Add versioned content
You can set up your project to maintain multiple concurrent versions of documents or API description files. It is possible to apply versioning to single files or sets of files in the same location. You can do this by creating version subfolders for each version of content you want to include.
When you access content inside a version subfolder, a version picker is displayed at the top of the sidebar. The version picker enables users to select which version of content to display. The sidebar reflects the changes in files and filenames when you switch between versions.
You can use this feature to: keep past versions of API descriptions for backwards compatibility, document experimental versions of software, or maintain release notes separate for each version.
To configure your project to include multiple versions, complete the following tasks:
- Create version subfolders
- (Optional) Customize the sidebar containing versioned content
- (Optional) Customize the version picker
Before you begin
Make sure you have the following before you begin:
- a
redocly.yaml
configuration file - versioned content
Create version subfolders
To include versioned content with a version picker, you must organize your content into version subfolders.
To organize your content into version subfolders:
- Create a main content folder.
- Create subfolders for the different versions within the main content folder.
Version subfolder names must start with the "@" symbol, but otherwise can be any string, with or without numbers. For example,@latest
,@1.0.0
,@rc1
are all valid.
You can add as many version subfolders as you need, but nesting them is not supported. - Place the files for the different versions in their specified folders.
After building your project, when you access versioned content, the sidebar displays the version picker, enabling you to switch between content versions.
Examples of versioned content structures
The following example includes versions 1.0
, 2.0
, and 3.0
of the museum_api
, and the legacy
and latest
versions of the customer_api
:
├── museum_api │ ├── @1.0 │ │ ├── index.md │ │ ├── museum.yaml │ │ └── overview.md │ ├── @2.0 │ │ ├── index.md │ │ └── museum.yaml │ └── @3.0 │ ├── images │ │ └── diagram.png │ ├── index.md │ ├── readme.md │ └── museum.yaml ├── customer_api │ ├── @latest │ │ ├── index.md │ │ └── payments.yaml │ ├── @legacy │ │ ├── index.md │ │ ├── payments.yaml │ │ └── readme.md │ └── versions.yaml ├── index.md └── sidebars.yaml
The museum_api
versions will appear in the version picker in the same order as the version subfolders in the file tree: 1.0
, then 2.0
, and finally 3.0
. The version opened by default will be the the last version, in this case: 3.0
.
Since in customer_api
the legacy
version appears second, it would also be the default version. To make the latest
version appear at the bottom of the list and be the default version, a versions.yaml
file with the desired configuration was added to the customer_api
folder.
Another example shows the public beta
version of payments_api
:
├── payments_api │ └── @public_beta │ ├── index.md │ └── payments.yaml ├── index.md └── sidebars.yaml
In this case payments_api
contains only one version subfolder. This configuration is enough to enable the version picker that displays one available version: public_beta
. You can use a similar structure to prepare your project for upcoming versions of content.
Customize the sidebar containing versioned content
After creating the structure for your versioned content, you can create a custom sidebar configuration for this structure. Depending on your preferences and the contents of your project, you can place sidebars.yaml
in the root directory of your project, or in the same folder as versioned content folders. For example, if you have more than one collection of versioned content, you might want to create a separate sidebar for each collection.
For more information about customizing sidebars, see: Configure navigation on the sidebar.
When you switch between versions, the sidebar updates according to the content of version subfolders, including sidebar item labels and the number of files in a version subfolder.
Customize a sidebar for versioned content using the directory
option
If you want to create a sidebar for versioned folders without further customizations, you can add the entire parent folder of versioned content to a sidebars.yaml
file. Using this method, any files you add or modify later, automatically update sidebar links when you build the project. The directory
option sorts the links in the natural order.
To customize a sidebar using the directory
option:
- Add a
directory
option for each folder containing versioned content in yoursidebars.yaml
file, as in the following example:sidebars.yaml- page: index.md label: Main page - directory: - directory:
- As the values for the
directory
keys, add paths to the folders containing versioned content, as in the following example:sidebars.yaml- page: index.md label: Main page - directory: /museum_api - directory: /customer_api
This configuration modifies the sidebar to include links to all content files in the museum_api
folder followed by files in customer_api
. The titles or the first headings of the files are used for the sidebar labels.
Add a single sidebar for all version folders
If you want to control the sidebar with a single file that determines the order of the links and the labels, create a sidebars.yaml
file in the folder containing your version subfolders and add links to the individual files inside the version subfolders.
