Note

This version of the guide covers the new PHP-based rendering of Documentation with the TYPO3 Documentation theme.

If the project you are looking at has a file Documentation/guides.xml it is using the new rendering.

Otherwise, consider to migrate the Documentation or head over to the legacy version of this guide: How to document, Sphinx based.

Guidelines for reviewing manuals

Reviewing manuals and finding a workflow for this is still a work in progress.

See the Related Issues.

Guidelines for reviewing

Preferably, an entire branch should be systematically reviewed. In that case, just add a status to the start page with information when it was last reviewed and for which version.
When you come across a single page that is outdated, preferably fix it right away. If you can't, add a warning, but also make sure to write an issue.
For branches that have not been entirely reviewed yet and that are too comprehensive to do this in one sitting, a procedure should be selected to systematically review. This can be decided on a case by case basis for each manual / branch.

What to watch out for while reviewing:

Duplicate content: Check for similar content in other manuals. Merge duplicate content: Decide where the content should live, remove it in the other places and add links.
Remove redundant content: Keep content short and to the point. For things that are not TYPO3-specific: Link elsewhere if good documentation is already available elsewhere.
Technical correctness: Is information correct and up-to-date (for version of branch)? Does it propagate good best practices (instead of deprecated ones)?
Didactic: Is the text easy to understand and follow? For lengthy texts: Is there a quick start or a summary at the beginning (Example: Logging Quick Start)?
Language correctness: Spelling, grammar, style.

Not everyone is a native English speaker and not everyone knows TYPO3 inside-out. It is entirely fine to only focus on one aspect at a time (for example language) while reviewing.

Examples for review information

Until we can be sure, that the published documentation is generally correct and up-to-date, you can add review information.

There are 3 goals here:

Warn readers about outdated information (must be visible on the rendered page).
Help reviewers to quickly see which state a page is in without having to read the entire page.
Help reviewers to keep track of reviewed / unreviewed pages. It should be possible to mark pages that have been already checked as ok or not ok and find all unchecked pages or find all pages with problems.

Add review information to the start page

Once the entire branch has been reviewed and updated, you can add this information to the start page:

Status: Tested and reviewed for TYPO3 9.5.5 on April 11, 2019

:Status:
      Tested and reviewed for TYPO3 9.5.5 on April 11, 2019

If pages become outdated and are not fixed immediately, you can modify the review information on the start page, for example

Status: Last tested and reviewed for TYPO3 9.5.5 on April 11, 2019, some pages outdated

:Status:
      Last tested and reviewed for TYPO3 9.5.5 on April 11, 2019, some pages outdated

Examples:

TYPO3 - Getting Started Tutorial.

Add warning for outdated content

If the information is clearly outdated (or incorrect), you should add a visible warning to warn readers.

Better would be to update the page. So, this should only be done in the rare cases where updating is not possible immediately.

Warning

The information on this page is outdated!

.. warning::

   The information on this page is outdated!

Todo directive

The "todo" directive will not get rendered by default.

Examples of review information with todo:

.. todo:: Needs review: Outdated (2019/5/15 TYPO3 9.5.5)

.. todo:: Needs review: Improved language (2019/5/15 TYPO3 9.5.5)

In order to render this, add this to Settings.cfg:

[extensions]
todo_include_todos=True