= How to contribute to the reference

The Spring Framework reference now uses http://asciidoctor.org/[asciidoctor]. This document describes how to contribute documentation updates to the Spring Framework reference.

== Building with Gradle

You can build the documentation using gradle using the `asciidoc` task. For example, from the project root execute the following command:

  gradlew asciidoc

the output will be available at `spring-framework/build/asciidoc/index.html`

== Live editing

One of the nice features about using asciidoctor is the support for live editing.

You will find a Guardfile already present at `spring-framework/src/asciidoc/Guardfile`. Then ensure to follow the setup instructions within the http://asciidoctor.org/docs/editing-asciidoc-with-live-preview/[Editing AsciiDoc with Live Preview] document.

When running `guard start` within the `src/asciidoc/` folder, any changes to the `src/asciidoc/index.adoc` file will automatically be written at `src/asciidoc/build/index.html`.

== Documentation notes

Some notes on documentation

* It is important to keep whitespaces to a minimum to make it simple to edit files. This means use an editor with line wrapping rather than manually inserting hard returns.
* http://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoc-syntax-quick-reference/[Asciidoctor Quick Reference]
* http://asciidoctor.org/docs/user-manual/[Asciidoctor Manual]
* http://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoc-writers-guide/[Asciidoctor Writers Guide]
