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New Foundation

· 4 min read
Wanaka Mannaert
Wanaka Mannaert
Solution Architect - Product Research
Maxim Verbruggen
Maxim Verbruggen
NS Analyst

Welcome to the new Foundation!​

The Foundation has received a complete makeover. Instead of pure technical documentation listed per topic, everything is now organized around specific needs relating documentation: what is this, how do I do this, what exactly are the options. This blogpost explains how everything is restructured, where to find what you need, what is still incomplete, and how you can help.

Three sections, three needs​

The Foundation is now split into three main sections. Each one answers a different kind of question or need, and most topics appear in all three, each time from a different angle. A fourth section was created to gather NST related content.

1. Software Ecosystem: "What is this, and how does it fit together?"​

The Software Ecosystem is the place to start if you are new to a product or concept. It explains what things are and why they exist, without step-by-step instructions or long lists of attributes. It is organized into two main categories:

  • Engineering Platform: Prime Radiant, Micro Radiant and the engineering utilities
  • Engineering Solutions: The solutions you can build. NS Applications, expanders, metamodel, plugins

2. Developer Hub: "How do I do this?"​

The developer hub gathers guides, tutorials, technical blogs, and contains information on our development process. Developer Guides are practical step-by-step guides that range from getting started with a product, to performing complex tasks. The developer guides can be classified as "How To's". In procedure guides you will be able to scan through various scenarios, which will lead you to the correct documentation for your specific situation.

3. Reference Guides: "What exactly can I do with this product?"​

The precise technical documentation you look up while working: model elements, attributes, options, file formats and APIs. The Reference Guides are considered to be our single source of truth. This way, developer guides do not contain any new facts, these are all stored here. Most content of the old Foundation can be found here, rather unchanged. The General section collects the reference that isn't tied to a single product, such as expansionSettings.xml.

A fourth section, is "NST Knowledge". In this section, you can find everything NST - related. The theory itself, theoretic articles, white papers, youtubbe videos. An important addition to the Foundation is the glossary (located in NST knowledge). Here you can find the most important terminology, to make sure we use the same understanding of concepts.​

A Work in Progress​

We have moved the current existing documentation, extended the topics with functional sections for the ecosystem, and gathered or extracted developer guides. But, we are not yet done. Some thing you may notice that will be fully covered in the next few weeks:

  • Developer Guides are incomplete. Every product currently has a list of developer guides. However, a fair amount of topics don't have the complete set of "how to's" yet that they deserve. More step-by-step guides, basics as well as advanced, will follow.

  • Some content can be found twice. The split between developer guides and reference guides is a challenging one. Since step-by-step guides used to be intertwined with option definitions, attributes lists, and important facts, you may find that some content is still placed in both sections. This separation is also an ongoing effort.

  • Procedure Guides is in a sample state. The procedure guides serve as a way to browse situations. However, the content is currently only sample data for a couple of scenarios. This will still need to be completed.

  • Links may point to old locations. Pages have moved, and not every link has caught up yet. We have tried our very best to update every link, but a few dead ones might still be left.

Important to note, is that we have not removed anything from the old documentation yet. It is just hidden from the menu items. If something is missing, unclear or wrong, please let us know.

Foundation Contribution​

Separated according to our different needs, every piece of information will have a clear home. When adding new content, this might be a little challenging at the beginning. To know where content belongs, we have relied on asking ourselves the following questions:

  • Does it explain what something is or why it exists? It goes in the Ecosystem.
  • Does it describe how to do something, step by step? It goes in the Developer Hub.
  • Does it list exact facts, such as attributes, options, versions or file formats? It goes in the Reference Guides.

We hope everyone will easily find their way in this newly structured Foundation, and we are happy to gather feedback!