There's no link to any documentation on the module page.

We need some sort of documentation apart desperately googling for examples
Thanks

You can find API documentation for devel module - http://www.drupalcontrib.org/api/drupal/contributions%21devel%21devel.mo...

I'd love to at least start some basic documentation(for this, and for other contribs I may be working with from time to time), I'm pretty sure the community could build off of it, if it existed.

The offsite documentation at the link in the project notes links to a related demo module that was last updated in 2014. https://www.drupal.org/project/devel_demo , does that mean that the external documentation is 4 years old, as well?

How can new Drupal developers ever learn if the documentation is spread across the web and hidden in issue queues?

Ok, I'll give this a go. Get us started.

It's just the start of a framework of a guide, but the link is here: https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/modules/basic-devel-documentation

I also added a little note on this page: https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/documenting-your-project/module-docu... explaining how anyone can create a guide for a module, even if they aren't the maintainer.

Thank you, Stacie_A, this is a very worthwhile effort! Fantastic job!

Some kind soul has aliased your link to https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/modules/devel, which is certainly nicer.

Unfortunately, there seem to be downsides to adding documentation as non-maintainer:

• Your page does not appear in the Documentation Guide autocomplete field; I was only able to add it as "external documentation", and the front page still says "No documentation guides".
• Your help pages are now under D7, and there's nothing under D8.

I could click on either of the links in "Create a new Drupal 7 or Drupal 8 guide", but I'm not sure what this would do to your pages, because your entry page is at docs/7/modules/devel. I certainly don't want to risk losing any of your work!

Does anyone know how (or can anyone help) to get this arranged properly? The goal would be to share as much as we can between D7 and D8.

#9 Thanks!

Good questions about the state of unofficial documentation being 'adopted' by official maintainers. I'll see if I can find some answers.

Personally, I'm curious about the search function ranking the subpages higher than the Devel doc start page, due to the frequency of the use of 'Devel' being higher on some sub pages than others. I feel like the main Devel doc should be weighted higher for search results, or that the results should be grouped per project doc.

Some kind soul has aliased your link to https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/modules/devel, which is certainly nicer.

Paths for documentation are now automatic, based on the page titles.

Does anyone know how (or can anyone help) to get this arranged properly? The goal would be to share as much as we can between D7 and D8.

The D7 guide looks like it is linked up well now.

I don't see a D8 devel guide at https://www.drupal.org/docs/8/modules/, so you can create one. This will not affect existing pages (but will be duplicitous if you made a second D7 guide).

Creating the guide via the project edit page, or by adding the guide from the contributed modules page, do mostly the same thing. Both ways you get a new guide that you are the maintainer of, and can add more maintainers to. Creating via the project page will get the link on the project page from the start, but it can always be added or updated by a project maintainer later.

I'm curious about the search function ranking the subpages higher than the Devel doc start page, due to the frequency of the use of 'Devel' being higher on some sub pages than others.

There isn’t any special ranking in place for this field, it is basic entityreference_autocomplete. It does need some improvement, like #2796595: Show parent guide in autocomplete 'Related content' field. You can get around problems by entering the node ID in the format it expects, like … (nid).

The D7 guide looks like it is linked up well now.

Thank you, drumm!

As for sharing doc pages between D7 and D8, it seems that we need at least a separate entry page under docs/8/modules/ in order to get a "Devel 8.x" link onto the Devel front page (and on docs/8/modules).

We don’t have shared pages between the D7 and D8 pages. They of course can link to each other, and use the related content field. I believe part of the separation’s goal was to avoid documentation that had been updated piecemeal—how something worked in D6, except for these 2 new things in D7, and these 5 new things in D8. Each version’s documentation should be concise for people using that version.

There is another “Develop” top-level guide that isn’t version-specific, which devel might fit nicely into, since it isn’t an average contrib module: https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/development-tools

@salvis If you create the base Drupal8 doc page, I can copy the basic format over and start adding the Drupal8 info as well.

@drumm That's a great idea.

I do think we should include Devel in the list of dev tools, perhaps just a paragraph intro near the Drush and Drupal Console on the tools overview page with links to project page and the the Devel docs for 7 and 8

Do you want me to add a paragraph to the tools page or would you rather do it, @salvis ?

@salvis If you create the base Drupal8 doc page, I can copy the basic format over and start adding the Drupal8 info as well.

I'm a bit confused about the process, but I hope I got it right now. IAC, I see a "Devel 8.x" documentation link on the front page, going to a placeholder doc page. It said something about the module maintainers having to review the page before it would become visible, but I don't see any review mechanism...

I'd be happy for you to write the paragraph on the tools page -- you're doing a fantastic job. Thanks again so much!

@salvis I see the link, great! I'm on it!

@salvis

I added info to the Development tools page. Then I realized that the project page doesn't have a clear big picture explaination of what the module does.

The Devel project page currently explain that Devel is "A suite of modules containing fun for module developers and themers ..."

My text for the dev tools page reads:
Devel is a suite of modules that provides helper functions, admin pages, and additional development Drush commands to use during development (never to be enabled on production sites).

On your development site you can use Devel to generate dummy(example) content, examine service containers, routes, and events.

Inside your php code Devel adds new php functions to output variety of messages, directly on the page in question. Use these messages to help debug your code.

From the command line Devel gives you new drush commands that can do many of the above actions, and also some reference commands so you can view hook implementations or refer to a function to learn how it works.

For more information on what the module includes or how to use the features, please refer to the project documentation.

Devel Documentation for Drupal 7
Devel Documentation for Drupal 8

Perhaps some of that may be useful to put on the project page too?

@Stacie_A:

Yes, it's true that the front page could use some love. OTOH, it's difficult to single out some features. To me personally, dpm(), error logging with backtrace, and Switch User are by far the most important features, but I know it's different for others, depending on the work you do.

I figure, Moshe's intention was to pique the readers' interest and let them find their gems on their own. Mentioning the submodules by name makes sense to a) show the breadth of the Devel package, and b) to reassure the reader that they're in the right place, when someone tells them to look for, say, devel_generate.

(never to be enabled on production sites)

I used to say this myself — while secretly running Devel on my production sites. :-)
Our intention is to keep Devel safe for production sites, as long as you know what you're doing. That's our official position.

The dev tools page, specifically, does seem to be aimed more towards devs who may be just getting started, but we can remove the warning if you like. I tried to keep the text more general and conversational like several other entries on that page, having the warning there may make be too much for the intended audience anyway.

dpm() is an amazing help, and I know I, personally, haven't used all the goodies in Devel, it's an ongoing exploratory process.

There are so many parts of Drupal to dig into, and so many modules. If my team lead, @nmillin, hadn't shown me some of the great features of this module in the first place I never would have known to 'dig in'. That's one reason I made the above doc pages, I couldn't find any collection of information on this really awesome module that everyone kept saying I needed.

Personally, I'm glad it's safe for production use(and I did see that stated in the README). The Acquia Insight tool suggests disabling Devel on production sites for performance reasons under the Best Practices section.