June 2018 Summaries

Ehsan, originally from Albany, NY, has lived in several large cities but prefers the Bay Area, where he has resided for the past five years. He recently accomplished a personal goal by riding his motorcycle along the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Known for his enthusiasm for theater over movies, Ehsan has also taken on the role of master of ceremonies at all his friends’ weddings. Welcome to the team, Ehsan!

Amy has joined the ReadMe team in their San Francisco office after relocating from Charlottesville, Virginia. With a background in playing the violin, she plans to resume her musical interests despite having paused during her college years. Amy enjoys journaling and has recently taken an interest in experimenting with fountain pens. She is also an avid reader, with her current favorite book being "The Night Circus."

Understanding user interaction with documentation is crucial, and ReadMe has developed features to analyze both general and specific user engagement with documentation pages. These features include metrics to track the popularity and effectiveness of pages, highlighting areas that need improvement based on user feedback and search patterns. Users can leave feedback on documentation pages, which helps identify which sections are particularly helpful or confusing. Additionally, there are logging features for the API Explorer to monitor how users engage with reference sections and the success rate of their requests. Furthermore, the tool provides insights into which companies are viewing the documentation, allowing for an understanding of potential customer interest. These features are available to enterprise customers, with the promise of ongoing enhancements and more ways to interact with the data.

ReadMe has expanded its API capabilities, now allowing users to sync markdown files from their computers to ReadMe projects, a feature highly requested by engineers. This update is facilitated through the newly updated rdme command line tool, version 2, which enables seamless integration into workflows, supporting tasks like documentation updates via pull requests, resolving merge conflicts locally, and automated updates during deployments using CI/CD. While this development offers greater flexibility in managing documentation, it also introduces potential challenges due to the exposure of previously internal property names, which may lead to undocumented properties or complex actions. Users can choose to sync documentation selectively and must manage deletions both locally and on ReadMe to ensure accuracy. Future improvements are anticipated, including possible enhancements like syncing entire folders via the API and support for nested folders or includes. Users are encouraged to provide feedback and report any issues to ReadMe's support email.