Substantial documentation improvements

2019-06-07 18:29:09 -07:00
parent 0ed6c57c7f
commit 2a4ca21050
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--- a/docs/reference/project-format.md
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+[TOC]
+
+## Project File
+
+Rojo projects are JSON files that have the `.project.json` extension. They have these fields:
+
+* `name`: A string indicating the name of the project.
+    * This is only used for diagnostics.
+* `tree`: An [Instance Description](#instance-description) describing the root instance of the project.
+
+## Instance Description
+Instance Descriptions correspond one-to-one with the actual Roblox Instances in the project. They can be specified directly in the project file or be pulled from the filesystem.
+
+* `$className`: The ClassName of the Instance being described.
+    * Optional if `$path` is specified.
+* `$path`: The path on the filesystem to pull files from into the project.
+    * Optional if `$className` is specified.
+    * Paths are relative to the folder containing the project file.
+* `$properties`: Properties to apply to the instance. Values should be [Instance Property Values](#instance-property-value).
+    * Optional
+* `$ignoreUnknownInstances`: Whether instances that Rojo doesn't know about should be deleted.
+    * Optional
+    * Default is `false` if `$path` is specified, otherwise `true`.
+
+All other fields in an Instance Description are turned into instances whose name is the key. These values should also be Instance Descriptions!
+
+Instance Descriptions are fairly verbose and strict. In the future, it'll be possible for Rojo to [infer class names for known services like `Workspace`](https://github.com/LPGhatguy/rojo/issues/179).
+
+## Instance Property Value
+There are two kinds of property values on instances, **implicit** and **explicit**.
+
+In the vast majority of cases, you should be able to use **implicit** property values. To use them, just use a value that's the same shape as the type that the property has:
+
+```json
+"MyPart": {
+    "$className": "Part",
+    "$properties": {
+        "Size": [3, 5, 3],
+        "Color": [0.5, 0, 0.5],
+        "Anchored": true,
+        "Material": "Granite"
+    }
+}
+```
+
+`Vector3` and `Color3` properties can just be arrays of numbers, as can types like `Vector2`, `CFrame`, and more!
+
+Enums can be set to a string containing the enum variant. Rojo will raise an error if the string isn't a valid variant for the enum.
+
+There are some cases where this syntax for assigning properties _doesn't_ work. In these cases, Rojo requires you to use the **explicit** property syntax.
+
+Some reasons why you might need to use an **explicit** property:
+
+* Using exotic property types like `BinaryString`
+* Using properties added to Roblox recently that Rojo doesn't know about yet
+
+The shape of explicit property values is defined by the [rbx-dom](https://github.com/LPGhatguy/rbx-dom) library, so it uses slightly different conventions than the rest of Rojo.
+
+Each value should be an object with the following required fields:
+
+* `Type`: The type of property to represent.
+    * [Supported types can be found here](https://github.com/LPGhatguy/rbx-tree#property-type-coverage).
+* `Value`: The value of the property.
+    * The shape of this field depends on which property type is being used. `Vector3` and `Color3` values are both represented as a list of numbers, while `BinaryString` expects a base64-encoded string, for example.
+
+Here's the same object, but with explicit properties:
+
+```json
+"MyPart": {
+    "$className": "Part",
+    "$properties": {
+        "Size": {
+            "Type": "Vector3",
+            "Value": [3, 5, 3]
+        },
+        "Color": {
+            "Type": "Color3",
+            "Value": [0.5, 0, 0.5]
+        },
+        "Anchored": {
+            "Type": "Bool",
+            "Value": true
+        },
+        "Material": {
+            "Type": "Enum",
+            "Value": 832
+        }
+    }
+}
+```
+
+## Example Projects
+This project bundles up everything in the `src` directory. It'd be suitable for making a plugin or model:
+
+```json
+{
+    "name": "AwesomeLibrary",
+    "tree": {
+        "$path": "src"
+    }
+}
+```
+
+This project describes the layout you might use if you were making the next hit simulator game, *Sisyphus Simulator*:
+
+```json
+{
+    "name": "Sisyphus Simulator",
+    "tree": {
+        "$className": "DataModel",
+
+        "HttpService": {
+            "$className": "HttpService",
+            "$properties": {
+                "HttpEnabled": true
+            }
+        },
+
+        "ReplicatedStorage": {
+            "$className": "ReplicatedStorage",
+            "$path": "src/ReplicatedStorage"
+        },
+
+        "StarterPlayer": {
+            "$className": "StarterPlayer",
+
+            "StarterPlayerScripts": {
+                "$className": "StarterPlayerScripts",
+                "$path": "src/StarterPlayerScripts"
+            }
+        },
+
+        "Workspace": {
+            "$className": "Workspace",
+            "$properties": {
+                "Gravity": 67.3
+            },
+
+            "Terrain": {
+                "$path": "Terrain.rbxm"
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+```