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This template will help you create a new tutorial. A tutorial should guide users who are new to a feature through getting set up and using the feature, and point them to further reading for alternative use cases and options. To help decide whether content should be a tutorial or a how-to guide, see the Diataxis website.

Content templates help you to:

  • Develop new content quickly

  • Ensure your page conforms to the style guide

To use this template make a copy and place it in the _cci2 directory. The filename should match the page title. Look at the source file for this page template here. There is additional detail in the comments.

The opening paragraph should be used to succinctly explain to the reader what value the feature/task provides and what use cases it supports. If possible display the use cases in a bullet list.

Contributors from within CircleCI can also consider setting up a local development environment to preview changes before pushing. Ping one of the Developer Resources and Engineering team (DRE) for more information.

Introduction

Use the introduction to explain what the reader is going to achieve through following the tutorial. Link back to the conceptual page that accompanies the tutorial, to illustrate this here is a link to the template for conceptual pages. If possible provide a demo or example. The tutorial should ideally be written to accompany a public/open source example that any reader can use, but the tutorial should also be able to accommodate a reader’s own project.

Prerequisites

If available and/or relevant, list what the reader must have in place in order for the document to be meaningful and helpful. This might include:

  • Tools

  • Skills/knowledge

  • Permissions

  • Dependencies

Prerequisites may include things like:

  • A CircleCI account connected to your code. You can sign up for free.

  • A code repository you want to build on CircleCI.

1. The first step

The main body of the tutorial should be broken into logical steps with headings for each step. The steps should guide the reader through setting up and using the feature. Write the section headings with an active voice to show what will be done. The reader should ideally be able to read the page table of contents and understand what they will achieve and how.

a. This is a subsection title

Subsections can be used to break steps into logical sub-parts as needed, and should be numbered using lowercase letters.

Break up large blocks of text where possible to help make it easier to consume. You can use bullet lists:

  • Item 1

  • Item 2

  • Item 3

b. Using tables

This is the syntax for creating a table. This example has one heading row and one normal row. The table has three columns

Header text column 1Header text column 2Header text column 3

Text for row 1 column 1

Text for row 1 column 2

Text for row 1 column 3

For a full description of the options available, including merging cells, and cell formatting, see the Asciidoctor docs.

To link out to content outside of the docs use a link:

To link to another page within the docs use a cross reference:

Notice the # at the end of the filename. You can place the subsection anchor there if you want to link to a subsection:

d. Code examples

Use asciidoc source blocks for code:

version: 2.1
jobs:
  build:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/base:2021.04
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run:
          name: The First Step
          command: |
            echo 'Hello World!'
            echo 'This is the delivery pipeline'
      - run:
          name: The Second Step
          command: |
            ls -al
            echo '^^^The files in your repo^^^'

e. Banners

In technical writing we use admonitions to create blocks of content that stand out from the main flow of text. Outside the docs team we usually refer to these as banners. Currently we have the option to include notes, cautions, and warnings, as follows:

We try to use a short section in bold at the start of the admonition to try to attract the readers attention.

For more information, see the CircleCI style guide.

2. The second step

Each main step in the tutorial should be under its own level 2 (==) heading, using the numbered list format.

Conclusion

End the tutoral with a conclusion section that summarizes what was covered.


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