Website Commands documentation - Syntax layout

[davesbrown]

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name: Feature request/idea :bomb: about: Suggest a new feature or enhancement

I think the layout of the Syntax parameters list on the website commands documenation might be easier to read and find parameters if it was formatted similar to how MS Docs has their Powershell Cmdlet documentation. Example from SqlServer Module:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/sqlserver/Add-RoleMember?view=sqlserver-ps

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Summary of new feature

• Clear/concise description of what the problem is that the new feature can solve.

Proposed technical details (if applicable)

• e.g. Blog post reference that shows example code or functionality

Latest version of dbatools as of writing

• Please provide the latest released version of dbatools module.

[potatoqualitee]

thank you for the request! I have transferred it to the docs repo and will ask @niphlod to take a look

[wsmelton]

The problem is that the modules from Microsoft have their documentation via the xml formatting. As well there is a whole underlying system behind the docs that Microsoft spent about a year development and building upon. We are simply generating the docs on the fly from the comment-based-help which does not lend well to trying to get pretty with the syntax and format.

The documentation for Microsoft takes the parameters and breaks them out based on the parameter sets as well, a large portion of our commands do not do that anymore (mainly because we don't like the use of it).

[niphlod]

maybe I can add a bit of regex to have the same layout, i.e. function -param1 -param2

etc etc I'll post here a few examples then we can decide

[niphlod]

few examples .... if you have in mind something that has a long/complicated syntax, post away

Copy-DbaDbTableData 
  [[-SqlInstance] <DbaInstanceParameter>] 
  [[-SqlCredential] <PSCredential>] 
  [[-Destination] <DbaInstanceParameter[]>] 
  [[-DestinationSqlCredential] <PSCredential>] 
  [[-Database] <String>] 
  [[-DestinationDatabase] <String>] 
  [[-Table] <String[]>] 
  [[-Query] <String>] 
  [-AutoCreateTable] 
  [[-BatchSize] <Int32>] 
  [[-NotifyAfter] <Int32>] 
  [[-DestinationTable] <String>] 
  [-NoTableLock] 
  [-CheckConstraints] 
  [-FireTriggers] 
  [-KeepIdentity] 
  [-KeepNulls] 
  [-Truncate] 
  [[-bulkCopyTimeOut] <Int32>] 
  [[-InputObject] <Table[]>] 
  [-EnableException] 
  [-WhatIf] 
  [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

and

Backup-DbaDatabase 
  [-SqlCredential <PSCredential>] 
  [-Database <Object[]>] 
  [-ExcludeDatabase <Object[]>] 
  [-BackupDirectory <String[]>] 
  [-BackupFileName <String>] 
  [-ReplaceInName] 
  [-CopyOnly] 
  [-Type <String>] 
  [-CreateFolder] 
  [-FileCount <Int32>] 
  [-CompressBackup] 
  [-Checksum] 
  [-Verify] 
  [-MaxTransferSize <Int32>] 
  [-BlockSize <Int32>] 
  [-BufferCount <Int32>] 
  [-AzureBaseUrl <String>] 
  [-AzureCredential <String>] 
  [-NoRecovery] 
  [-BuildPath] 
  [-WithFormat] 
  [-Initialize] 
  [-SkipTapeHeader] 
  [-TimeStampFormat <String>] 
  [-IgnoreFileChecks] 
  [-OutputScriptOnly] 
  [-EnableException] 
  [-WhatIf] 
  [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

[niphlod]

all on board ? @potatoqualitee , @wsmelton

[potatoqualitee]

thanks niph! ohhh i just realized, i'd respond far faster if we added d ocs to #dbatools-github, will do that