The farther documentation is away from the source code, the more likely it is that it is out-of-date and therefore plain wrong. It is beneficial to keep all information as close to the source as possible. This makes it easier for the development team to reflect changes to the source code directly to the documentation in the source file.

The information may be available in plain configuration files, like the Maven POM file or deployment descriptors such as the web.xml.

Often the information is attached to the source code by the use of annotations (see Java Annotations). The annotations typically have impact on the runtime behavior. So changing an annotation directly takes effect in the execution of the software.

Information may be added as comments, especially as API documentation, such as Javadoc.

Finally information may also be gathered from types (such as interfaces) or members (fields and methods).

Here are some examples for tools and libraries that add information to the source code.

Information can be derived from the source code in various ways. An automatic process may simply grab all configuration files and make them available for other information systems. If the information is spread over multiple files, maybe in different formats, a parser may first generate the information in one or multiple normalized files.

Some information is automatically bundled with the generated artifact during the build process.

• The Java Manifest file is stored to the META-INF folder of the JAR
• Buildmetadata Maven Plugin collects build time information and adds it as a properties or XML file to the META-INF folder
• The Maven Plugin Descriptor is added to the META-INF folder
• The OSGi Bundle Repository of a Confluence add-on is stored in the root folder of the OBR file

For information that is not automatically attached, the Projectmetadata Maven Plugin allows to create an artifact with any information attached. This artifact is then added to the artifact server for reference. The inclusion of report artifacts is based on descriptors. The plugin provides a number of standard descriptors and allows to define custom descriptors to attach additional formats.

The following techniques make the report information available on the team collaboration platform.

Now let's access the provided information.

Not all stakeholders may have access to the team collaboration platform. In this case wiki pages can be exported to Word or PDF using the Scroll Office Add-on by K15t.

The exported page is then treated as a record that does not demand to be updated. But it can easily be transferred to remote parties.

A list of articles and books on living documentation and related topics.

Plugins for Maven to create or bundle artifacts based on source code information.

Libraries for Java to export information from the source.