How does one make jsdoc actually output docs? - jsdoc

Question

I'm trying to get jsdoc (version 3.6.7, using node 16) to turn my documented js code into actual documentation, but no matter what I do it just generates an out directory with an index.html that is primarily empty lines, rather than documentation. I've asked about this over on the issue tracker (after I searched the docs and the web for information on what one might be doing wrong to get jsdoc to generate empty files, but I can't for the life of me find anything useful that addresses that) but since it's been a few days, it feels useful to ask here as well, so that an answer in either place can be cross posted.
Running the jsdoc command does not flag any errors with the input, and completes with a normal zero exit code but generates nothing useful, so hopefully someone here's run into his before and can explain what is necessary in addition to the follow code to actually get jsdoc to generate docs.
An example of code that has no errors according to jsdoc, but also yields no docs whatsoever:
import { Errors } from "../errors.js";
import { Models } from "./models.js";
/**
* Several paragraphs of text that explain this class
*
* #class
* #namespace model
*/
export class Model {
/**
* #ignore
*/
static ALLOW_INCOMPLETE = Symbol();
/**
* Also several paragraphs explaining the use of this function.
*
* #static
* #param {*} data
* #param {*} allowIncomplete (must be Model.ALLOW_INCOMPLETE to do anything)
* #returns {*} a model instance
* #throws {*} one of several errors
*/
static create = function (data = undefined, allowIncomplete) {
return Models.create(
this,
data,
allowIncomplete === Model.ALLOW_INCOMPLETE
);
};
/**
* code comment that explains that if you're reading
* this source, you should not be using the constructor,
* but should use the .create factory function instead.
*
* #ignore
*/
constructor(caller, when) {
if (!caller || typeof when !== "number") {
const { name } = this.__proto__.constructor;
throw Errors.DO_NOT_USE_MODEL_CONSTRUCTOR(name);
}
}
}
Running this with jsdoc test.js yields an out dir with an index.html and test.js.html file, the first containing some thirty newlines of "no docs here" with boilerplate wrapper HTML code, and the second containing the original source code with nothing else useful either.
What else does one need to do to get jsdoc to actually generate documentation here?

Answer 1

I have fixed it by not using export infront of classes, instead exporting them at the end of the file. like this:
import { Errors } from "../errors.js";
import { Models } from "./models.js";
/**
* Several paragraphs of text that explain this class
*
* #class
* #namespace model
*/
class Model {
/**
* #ignore
*/
static ALLOW_INCOMPLETE = Symbol();
/**
* Also several paragraphs explaining the use of this function.
*
* #static
* #param {*} data
* #param {*} allowIncomplete (must be Model.ALLOW_INCOMPLETE to do anything)
* #returns {*} a model instance
* #throws {*} one of several errors
*/
static create = function (data = undefined, allowIncomplete) {
return Models.create(
this,
data,
allowIncomplete === Model.ALLOW_INCOMPLETE
);
};
/**
* code comment that explains that if you're reading
* this source, you should not be using the constructor,
* but should use the .create factory function instead.
*
* #ignore
*/
constructor(caller, when) {
if (!caller || typeof when !== "number") {
const { name } = this.__proto__.constructor;
throw Errors.DO_NOT_USE_MODEL_CONSTRUCTOR(name);
}
}
}
export {Model}

Answer 2

Turns out this was posted too early: taking the time to start at the official documentation for classes over on https://jsdoc.app/tags-class.html and running that example through jsdoc works perfectly fine, and subsequently building out that example to match the actual file's code yields working documentation just fine, too.
And in this specific case, there were several problems:
adding #namespace paired with #class was the main problem. Neither were necessary, but the #namespace entry changes how jsdoc parses the rest of a file's documentation, where if methods are to show up, they must use a #name property that includes that namespace. As that was not the case here, nothing ended up showing in the documentation.
having an #ignore on the constructor function, rather than using the #hideconstructor property on the class meant that even with #namespace removed, no documentation got written. JSdoc treats the class docs heading and the constructor as the same thing, so #ignoreing the constructor is treated the same as ignoring the entire class.
Fixing both mistakes, and removing the unnecessary #class at the top, gives perfectly fine documentation:
import { Errors } from "../errors.js";
import { Models } from "./models.js";
/**
* Several paragraphs of text that explain this class
*
* #hideconstructor
*/
export class Model {
/**
* #ignore
*/
static ALLOW_INCOMPLETE = Symbol();
/**
* Also several paragraphs explaining the use of this function.
*
* #static
* #param {*} data
* #param {*} allowIncomplete (must be Model.ALLOW_INCOMPLETE to do anything)
* #returns {*} a model instance
* #throws {*} one of several errors
*/
static create = function (data = undefined, allowIncomplete) {
return Models.create(
this,
data,
allowIncomplete === Model.ALLOW_INCOMPLETE
);
};
/**
* code comment that explains that if you're reading
* this source, you should not be using the constructor,
* but should use the .create factory function instead.
*/
constructor(caller, when) {
if (!caller || typeof when !== "number") {
const { name } = this.__proto__.constructor;
throw Errors.DO_NOT_USE_MODEL_CONSTRUCTOR(name);
}
}
}