{"id":4491,"date":"2013-12-04T17:19:12","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T11:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fusioncharts.com\/?p=4491"},"modified":"2026-01-20T14:42:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T09:12:28","slug":"jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing a JavaScript Documentation Generator: JSDoc vs Others 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"We recently had to select a JavaScript document generator tool to document the APIs of various FusionCharts products. API documentation differs from routine documentation in that it is generated directly from the source code by reading the comments that are written in the source code.\r\n\r\nOur requirement was simple: the tool should assist us in writing long-lasting code and be a valuable resource in the long run. Throughout the process, we evaluated various document generators to determine which one best suited our needs. We chose <a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/jsdoc3\/jsdoc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">JSDoc<\/span><\/a> after thoroughly researching tools such as<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/jashkenas.github.io\/docco\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Docco<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">,\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/FGRibreau\/doxx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Doxx<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, and\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/yui.github.io\/yuidoc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">YUIDoc<\/span><\/a>.\r\n\r\nIn this article, we&#8217;ll discuss why we chose JSDoc over other available utilities and how JSDoc can be a useful tool for JavaScript developers. You may use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/javascript-charting-comparison\/\">Data Visualization Tool<\/a> to compare JavaScript charting libraries and showcase all possible pros and cons of the JavaScript libraries for creating charts, which will help you choose the best charting library for your data visualization.\r\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_71 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\"><p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<\/div><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#Our_Evaluation_Criteria\" title=\"Our Evaluation Criteria\">Our Evaluation Criteria<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#How_We_Conducted_the_Evaluation\" title=\"How We Conducted the Evaluation\">How We Conducted the Evaluation<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#What_We_Evaluated\" title=\"What We Evaluated\">What We Evaluated<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#Support_for_the_Structured_Syntax\" title=\"Support for the Structured Syntax\">Support for the Structured Syntax<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#Comparison\" title=\"Comparison\">Comparison<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#Collaboration\" title=\"Collaboration\">Collaboration<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#Visual_Appeal\" title=\"Visual Appeal\">Visual Appeal<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#Customizing_the_Output_Design\" title=\"Customizing the Output Design\">Customizing the Output Design<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#The_Search_Feature_for_the_Generated_Documentation\" title=\"The Search Feature for the Generated Documentation\">The Search Feature for the Generated Documentation<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#Adding_Additional_Documentation_to_the_API_Docs\" title=\"Adding Additional Documentation to the API Docs\">Adding Additional Documentation to the API Docs<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#SEO-Friendly_Output\" title=\"SEO-Friendly Output\">SEO-Friendly Output<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#External_Dependencies\" title=\"External Dependencies\">External Dependencies<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-13\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#Extensibility\" title=\"Extensibility\">Extensibility<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-14\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#Parsing_the_Source_Code\" title=\"Parsing the Source Code\">Parsing the Source Code<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-15\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#The_Final_Call\" title=\"The Final Call\">The Final Call<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-16\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fusioncharts.com\/blog\/jsdoc-vs-yuidoc-vs-doxx-vs-docco-choosing-a-javascript-documentation-generator\/#Visual_Comparison\" title=\"Visual Comparison\">Visual Comparison<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Our_Evaluation_Criteria\"><\/span>Our Evaluation Criteria<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\r\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The factors we considered in our evaluation were quite rigorous. We needed to ensure that the tool we chose would perform well in the long run and generate helpful API docs for the end-user. These were the questions we had in mind when evaluating the candidates:<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Does the tool support structured syntax, like Javadoc or PHPDoc syntax?<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Can we add additional documentation to the API docs, like tutorials, README?<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Can we customize the appearance of the output?<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Is there any search feature in the output?<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Is the output HTML SEO-friendly?<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Does it require external dependencies?<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Does it parse the entire source code or just the comment blocks?<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<!