📘 What Is It?

Every major entity in Joomla Component Builder (JCB) — including Admin Views, Fields, Snippets, Templates, Layouts, Field Types, and more — supports automated README generation.

These READMEs are created dynamically by the compiler based on the entity's properties, configuration, links, and associated metadata.

You can configure this behavior via:

• Entity settings → Enable README output
• Compiler settings → Output directory & format
• Snippet or template injection for custom content blocks

🔍 What’s Included in Each README?

The generated README will usually contain:

• 📌 Title and description of the entity
• 🔄 Last modified timestamp
• 🧱 Linked entities (fields, snippets, templates, layouts, dynamic GETs)
• ⚙️ Settings used in the build
• 🗂 Usage examples or developer notes (if present)
• 📄 Auto-generated tables for clarity (e.g., field mappings, config)

This makes every component of your project independently understandable.

🎯 Why Use It?

• ✅ For documentation automation
• ✅ For onboarding other developers faster
• ✅ For self-documenting large components
• ✅ For generating shareable GitHub/Gitea/GitLab-level docs
• ✅ For syncing component logic to wikis or support pages

You can even export the whole docs folder for integration into your website, GitHub Pages, or internal portals.

📥 Output Format

By default, these README files are:

• Markdown (.md)
• Placed in the /docs or /readme folder of your component source
• Optionally compiled into the output zip package

You can customize this path per project in the global or compiler configuration.

🧩 Integration With Other JCB Features

• Combine with Custom Code tags for personalized doc snippets
• Append changelog data using version metadata
• Add PHPDoc blocks in templates to enrich the final README

📦 Use Cases

• Add per-view README files in Git-based component blueprints
• Export documentation during nightly or CI builds
• Sync to GitHub Pages or readthedocs using your JCB component output
• Inject custom branding or usage tips directly into each README

🧠 Conclusion

JCB's per-entity README auto-generation brings self-documenting software into Joomla development. Every feature, field, and view you create can now explain itself — reducing friction, improving onboarding, and boosting maintainability across teams or long-term projects. It's documentation without the extra work.