How can I use inline markup to document parameters of a primary constructor? If I use the usual `[pa...

# dokka

[Sebastian Schuberth]

How can I use inline markup to document parameters of a primary constructor? If I use the usual [param] syntax, IntelliJ show the references as unresolved.

[CLOVIS]

What did you write exactly?

[Sebastian Schuberth]

E.g. this:

* A [Closeable] class which temporarily moves away [directories] to inside a [stashDir] and moves them back on close.
 * Any conflicting directory created at the location of an original directory is deleted before the original state is
 * restored. If a specified directory did not exist on initialization, it will also not exist on close.
 */
private class DirectoryStash(directories: Set<File>, stashDir: File) : Closeable {

[Sebastian Schuberth]

directories and stashDir are unresolved.

[CLOVIS]

This is expected, this comment documents the class, not the constructor

[Sebastian Schuberth]

.... seems natural to document the primary constructor as part of the class, though, or?

[Sebastian Schuberth]

What would be the correct syntax then?

[CLOVIS]

Not really, you wouldn't expect ArrayList's class documentation to explain what its primary constructor takes as arguments (it's probably private anyway)

[CLOVIS]

What would be the correct syntax then?

If the constructor parameters are properties, you can resolve them in the class documentation:

/**
 * Some example: [a]
 */
class Foo(val a: Int)

If they are not properties, you can use @param :

class Foo
/**
 * The primary constructor.
 *
 * @param a test
 */
constructor(a: Int) {

    init {
        println(a)
    }
}

However, I expected this to work and it didn't, which seems worth reporting as a bug:

class Foo
/**
 * The primary constructor [a].
 */
constructor(a: Int) {

    init {
        println(a)
    }
}

[Sebastian Schuberth]

So, there's no inline markup syntax to document an inline primary constructor?

[CLOVIS]

Oh, I forgot but you can do this too:

/**
 * test
 * 
 * @constructor Hello world, [a]
 */
class Foo(a: Int)

I doesn't seem to resolve a as well, I think this one is a bug.

[Sebastian Schuberth]

Heh, so we're running into two bugs here 👀

[CLOVIS]

I think it's likely they're the same, but yeah 😅 if you report them, please link them here

[Vadim Mishenev]

I doesn't seem to resolve a as well, I think this one is a bug.

Unfortunately, we do not support inlined docs inside the @constructor tag. See https://github.com/Kotlin/dokka/issues/1953

[CLOVIS]

Interesting, IDEA does accept it and properly shows the documentation popup, too 🤔