--more-->\r\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_We_Conducted_the_Evaluation\"><\/span>How We Conducted the Evaluation<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\r\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">We wrote a small\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/static.fusioncharts.com\/samples\/articles\/js-documentation-generators\/source.js\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">JavaScript file<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, a Directed Graph data structure, and prepared it for documentation with each tool &#8212; for\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/static.fusioncharts.com\/samples\/articles\/js-documentation-generators\/jsdoc\/source-jsdoc.js\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">JSDoc<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">,\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/static.fusioncharts.com\/samples\/articles\/js-documentation-generators\/docco\/source-docco.js\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Docco<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">,\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Doxx<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, and\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/static.fusioncharts.com\/samples\/articles\/js-documentation-generators\/yuidoc\/source-yuidoc.js\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">YUIDoc<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. Next, we ran each tool on its respective source and produced output for each tool. For JSDoc, we used the inbuilt JSDoc template and\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/static.fusioncharts.com\/samples\/articles\/js-documentation-generators\/docco\/source-docco.js\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Docstrap<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, a Twitter Bootstrap-based template for JSDoc. For Doxx, Docco, and YuiDoc, we used the inbuilt templates.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">We measured the time each tool took to run each tool using the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Time_%28Unix%29\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">time<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0command from the commandline. The testing was done on a MacBook Pro with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB DDR3 RAM, running OS X version 10.9.<\/span>\r\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_We_Evaluated\"><\/span>What We Evaluated<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Support_for_the_Structured_Syntax\"><\/span>Support for the Structured Syntax<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\nWhile writing documentation in comment blocks, it is necessary to write it in a specific format. Doing so enforces a pattern of writing comments. Javadoc and PHPDoc syntaxes have been long-used and have gained many users because of the easy-to-maintain structure. For example, its parameters and return values are neatly documented using specific tags in the comment for each function.\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Comparison\"><\/span>Comparison<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\nAn example of this type of syntax is:\r\n<pre class=\"lang:js decode:true\">\/**\r\n * Takes a number and returns its square value\r\n *\r\n * @param {number} num - The number for squaring\r\n * @return {number}\r\n *\/\r\nvar square = function (num) {\r\n    return num * num;\r\n}<\/pre>\r\nThis is where we found Docco to be severely lacking. Docco is built from the ground up for good-looking documentation &#8211; easy and fast. It will parse any comment line beginning with double slashes and place it alongside the actual source code in the output.\r\n\r\nThe equivalent of the code above for Docco will be:\r\n<pre class=\"lang:js decode:true\">\/\/ Takes a number and returns its square value\r\nvar square = function (num) {\r\n    return num * num;\r\n}<\/pre>\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Collaboration\"><\/span>Collaboration<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\nHowever, as more and more contributors start working on the same code, each coder will tend to write the function or class descriptions differently in the comment, depending on each person\u2019s choice and style. This brings wide disparity in how the code is documented. As a side effect, the code cannot be appropriately parsed through a structured document generator when the project grows.\r\n\r\nSpecifying function or method parameters, return values, description, and examples in a specified style in the comment makes it easier for anyone looking at the code to understand what the function does without reading the code block. This is particularly useful for long-running projects where team members can keep changing. Newcomers can quickly adapt to an existing structure and understand how the pre-existing code works.\r\n\r\nInterestingly, YUIDoc requires the names of functions\/methods\/properties to be explicitly written in the comment. This is because YUIDoc reads through the comment blocks only, ignoring whatever is outside those blocks.\r\n\r\nThe same function would be written like this for YUIDoc:\r\n<pre class=\"lang:js decode:true\">\/**\r\n * Takes a number and returns its square value\r\n *\r\n * @class square\r\n * @param {number} num - The number for squaring\r\n * @return {number}\r\n *\/\r\nvar square = function (num) {\r\n    return num * num;\r\n}<\/pre>\r\nNotice the addition of the @class tag. YUIDoc scans this tag to get the name of the function. It is slightly odd to document standalone functions as @class. There is already a <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/yui\/yuidoc\/issues\/25\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">feature request<\/a> made in YUIDoc to implement the @function tag for standalone functions like this.\r\n\r\nThe only downside of enforcing a structured syntax is that it brings in a steeper learning curve. Docco can be used by any new developer easily, without making any effort to learn a new syntax. JSDoc and YUIDoc require developers to read and understand the syntax of structured commenting before they can use it. This implies learning the tags, their arguments, and styles and gradually getting used to the style of writing comments in code.\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Visual_Appeal\"><\/span>Visual Appeal<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\nYUIDoc excels in the accessibility of the stock themes that it provides. The output is readable, searchable, and is user-friendly, even for non-technical users. JSDoc, on the other hand, provides nothing more than an output of all the API objects in a linear way. This makes it harder for non-technical users to find information and make full use of the output.