How to use EE for documentation

If you are a developer, designer or just anyone involved with technology you already know how Markdown took the world in terms of documentation. From products, to software, to major cloud services. It seems markdown is preferred because it’s easy to read unformatted and its quick enough for most people to learn. That without mentioning that most developers IDE software’s support markdown.

You also probably know that using Wikis is one of the most popular solutions for internal organizations manuals, project collaboration and of course, creating technical documentation. The reason is because it allows anyone in your business to add, fix or update documentation quickly and why not, even external people, like your users or customer can help. Documentation today is agile, it changes constantly, therefore Wiki’s are so popular. They allow team share functionalities. Anyone can see some typo or incorrect information and fix it immediately and it also builds around community sharing when the public or your authenticated users can help. More eyes and hands mean less work for your organization…

Did you know that Expression Engine is perfect for this as well?

Most people are not aware, but Expression Engine has a Wiki module. While it’s not updated anymore it should still work.

And here comes the best part. It also supports Markdown!!!

First, make sure you installed the Markdown addon on your EE installation. Otherwise the option will not show under a new Wiki.

Then install the Wiki module from: https://github.com/EllisLab/Wiki

Create your new wiki documentation section and select markdown as the format.

And the best part. Your new Wiki integrates completely with your existing EE website, users, and content…Instead of using an external Wiki or system for documentation, now its build right into your website.

Get more out of your Expression Engine installation with the Wiki module.