sphinx/doc/extensions.rst

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ReStructuredText

.. _extensions:
Sphinx Extensions
=================
.. module:: sphinx.application
:synopsis: Application class and extensibility interface.
Since many projects will need special features in their documentation, Sphinx is
designed to be extensible on several levels.
First, you can add new :term:`builder`\s to support new output formats or
actions on the parsed documents. Then, it is possible to register custom
reStructuredText roles and directives, extending the markup. And finally, there
are so-called "hook points" at strategic places throughout the build process,
where an extension can register a hook and run specialized code.
Each Sphinx extension is a Python module with at least a :func:`setup` function.
This function is called at initialization time with one argument, the
application object representing the Sphinx process. This application object has
the following public API:
.. method:: Application.add_builder(builder)
Register a new builder. *builder* must be a class that inherits from
:class:`~sphinx.builder.Builder`.
.. method:: Application.add_config_value(name, default, rebuild_env)
Register a configuration value. This is necessary for Sphinx to recognize
new values and set default values accordingly. The *name* should be prefixed
with the extension name, to avoid clashes. The *default* value can be any
Python object. The boolean value *rebuild_env* must be ``True`` if a change
in the setting only takes effect when a document is parsed -- this means that
the whole environment must be rebuilt.
.. method:: Application.add_event(name)
Register an event called *name*.
.. method:: Application.add_node(node)
Register a Docutils node class. This is necessary for Docutils internals.
It may also be used in the future to validate nodes in the parsed documents.
.. method:: Application.add_directive(name, cls, content, arguments, **options)
Register a Docutils directive. *name* must be the prospective directive
name, *func* the directive function (see the Docutils documentation - XXX
ref) for details about the signature and return value. *content*,
*arguments* and *options* are set as attributes on the function and determine
whether the directive has content, arguments and options, respectively. For
their exact meaning, please consult the Docutils documentation.
.. method:: Application.add_role(name, role)
Register a Docutils role. *name* must be the role name that occurs in the
source, *role* the role function (see the Docutils documentation on details).
.. method:: Application.add_description_unit(directivename, rolename, indexdesc='', parse_node=None)
XXX
.. method:: Application.connect(event, callback)
Register *callback* to be called when *event* is emitted. For details on
available core events and the arguments of callback functions, please see
:ref:`events`.
The method returns a "listener ID" that can be used as an argument to
:meth:`disconnect`.
.. method:: Application.disconnect(listener_id)
Unregister callback *listener_id*.
.. method:: Application.emit(event, *arguments)
Emit *event* and pass *arguments* to the callback functions. Do not emit
core Sphinx events in extensions!
.. exception:: ExtensionError
All these functions raise this exception if something went wrong with the
extension API.
Examples of using the Sphinx extension API can be seen in the :mod:`sphinx.ext`
package.
.. _events:
Sphinx core events
------------------
These events are known to the core:
====================== =================================== =========
Event name Emitted when Arguments
====================== =================================== =========
``'builder-inited'`` the builder object has been created -none-
``'doctree-read'`` a doctree has been parsed and read *doctree*
by the environment, and is about to
be pickled
``'doctree-resolved'`` a doctree has been "resolved" by *doctree*, *docname*
the environment, that is, all
references and TOCs have been
inserted
====================== =================================== =========