\r\n\r\nBeing bundled with Twitter Bootstrap, the output of Doxx looks very neat and well organized. They have also done an excellent job with the sidebar, which highlights the section you are in as you scroll down the page.\r\n\r\nDocco does a decent job in theming and produces a neat output.\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Customizing_the_Output_Design\"><\/span>Customizing the Output Design<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Everyone loves good designs, and it is essential that the generated documentation looks clean and is accessible.\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/static.fusioncharts.com\/samples\/articles\/js-documentation-generators\/doxx\/docs\/source-doxx.js.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Doxx<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">,\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/static.fusioncharts.com\/samples\/articles\/js-documentation-generators\/docco\/docs\/source-docco.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Docco<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, and\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/static.fusioncharts.com\/samples\/articles\/js-documentation-generators\/yuidoc\/docs\/classes\/Graph.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">YUIDoc<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0have an edge here for producing neat outputs that look beautiful out of the box. But what if we want to brand the API output or change the design to our liking?<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">By default,\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/static.fusioncharts.com\/samples\/articles\/js-documentation-generators\/jsdoc\/docs\/Graph.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">JSDoc\u2019s output<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0is not pretty, even if it produces scores of helpful information. JSDoc bypasses this limitation by allowing adding a custom CSS file to the generated output to tweak the way it would look. In the hands of an able programmer, this can work wonders. This approach also allows the creation of reusable themes that you can plug into any JSDoc-dependent project. An example of this is the Docstrap template, which gives a Bootstrap-loaded theme package for JSDoc. We gave\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/static.fusioncharts.com\/samples\/articles\/js-documentation-generators\/jsdoc\/docs-docstrap\/Graph.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Docstrap a try<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0and found it to be good enough to make JSDoc output better. There is still a good scope of improvement.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-4491 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-yuidoc.png'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"68\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-yuidoc-150x68.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Output of Yuidoc\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-4794\" srcset=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-yuidoc-150x68.png 150w, \/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-yuidoc.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-4794'>\n\t\t\t\tYUIDoc\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-doxx.png'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-doxx-150x84.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Output of Doxx\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-4490\" srcset=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-doxx-150x84.png 150w, \/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-doxx.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-4490'>\n\t\t\t\tDoxx\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-docco.png'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"109\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-docco-150x109.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Output of Docco\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-4489\" srcset=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-docco-150x109.png 150w, \/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-docco.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-4489'>\n\t\t\t\tDocco\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-jsdoc.png'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"80\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-jsdoc-150x80.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Output of JSDoc\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-4486\" srcset=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-jsdoc-150x80.png 150w, \/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-jsdoc.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-4486'>\n\t\t\t\tJSDoc\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-jsdoc-docstrap.png'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"89\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-jsdoc-docstrap-150x89.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Output of JSDoc with Docstrap\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-4487\" srcset=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-jsdoc-docstrap-150x89.png 150w, \/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/output-jsdoc-docstrap.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-4487'>\n\t\t\t\tDocstrap\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Search_Feature_for_the_Generated_Documentation\"><\/span>The Search Feature for the Generated Documentation<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\nAmong the tools we evaluated, only YUIDoc provides a nifty search feature out of the box that helps users search through the documentation. This is useful in finding any variable, method, or class from anywhere in the documentation. It increases the accessibility and discoverability of the API by a good margin. Others do not provide a search feature, at least with the default template. It is possible to add a search option by customizing the themes for any of these tools.\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Adding_Additional_Documentation_to_the_API_Docs\"><\/span>Adding Additional Documentation to the API Docs<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\nTools like <a href=\"https:\/\/sphinx-doc.