Who this is for. Anyone who will come back to these docs with a question rather than read them in order. After this page you will know where an answer of each kind lives, and the quickest way to it.
Four kinds of page
| Kind | Where | Reach for it when |
|---|---|---|
| Guide page | Developer docs, guides 0 to 12 | You are learning an area and want it in order, each page building on the last |
| How-to | How-to library, by topic | You have one task to do, start to finish |
| Troubleshooting answer | Troubleshooting, by symptom | Something is wrong and you can name what you see |
| Reference | The Reference, generated from the platform, and the API reference | You need an exact name: a model's field, a route, a default template, an endpoint |
The kinds link to each other. A guide page ends with related how-tos and answers; an answer links back to the guide page that explains the cause; the API reference links each endpoint to the guides that use it.
Depth levels
Each guide shows the depth of its pages, from L0 to L3:
- L0, orientation: what the platform is, its words, and one working page end to end. This guide only.
- L1, working: enough to finish a real ticket in one area without help.
- L2, fluent: the conventions, the trade-offs and the ways things fail; enough to review someone else's work.
- L3, deep: the internals, the extension points, and the reasons behind decisions that look arbitrary from outside.
How-to topics
The how-tos are grouped by topic: Getting things on screen, Templates in both engines, Layouts, areas and components, Images, Content modelling, APIs and JavaScript, Jobs and automation, Forms, Performance, deployment and operations and Migration. Browse a topic when you know the area but not the name of the task.
Troubleshooting groups
Answers are grouped by what you see, such as It is not showing up, Errors and blank pages and Templates and engines. Each answer is titled with the symptom, so look for the words you would use to describe the problem.
Searching
The magnifier at the top of every page opens the search page. Search for the thing's own name, a method, a setting or the words of an error message, rather than a question: getLastVcsHash or Template not found make better queries than "why is my CSS old".
Smarty or Twig
There is nothing to filter by engine, because every template example is given in both, behind a switch. Set the switch to your site's engine once; it stays set on every page.
Two worked routes
- "How do I list the pages under this one?" A task, so the How-to library: the topic Getting things on screen has Render a list of child pages under the current page.
- "I changed my template and the page looks the same." A symptom, so Troubleshooting: It is not showing up has My template change is not appearing on the site, and this guide has the checklist behind it, Nothing changed: the four checks.