The Official Guide to Mermaid.js: Create complex diagrams and beautiful flowcharts easily using text and code

by Knut Sveidqvist, Ashish Jain

Get up to speed with using Mermaid diagrams to facilitate a seamless development workflow with the help of real-world examples and expert tips from the creators of the tool Mermaid is a JavaScript-based charting and diagramming tool that lets you represent diagrams using text and code, which simplifies the maintenance of complex diagrams. This is a great option for developers as they're more familiar with code, rather than using special tools for generating diagrams. Besides, diagrams in code simplify maintenance and ensure that the code is supported by version control systems. In some cases, Mermaid makes refactoring support for name changes possible while also enabling team collaboration for review distribution and updates. Developers working with any system will be able to put their knowledge to work with this practical guide to using Mermaid for documentation. The book is also a great reference for looking up the syntax for specific diagrams when authoring diagrams. You'll start by learning the importance of accurate and visual documentation. Next, the book introduces Mermaid and establishes how to use it to create effective documentation. By using different tools, editors, or a custom documentation platform, you'll also understand how to use Mermaid syntax for various diagrams. Later chapters cover advanced configuration settings and theme options to manipulate your diagram as per your needs. By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed with Mermaid diagrams and how they can be used in your workflows. This book is for content generators such as technical writers, developers, architects, business analysts, and managers who want to learn effective documentation or how to effectively represent diagrams using simple text code snippets and extract them. Familiarity with documentation using Markdown will be helpful, but not necessary.

492 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2021

Reviews

[Adam Wan · Rating 5 out of 5]

TLDR: Directives have deprecate. Please use Configuration.
TLDR2: Good to learn the design philosophy of MermaidJS
TLDR3: You will learn how to use it effectively if you do not want too much customisations yourself.

The book is pretty good if you want to use MermaidJS effectively.
It provides some examples and the design philosophy of the library, e.g. the expected use cases of different themes, what extra configurations you can add to make it nice.

Another good part is for those who are not very familiar with UML, the author also provides the high level overview of how to use the appropriate shapes.

[Thomas Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good walkthru of Mermaids features and how to use them.
If you read it cover to cover you will find some parts repeated for each diagram type. Great if you jump into just what diagram you need, otherwise just skip those parts.

Would have liked a «troubleshooting» chapter as error messages are often very generic without much context or much to go on (especially when you are starting out with Mermaid)