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sphinx for Python<\/a>, which are not JavaScript-based, allow adding additional documents to the generated API docs. In Sphinx, additional files can be included along with the source code. With this feature, you can enhance routine API documentation by adding extended descriptions, examples, and use cases to the documentation output. We looked for its JavaScript equivalent and found JSDoc provides this feature. Extra documentation pages can be written in Markdown syntax and linked from the comments through the @tutorial tag. This produces interlinked tutorials for a specific method and is very handy when explaining something complex to the end-user.\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"SEO-Friendly_Output\"><\/span>SEO-Friendly Output<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\nThe primary purpose of generating API docs is to let the world know how your code works and how they can interact with it. So visibility of those docs in search engines is highly desired. In comparison to other tools, we found the outputs of Docco and YUIDoc to be perfect for search engines. YUIDoc particularly has solid SEO foundations for its generated documentation, improved with metadata and microdata.\r\n\r\nBy default, JSDoc&#8217;s output is not SEO-friendly. Using Docstrap, it is possible to get slightly more SEO-friendly documentation. However, if a documentation generator allows you to customize its output, it is always possible to improve it by adding the meta-information that search engines seek.\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"External_Dependencies\"><\/span>External Dependencies<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\nThe lesser the number of external dependencies of a project, the easier it is to manage that project in the long run. This helps in keeping a project as lightweight as possible yet having all the powers it needs. Keeping this in mind, we found all four tools extremely useful because of their minimal dependency chain. You can install all of them through the NPM, the Nodejs package manager.\r\n\r\nUsing Docstrap with JSDoc adds complexity to the scene as Docstrap requires a build process to generate the CSS files.\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Extensibility\"><\/span>Extensibility<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Extensibility is the capacity of a program to allow itself to be augmented with additional features through a plug-in-like system. JSDoc is highly extensible. The source code repository of JSDoc has a\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">folder with various plugins<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0that you can use with it. There are neat instructions on how one can develop new plugins for JSDoc. This can be very useful if someone wants to add new features to JSDoc, like adding support for some new tags which do not exist in core JSDoc.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">YUIDoc does not have a robust API like JSDoc for extending it, but it has a neat way of creating new themes. A couple of\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/yui\/yuidoc\/tree\/master\/themes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">sample themes<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0are shipped with YUIDoc. You can use them as a base for new themes.<\/span>\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Parsing_the_Source_Code\"><\/span>Parsing the Source Code<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\nThis was the final and the most important feature we were looking for, and this turned out to be the ultimate selling point for JSDoc. All other documentation generators parse only the comment blocks, ignoring the rest of the source code, and generate their output based on the comments only, structured or not.\r\n\r\nIf a documentation generator reads only the comment blocks, it can generate API docs from a source code containing only comments and no code. The resulting API documentation will look complete because all the objects are documented. It is still useless and often misleading because there is no code for those documented methods. If a user tries to use the API by reading that documentation, they will find that the ways they are trying to call do not exist!\r\n\r\nTightly coupling source code with the documentation in comments also results in fewer lines of code. There is no need to write the name of the objects in that case. The documentation generator will pick up the name by studying the source.\r\n\r\nHence, we strongly favor the close coupling of code and its documentation. One should not exist without the other.\r\n\r\nJSDoc is more than just a comment reader &#8211; it is a language parser. It produces the output by actually scanning through the code and parsing the entire source tree. It closely links the documentation with the rest of the source code and identifies comments with the code blocks by looking at the code. Despite its shortcomings, this makes it a potent tool of not having an attractive interface out of the box or a highly SEO-friendly output. The creators of JSDoc have put their minds to the more critical aspect of creating a tool that reads and understands JavaScript. They have left the task of beautifying the produced result to the users. In our opinion, that makes complete sense.\r\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Final_Call\"><\/span>The Final Call<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\r\nConsidering all these factors, we have chosen JSDoc as the documentation generator tool of our choice. We plan to extend its interface and make the outputs prettier. Also, we have ideas of exploiting the language parser in JSDoc and creating some exciting products.\r\n\r\nWe love tools that help us automate tasks. But we love those tools even more, which let us control the automation.