Sphinx - Documenting Django models
Here is a snippet mentioned by @Samuele Mattiuzzo above, updated to support actual Django versions (tested on 1.11 LTS):
import inspect
from django.utils.html import strip_tags
def process_docstring(app, what, name, obj, options, lines):
# This causes import errors if left outside the function
from django.db import models
# Only look at objects that inherit from Django's base model class
if inspect.isclass(obj) and issubclass(obj, models.Model):
# Grab the field list from the meta class
fields = obj._meta.fields
for field in fields:
# Decode and strip any html out of the field's help text
help_text = strip_tags(field.help_text)
# Decode and capitalize the verbose name, for use if there isn't
# any help text
verbose_name = field.verbose_name
if help_text:
# Add the model field to the end of the docstring as a param
# using the help text as the description
lines.append(u':param %s: %s' % (field.attname, help_text))
else:
# Add the model field to the end of the docstring as a param
# using the verbose name as the description
lines.append(u':param %s: %s' % (field.attname, verbose_name))
# Add the field's type to the docstring
lines.append(u':type %s: %s' % (field.attname, type(field).__name__))
# Return the extended docstring
return lines
def setup(app):
# Register the docstring processor with sphinx
app.connect('autodoc-process-docstring', process_docstring)
Just add it to the end of your conf.py
and model fields will be added automatically to documentation.
You have to use
@param description
in the model's docstring, for each field you want to be documented by sphinx.
Or in alternative, you should take a look at this snippet that does what you want (minus the boring writing part)
[EDIT]
If you plan to use this snippet, in django>=1.6
obj._meta._fields()
has been removed please change it to
_meta.fields