Product Updates

Easily Explore, Learn, and Build with PubNub Documentation

Hiren Adesara on Sep 24, 2020
Easily Explore, Learn, and Build with PubNub Documentation

Today, we’re excited to launch the newest version of the PubNub Documentation. As the latest milestone in our journey of listening to developer feedback and making it as easy as possible to learn how to use PubNub, this release features an overhauled design and greatly expanded technical content that puts the developer experience front and center.

 A new experience for PubNub developers

At PubNub, we have an ongoing commitment to support developers and give them the tools they need to easily build customized and feature-rich apps for any use case. The new PubNub Documentation delivers a completely refreshed developer experience designed around a single goal: to make it easy and intuitive to find the precise information you need the moment you need it.

To evolve our PubNub Documentation to meet this need, we’ve listened to developer feedback and retooled the docs home page, and have written all-new guides for every PubNub feature and our most popular use cases. We've also revised the layout, advanced search, and changelog pages for every SDK, which comes together to put the answers and tools you need at your fingertips. 

So whether you’re new or experienced with PubNub, and whether you’re building with just one use case in mind or many, our new docs offer a rewarding and intuitive way to learn how PubNub can best serve your specific needs. 

Expanded developer content 

This release brings a slate of fresh developer content across all of docs, with more to come in future updates. You can find the following new content in our documentation right now:

  • An upgraded home page that surfaces relevant documentation faster

  • Six new quickstart guides and their corresponding sample apps

  • A refreshed SDK overview page that better categorizes SDKs by developer needs

  • New Dedicated chat documentation guides that get you building quickly, with best-practices from the start

Refreshed design and navigation

PubNub Documentation now features an improved design that emphasizes intuitive navigation, which will help you quickly find the precise information you need.

The left-hand navigation menu has been reorganized to let you quickly and easily navigate the documentation site. It cleanly organizes content—supporting you whether you’re researching a new use case, getting started with a new feature, or looking for API reference. Combined with our new developer content, this redesigned navigation makes developing with PubNub simple, pleasant, and roadblock-free.  

We have also rebuilt the search console to make it easier than ever to search for, find, and navigate results. In addition to a redesigned results panel, you can now search and navigate through the documentation using only keyboard shortcuts (press ‘s’ or ‘/’ to search and up/down/return to navigate search results). It’s a small touch, but it’s one that ensures a friendly experience across your entire development toolkit.

Last but not least, we’ve streamlined the overall look and feel of our docs. This includes updated diagrams, along with restyled code blocks that offer one-click copying, so you can bring sample code right into your IDE. Together with updates to design elements across the board, this overhaul makes our docs clean, precise, and efficient—just like your code. 

Upgraded to suit developers' needs

Collectively, these improvements mark an evolution for the PubNub developer experience. They make it easier for you to find the information you need—whether it’s to build a new feature, discover new capabilities, or troubleshoot issues—so you can spend more time focused on building and getting your app up and running.

This release marks just one step in our ongoing commitment to iterate on and continuously improve the ways developers learn and use our technology. With this mission in mind, in addition to the new and improved docs experience, we’re also announcing an open call for contributions to improve our SDKs. As a developer, your feedback and contributions are key to making sure our technology truly supports you as you build. So, we’d love to hear how you think we can upgrade our product to better meet your needs.

Based on your feedback so far, you can already look forward to further improvements in the coming weeks that include:

  • A new configuration for our Sample Apps page to get you started even faster

  • Further upgrades to search, SDK pages, and API reference

  • Dark mode, for accessibility (and for those who simply prefer it)

Dive into our new docs for yourself, and take a look at our expanded content, revised SDK pages, and advanced search functionality.

We look forward to your continued feedback and seeing what you’ll build with PubNub!