loopbackio / loopbackio/loopback-next

CLI docs: unify reference guides and `lb4 --help`

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CLI Docs feature help wanted
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

At the moment, we have two different content describing CLI commands:

- `lb4 {command} --help` prints content generated by Yeoman based on generator arguments and options
- Hand-written documentation pages in [CLI Reference](https://loopback.io/doc/en/lb4/Command-line-interface.html) section, e.g. [DataSource generator](https://loopback.io/doc/en/lb4/DataSource-generator.html)

It would be great to unify these two kinds of resources into a single source. _(This idea was originally mentioned by @raymondfeng.)_

For example, we can maintain CLI help in Markdown format and use a module like [marked-terminal](https://www.npmjs.com/package/marked-terminal) to allow `lb4 --help` to render the documentation to terminal. (Tangentially related: Get rid of Yeoman #844)

_This story is a part of #5113 Documentation improvements 2020Q3_

## Acceptance criteria

TBD - will be filled by the team.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Compare the CLI Reference pages with the output from `lb4 {command} --help`, starting with the documented DataSource generator and the current help entry points. Define a single Markdown-based source and verify that both the reference guides and terminal help use it; acceptance criteria still need to be established.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
nodejs, typescript
Domain
cli, documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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