GroupDocs Documentation

This repository contains the source files for the official GroupDocs documentation website built with Hugo. The live site is at https://docs.groupdocs.com/.

About This Repository

This is the centralized documentation hub for all GroupDocs on-premise document processing SDKs. It hosts the home page, shared layouts, themes, and build infrastructure. Individual product documentation lives in separate repositories and is pulled in at build time.

Documented Products

Product	Description
GroupDocs.Total	Complete document manipulation suite
GroupDocs.Annotation	Document annotation and collaboration
GroupDocs.Assembly	Document generation automation
GroupDocs.Classification	Document and text categorization
GroupDocs.Comparison	Document comparison
GroupDocs.Conversion	Document conversion (7400+ conversion pairs)
GroupDocs.Editor	Document editing
GroupDocs.Markdown	Markdown export for PDF, Word, Excel, and more
GroupDocs.Merger	Document merging and page manipulation
GroupDocs.Metadata	Metadata management
GroupDocs.Parser	Document parsing and data extraction
GroupDocs.Redaction	Document redaction and content removal
GroupDocs.Search	Full-text search
GroupDocs.Signature	Electronic signatures
GroupDocs.Viewer	Document viewing (170+ file formats)
GroupDocs.Watermark	Watermark manipulation

Each product supports multiple platforms (.NET, Java, Python, Node.js) where applicable. Product documentation is stored in separate repos following the pattern groupdocs-{product}/GroupDocs.{Name}-Docs.

Technology Stack

• Static Site Generator: Hugo Extended 0.101.0
• Theme: hugo-geekdoc (customized)
• Content Format: Markdown with YAML front matter
• Output Formats: HTML + Markdown (every page is also available as .md)
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions with reusable workflows
• Deployment: SCP to target servers

Repository Structure

.
├── .github/workflows/
│   ├── build-and-deploy.yml      # Reusable workflow (shared build & deploy logic)
│   ├── publish-prod.yml          # Production deployment (calls build-and-deploy)
│   ├── publish-qa.yml            # QA deployment (calls build-and-deploy)
│   └── publish-index-json.yml    # Search index rebuild
├── content/                      # Markdown content (home page; products added at build time)
├── data/                         # JSON data files (products, structured data)
├── layouts/
│   ├── _default/
│   │   ├── list.md               # Markdown output template for section pages
│   │   └── single.md             # Markdown output template for single pages
│   └── index.json                # Search index template
├── static/                       # Static assets (images, icons)
├── themes/
│   └── hugo-geekdoc/             # Customized Geekdoc theme
├── config.toml                   # Hugo configuration
├── build_docs.cmd                # Local dev server (Windows)
├── build_search_index.sh         # Local search index build script
└── move_md_to_ugly_urls.sh       # Post-build: rename index.md → page.md

Local Development

Prerequisites

• Hugo Extended version 0.101.0
• Git

Running the Dev Server

# Windows
build_docs.cmd

# Or manually on any platform
hugo server

Open http://localhost:1313/ to view the site. Hugo watches for file changes and reloads automatically.

Building for Production

# 1. Build the site
hugo --minify

# 2. Move Markdown output to ugly URLs (e.g. /viewer/net/index.md → /viewer/net.md)
./move_md_to_ugly_urls.sh

The generated site will be in the public/ directory.

Building the Search Index Locally

bash build_search_index.sh

This clones all product documentation repos, builds the full site, and generates public/index.json.

Markdown Output Format

Every documentation page is available in both HTML and raw Markdown. Append .md to any page URL to get the Markdown version:

HTML	Markdown
https://docs.groupdocs.com/viewer/net/	https://docs.groupdocs.com/viewer/net.md
https://docs.groupdocs.com/viewer/net/installation/	https://docs.groupdocs.com/viewer/net/installation.md

This is implemented via:

• A custom MD output format defined in config.toml
• Templates in layouts/_default/single.md and layouts/_default/list.md
• A post-build script (move_md_to_ugly_urls.sh) that renames index.md files to ugly URLs

Deployment

Deployment is triggered manually via GitHub Actions workflow_dispatch. Both publish workflows present a checkbox UI with three modes:

Mode	How to trigger
Home only (default)	Leave all product checkboxes unchecked -- builds only this repository's content
All products	Check the "All products" checkbox -- clones and builds all 16 product repos
Selected products	Check individual product checkboxes -- clones only the selected repos

Workflows

Workflow	File	Purpose
publish-prod	publish-prod.yml	Deploy to https://docs.groupdocs.com/
publish-qa	publish-qa.yml	Deploy to https://docs-qa.groupdocs.com/
Build and deploy	build-and-deploy.yml	Reusable workflow with shared build logic (not triggered directly)
publish-index-json	publish-index-json.yml	Rebuild and deploy the full-text search index (index.json)

The publish-prod and publish-qa workflows are thin wrappers that define the UI inputs and call build-and-deploy.yml with environment-specific settings (base URL, deploy target).

Required Secrets

Secret	Description
DOCS_SSH_HOST	Deployment server hostname
DOCS_SSH_DIR	Production deployment directory
DOCS_QA_SSH_DIR	QA deployment directory
DOCS_SSH_USER	SSH username
DOCS_SSH_KEY	SSH private key

Contributing

This repository is maintained by the GroupDocs documentation team. If you find issues or have suggestions:

1. Check if an issue already exists
2. Create a new issue describing the problem or enhancement
3. For significant changes, submit a pull request

License

Licensed under the MIT License.