Getting started and other documentation issues

[djensen47]

I'm going through the "Getting Started" section of the documentation and all it really does is configure my build.gradle. https://ebean.io/docs/getting-started/gradle

Typically a Getting Started either does a very short tutorial or it links to a tutorial.

I'm banging my head on the table just trying to figure out:

• What is ebean.mf for?
• Where do I define my DB conenction(s)?

Maybe the issue is just the layout of the website? When I click a link on https://ebean.io/docs/ it sometimes takes me to a page with more subpages, sometimes not. There doesn't appear to be a master table of contents. Furthermore, as I navigate through the docs, sometimes the right sidebar links change without warning; introducing even more pages or removing some.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[rbygrave]

This is great feedback ... I encourage you and any others to keep this type of feedback coming.

"Getting Started" section of the documentation and all it really does is configure my build.gradle.

Right, got it.

Too subtle but at the bottom of that page is a "Next: Ebean test" button ... the bottom of that page is a "Next: Introduction" button which takes us to the introduction which is like a tutorial.

I'm banging my head on the table just trying to figure out:

The site has decent search. For example, type s ... puts focus on the search. Enter ebean.mf ... and that will lead us to https://ebean.io/docs/introduction/manifest

What is ebean.mf for?

Have a look at: https://ebean.io/docs/introduction/manifest ... and let me know how that goes.

Where do I define my DB conenction(s)?

In terms of getting started with testing ... go through the testing setup at: https://ebean.io/docs/getting-started/ebean-test ...

When we use the ebean test like that it automatically sets up testing db connections, docker containers and manages the DDL generation that we want. I need to explain more about setup for "main" etc.

I'll come back to this later ... and add more back here.

[djensen47]

Re: Getting Started

In terms of a tutorial, what I was looking for is more like this article:

https://www.baeldung.com/ebean-orm

When we use the ebean test like that it automatically sets up testing db connections, docker containers and manages the DDL generation that we want. I need to explain more about setup for "main" etc.

Except, that's not really what I need. Especially if I already have a dev or production database, I need to know how to hook up what I already have. Again, the Baeldung article does a great job of a quick run through, end to end, and all on one page. After I read through that I was better able to use the EBean docs.

---

P.S. thanks for getting back to me on this!

[djensen47]

Re: configuration

I think there should be a section in the docs called "Configuring Ebean" that goes over all the details of configuration. For instance, these questions should be answered in the docs:

How to configure using:

• config files
• environment variables
• code

The Bealdung article covers two of those.

Also, if there is "magic" happening, please explain the magic that's going on so that it's not actually magic. ;-)

[djensen47]

Re: Intro vs. Introduction

You have two intro sections, one of them cannot be navigated to using clicks:

Linked from the home page:
https://ebean.io/docs/intro/

Not linked from the home page, as far as I can tell
https://ebean.io/docs/introduction/

[rbygrave]

Hi, I've updated a lot of the documentation and I think improved the flow.

intro and introduction

introduction was the older introduction and has now been completely removed. I think I've also improved the flow.

section in the docs called "Configuring Ebean"

Ah, actually we still don't have that really.

https://www.baeldung.com/ebean-orm

Yes, that is a nice short tutorial. Our getting started + intro is longer. Hmmm.

What is ebean.mf for?

With version 12.1.8 we now get the query bean generator to generate another META-INF/ebean-generated-info.mf file ... and now no longer need developers to think about ebean.mf. Needs some good documentation somewhere to describe how that works etc - we don't have that yet.

Work in progress but getting there. I won't work on the docs for a week now but will come back to it.

Cheers, Rob.