\r\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Visual_Comparison\"><\/span>Visual Comparison<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\r\n<table>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\"><\/th>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">JSDoc<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">YUIDoc<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Doxx<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Docco<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Syntax<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Structured<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Structured<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Structured<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Unstructured<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Accessibility\r\n(default theme)<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"P3\">Low<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"P3\">High<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"P3\">High<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">High<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Search feature<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Yes, not by default<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Yes<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">No<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">No<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Extra themes<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Docstrap<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">One bundled. Others are available.<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">No.<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Bundled<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Learning curve<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Medium<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Medium<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Low<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">None<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Source parsing<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Yes<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">No<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">No<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">No<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Customization<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">High<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Medium<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Low<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Very low<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Extensibility<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">High<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Medium<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Low<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A1\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">None<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th class=\"Table1_A10\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Heading\">Speed<\/p>\r\n<\/th>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A10\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Medium<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A10\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Low<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A10\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">N\/A<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"Table1_A10\">\r\n<p class=\"Table_20_Contents\">Very High<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n\r\n{\r\n  &#8220;@context&#8221;: &#8220;https:\/\/schema.org&#8221;,\r\n  &#8220;@type&#8221;: &#8220;FAQPage&#8221;,\r\n  &#8220;mainEntity&#8221;: [{\r\n    &#8220;@type&#8221;: &#8220;Question&#8221;,\r\n    &#8220;name&#8221;: &#8220;Our Evaluation Criteria&#8221;,\r\n    &#8220;acceptedAnswer&#8221;: {\r\n      &#8220;@type&#8221;: &#8220;Answer&#8221;,\r\n      &#8220;text&#8221;: &#8220;The factors we considered in our evaluation were quite rigorous. We needed to ensure that the tool we chose would perform well in the long run and generate helpful API docs for the end-user. These were the questions we had in mind when evaluating the candidates:\r\nDoes the tool support structured syntax, like Javadoc or PHPDoc syntax?\r\nCan we add additional documentation to the API docs, like tutorials, README?\r\nCan we customize the appearance of the output?\r\nIs there any search feature in the output?\r\nIs the output HTML SEO-friendly?\r\nDoes it require external dependencies?\r\nDoes it parse the entire source code or just the comment blocks?&#8221;\r\n    }\r\n  },{\r\n    &#8220;@type&#8221;: &#8220;Question&#8221;,\r\n    &#8220;name&#8221;: &#8220;How We Conducted the Evaluation&#8221;,\r\n    &#8220;acceptedAnswer&#8221;: {\r\n      &#8220;@type&#8221;: &#8220;Answer&#8221;,\r\n      &#8220;text&#8221;: &#8220;We wrote a small JavaScript file, a Directed Graph data structure, and prepared it for documentation with each tool \u2014 for JSDoc, Docco, Doxx, and YUIDoc. Next, we ran each tool on its respective source and produced output for each tool. For JSDoc, we used the inbuilt JSDoc template and Docstrap, a Twitter Bootstrap-based template for JSDoc. For Doxx, Docco, and YuiDoc, we used the inbuilt templates.\r\nWe measured the time each tool took to run each tool using the time command from the commandline. The testing was done on a MacBook Pro with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB DDR3 RAM, running OS X version 10.9&#8221;\r\n    }\r\n  },{\r\n    &#8220;@type&#8221;: &#8220;Question&#8221;,\r\n    &#8220;name&#8221;: &#8220;What We Evaluated&#8221;,\r\n    &#8220;acceptedAnswer&#8221;: {\r\n      &#8220;@type&#8221;: &#8220;Answer&#8221;,\r\n      &#8220;text&#8221;: &#8220;Support for the Structured Syntax\r\nComparison\r\nCollaboration\r\nVisual Appeal\r\nCustomizing the Output Design\r\nThe Search Feature for the Generated Documentation\r\nAdding Additional Documentation to the API Docs\r\nSEO-Friendly Output\r\nExternal Dependencies\r\nExtensibility\r\nParsing the Source Code\r\nThe Final Call\r\nVisual Comparison&#8221;\r\n    }\r\n  }]\r\n}\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, we had to choose a JavaScript document generator tool for documenting APIs of various FusionCharts products. API documentation is different from normal documentation because API documentation is generated directly from the source code by reading the comments written in the source code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[118,122,211,218,410],"coauthors":[690],"class_list":["post-4491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-docstrap","tag-doxx","tag-javascript","tag-jsdoc","tag-yuidoc"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Choosing a JavaScript Documentation Generator - JSDoc vs YUIDoc vs Doxx vs Docco<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Which JavaScript documentation tool is right for you? Compare four popular tools to make a smart 2026 decision. 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