How to document the properties of the object in the JSDoc 3 tag: @this

Question

The @param tag allow the documentation of properties, e.g.

 /**
  * @param {Object} userInfo Information about the user.
  * @param {String} userInfo.name The name of the user.
  * @param {String} userInfo.email The email of the user.
  */

How would I document the properties of the @this tag?

 /**
  * @this {Object} 
  * @param {String} this.name The name of the user.
  * @param {String} this.email The email of the user.
  */

I'm wondering if anyone working on the project knows. (The docs are still being created...)

Answer 1

To document instance members, use @name Class#member:

/**  * Construct a new component  *  * @class Component  * @classdesc A generic component  *  * @param {Object} options - Options to initialize the component with  * @param {String} options.name - This component's name, sets {@link Component#name}  * @param {Boolean} options.visible - Whether this component is visible, sets {@link Component#visible}  */ function Component(options) {    /**     * Whether this component is visible or not     *     * @name Component#visible     * @type Boolean     * @default false     */     this.visible = options.visible;     /**     * This component's name     *     * @name Component#name     * @type String     * @default "Component"     * @readonly     */     Object.defineProperty(this, 'name', {         value: options.name || 'Component',         writable: false     }); } 

This results in a Members section in the documentation that lists each member, its type, default value, and whether it's read only.

The output as generated by [email protected] looks like this:

See also:

• JSDoc namepaths
• @instance tag
• @readonly tag
• @type tag

Answer 2

Use the @property tag to describe the attribute of an object.

@param is used to define the parameters of a method or constructor.

@this is used to define which object this refers to. So here's an example using JSDOC 3.

/** * @class Person * @classdesc A person object that only takes in names. * @property {String} this.name - The name of the Person. * @param {String} name - The name that will be supplied to this.name. * @this Person */ var Person = function( name ){     this.name = name; }; 

JSDOC 3: https://github.com/jsdoc3/jsdoc

More information: http://usejsdoc.org/index.html

More info: http://code.google.com/p/jsdoc-toolkit/wiki/TagParam

Answer 3

Within the constructor of a class, jsdoc will realize by itself that the documented properties belong to class intances. So this should be enough:

/**
 * @classdesc My little class.
 *
 * @class
 * @memberof module:MyModule
 * @param {*} myParam Constructor parameter.
 */
function MyLittleClass(myParam) {
    /**
     * Instance property.
     * @type {string}
     */
    this.myProp = 'foo';
}

If it is not clear for jsdoc that the function is the class constructor, you can use @this to define what this refers to:

/**
 * @classdesc My little class.
 *
 * @class
 * @memberof module:MyModule
 * @name MyLittleClass
 * @param {*} myParam Constructor parameter.
 */

// Somewhere else, the constructor is defined:
/**
 * @this module:MyModule.MyLittleClass
 */
function(myParam) {
    /**
     * Instance property.
     * @type {string}
     */
    this.myProp = 'foo';
}