🧠 What Does This Do?

Joomla Component Builder (JCB) supports two forms of embedded documentation within custom code entities:

1. Markdown syntax — inside README files and documentation fields.
2. PHPDoc-style comments — inside templates, layouts, and snippets, which get preserved in the compiled output.

This lets you create structured documentation as you build your code — useful both during development and for generating reference materials automatically.

📝 Markdown Support

You can write standard Markdown syntax in:

• README fields for templates, snippets, field types, views, etc.
• Custom Documentation entities (in the GUI)
• Per-entity README auto-generation
• JCB Wiki and shared Git-based blueprints

Markdown is rendered in external viewers like GitHub/Gitea or parsed into help popovers in your component (if enabled).

Example:

## Description

This snippet handles dynamic filters in a Custom Admin View.

- Uses `Dynamic GET`
- Accepts user input
- Returns filtered SQL results

📚 PHPDoc Support

Within your PHP templates or layout files, you can embed PHPDoc-style comments like this:

/**
 * Renders a filtered dropdown of cities.
 *
 * @param  array  $items  The list of city records.
 * @return string
 */

These docblocks will be preserved in your compiled component, aiding IDE autocompletion and in-code documentation.

Supported in:

• Templates
• Layouts
• Helpers
• Custom Code Blocks

🎯 Why Use This?

• ✅ Self-document your logic as you build
• ✅ Improve code readability for teams
• ✅ Automatically generate docs from codebase
• ✅ Use GitHub/Gitea README rendering natively
• ✅ Reduce the need for external documentation

📦 Use Cases

• Keep your reusable Snippets or Layouts documented directly in the code
• Annotate PHP helpers with @param, @return, and @throws tags
• Maintain Markdown-based component-level docs for Git repositories
• Export technical documentation automatically with the compiled ZIP

💡 Tips

• Combine Markdown + PHPDoc for full-stack documentation: GUI + Code
• Use JCB’s README auto-generation to output these annotations
• You can define Markdown-formatted help fields inside Field Types for inline tooltips

✅ Conclusion

JCB's Markdown + PHPDoc support empowers developers to create fully documented, professional-grade components — from GUI to generated code. Write once, document always — right inside the builder.