To add a single sidebar for all version folders:
- In your project create a
sidebars.yaml
file in a folder a that contains your versioned content, as in the following example:Sample file structure for multiple folders with versioned content and a single sidebars file├── my-awesome-docs │ ├── museum_api │ │ ├── @1.0 │ │ ├── @2.0 │ │ └── @3.0 │ └── customer_api │ ├── @latest │ └── @legacy └── sidebars.yaml
- Add a
page
option with the value of a file path for each content file in each version subfolder in yoursidebars.yaml
file, as in the following example:sidebars.yaml- page: index.md label: Main page - page: /museum_api/@1.0/index.md - page: /museum_api/@1.0/museum.yaml - page: /museum_api/@1.0/overview.md - page: /museum_api/@2.0/index.md - page: /museum_api/@2.0/museum.yaml - page: /museum_api/@3.0/index.md - page: /museum_api/@3.0/museum.yaml - page: /museum_api/@3.0/readme.md - page: /customer_api/@legacy/index.md - page: /customer_api/@legacy/payments.yaml - page: /customer_api/@legacy/readme.md - page: /customer_api/@latest/index.md - page: /customer_api/@latest/payments.yaml
- (Optional) You can arrange the
page
options into groups so that each group appears under a single label.sidebars.yaml- page: index.md label: Main page - group: Museum API items: - page: /museum_api/@1.0/index.md - page: /museum_api/@1.0/museum.yaml - page: /museum_api/@1.0/overview.md - page: /museum_api/@2.0/index.md - page: /museum_api/@2.0/museum.yaml - page: /museum_api/@3.0/index.md - page: /museum_api/@3.0/museum.yaml - page: /museum_api/@3.0/readme.md - group: Customer API items: - page: /customer_api/@legacy/index.md - page: /customer_api/@legacy/payments.yaml - page: /customer_api/@legacy/readme.md - page: /customer_api/@latest/index.md - page: /customer_api/@latest/payments.yaml
This configuration modifies the sidebar by adding two groups, Museum API and Customer API. Within each group are multiple versions of files. When you first access your project, the sidebar displays only the links to files from the versions: 3.0
and legacy
respectively. These versions are the default versions, as they are the lowest on the alphanumeric ascending order. To set custom default versions, see Customize the version picker.
Add a dedicated sidebar for each version folder
To prevent the sidebar at the root of your project from becoming overly long, you can maintain separate sidebars.yaml
files for your versioned content in their respective folders. This approach can be especially useful when your content has a large number of versions.
To add a dedicated sidebars.yaml
for each version folder:
- Add a
sidebars.yaml
file to each folder containing versioned content in your project, as in the following example:Sample file structure for multiple folders with versioned content├── museum_api │ ├── @1.0 │ │ ├── index.md │ │ ├── museum.yaml │ │ └── overview.md │ ├── @2.0 │ │ ├── index.md │ │ └── museum.yaml │ ├── @3.0 │ │ ├── images │ │ │ └── diagram.png │ │ ├── index.md │ │ ├── readme.md │ │ └── museum.yaml │ └── ├── customer_api │ ├── @latest │ │ ├── index.md │ │ └── payments.yaml │ ├── @legacy │ │ ├── index.md │ │ ├── payments.yaml │ │ └── readme.md │ ├── versions.yaml │ └── ├── index.md └── sidebars.yaml
- Add a
page
option with a value of the file path for each content file in each version subfolder in eachsidebars.yaml
file, as in the following example:museum.sidebars.yaml- page: /@1.0/index.md label: Museum API - page: /@1.0/museum.yaml - page: /@1.0/overview.md - page: /@2.0/index.md label: Museum API - page: /@2.0/museum.yaml - page: /@3.0/index.md label: Museum API - page: /@3.0/museum.yaml - page: /@3.0/readme.md
- In the
sidebars.yaml
file at the root of your project, add references to the sidebar files for versioned content, as in the following example:sidebars.yaml- page: index.md label: Main page - $ref: /museum_api/sidebars.yaml - $ref: /customer_api/sidebars.yaml
In the built project, the sidebar combines the referenced sidebars.yaml
files and displays links to the default version of the content.
Customize the version picker
By default, the order of versions in the version picker is the same as the folder structure in the project, in the alphanumeric ascending order. The version that opens when you navigate to versioned file, is by default the version last in the order.
You can customize which versions appear in the version picker, the order of the versions, and the version that opens by default.
For more information on version picker configuration, see the Versions configuration options reference documentation.
To specify the default version as well as choose which versions to display:
- Create a
versions.yaml
file on the same level as your version subfolders. - In the file, set the default version to display by adding a
default
object with the default version subfolder's name, without the@
sign, as the value, as in the following example:versions.yamldefault: latest
- Add a
versions
object, and inside it a map ofversion
objects with version subfolder names as values, excluding the@
, as in the following example:versions.yamldefault: latest versions: - version: legacy - version: latest
- (Optional) Provide a
name
option for eachversion
, as in the following example:If you do not provide a name for a version, the versioned folder's name is used instead. As an example, let's assume this file structure:versions.yamldefault: latest versions: - version: legacy name: Legacy version - version: latest name: Latest version
my_awesome_docs └── customer_api ├── @latest │ ├── index.md │ └── museum.yaml ├── @legacy | ├── index.md | ├── museum.yaml | └── readme.md ├── @demo │ ├── index.md │ └── museum.yaml └── versions.yaml
For this structure, we created a versions.yaml
file with two versions: legacy
and latest
, specifying latest
as the default. The demo
version was purposefully not included.
default: latest versions: - version: legacy name: Legacy version - version: latest name: Latest version
Add version picker to all content
You can configure your project to display the version picker on all pages, even those that do not have defined versions.
To display the version picker for all content use the following configuration in your redocly.yaml
file:
versionPicker: showForUnversioned: true
For pages that do not have multiple version, the version picker is inactive and displays All versions.
Resources
- Reference the options for configuring which versions appear in the version picker, in what order, and which version is the default.
- Learn how to set up the sidebar in the Configure navigation on the sidebar how-to documentation.