their admin and staff responsible for them. Normal readers can't edit them. Wikis allow anyone to edit. So knowledge bases are more official. However, in an internal environment (like in my company), I think it would be safe to just use a wiki. – SaryAssad Oct 06 '12 at 11:53