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To help users decide whether to install your App, created create a short README.md (markdown) file to package with your App. IGB will display it in the right side panel of the IGB App Manager.

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To add documentation to your App:

• Create a markdown file named README.md
• Save it in the top level of your IGB App project (same level as pom.xml)

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Add bundle-markdown-encoder plugin (from IGB project)

Also add Add the following plugin (as a child of the plugins tag) to the pom.xml file in your App project:

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.lorainelab</groupId>
    <artifactId>bundle-markdown-encoder</artifactId>
    <executions>
       <execution>
          <goals>
            <goal>encodeMarkdown</goal>
          </goals>
       </execution> 
    </executions>
</plugin>  

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However, before deploying your Markdown you should test it with the App Manager.

How this works

The bundle-markdown-encoder module uses Base64 encoding to translate the content of your Markdown document into a sequence of alphanumeric characters. It inserts this sequence into the description tag of the repository.xml file that you create when you compile your App using maven. When users add a new App repository and then select an App, IGB uses decodes the contents of the App's description tag and displays it in the App Manager. The App Manager contains code that can render the Markdown. 

Note that currently, if you would like to reference an image in your README.md, you'll need to use an absolute URL to wherever the image is hosted. You'll also need to ensure that the image URL is always accessible.  We recommend that if you are hosting your own App repository, you images you need there. This will ensure that if users can download your App to install it, IGB can also download the image. 

Example README.md for an IGB App

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