# Where to download api documentation?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-download-api-documentation/66518>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 26, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-download-api-documentation/66518 "2006-08-26T14:18:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-download-api-documentation/66518/1 "2006-08-26T14:18:27Z")

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Hello, I need to download the api doc and would like to avoid vaccuuming  
[api.rubyonrails.org](http://api.rubyonrails.org)

Is there a .chm version ? Or at least a zipped html version somewhere ?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-download-api-documentation/66518/2 "2006-08-26T16:34:49Z")

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nuno wrote:

> Hello, I need to download the api doc and would like to avoid vaccuuming  
> [api.rubyonrails.org](http://api.rubyonrails.org)

If you have Rails installed on your machine, then you already have the  
documentation installed – it’s wrapped up inside the Rails code. There  
are two ways to get at it:

1. If you want to view documentation for the gems you have installed,  
run ‘gem\_server’ from the command line, and point your web browser at  
[http://localhost:8808/](http://localhost:8808/).

2. If you’re frozen against edge Rails, and you want to generate the  
documentation in the same style as [api.rubyonrails.org](http://api.rubyonrails.org), go into your  
Rails app directory and run ‘rake doc:rails’ to generate the  
documentation inside /doc/api.

Chris

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**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-download-api-documentation/66518/3 "2006-08-26T16:36:50Z")

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nuno wrote:

> Hello, I need to download the api doc and would like to avoid vaccuuming  
> [api.rubyonrails.org](http://api.rubyonrails.org)
> 
> Is there a .chm version ? Or at least a zipped html version somewhere ?

When you install Gems, the relevant HTML documentation (RDoc) is  
generated for you. If you open a command window and type

> gem\_server

you should see something like:

[2006-08-26 15:23:26] INFO WEBrick 1.3.1  
[2006-08-26 15:23:26] INFO ruby 1.8.2 (2004-12-25) [i386-mswin32]  
[2006-08-26 15:23:26] INFO WEBrick::HTTPServer#start: pid=1828  
port=8808

You should then be able to browse [http://localhost:8808/](http://localhost:8808/)  
to see the documentation.

regards

Justin

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-download-api-documentation/66518/4 "2006-08-26T18:04:52Z")

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Thanks for your answers, I was completely unaware of this trick ! RoR  
world is full of surprises 😉

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**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-download-api-documentation/66518/5 "2006-08-26T19:05:12Z")

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On 8/26/06, nuno [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Thanks for your answers, I was completely unaware of this trick ! RoR  
> world is full of surprises 😉

Technically this is a feature of rubygem and rdoc. RoR just simply has  
this doc like most others.

## –

Jon Gretar B.  
[http://www.jongretar.net/](http://www.jongretar.net/)

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**Author:** ![nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@nuno](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuno)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-download-api-documentation/66518/6 "2006-08-26T19:13:13Z")

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Nuno,

1/

> Is there a .chm version ?

[http://delynnberry.com/pages/rails-chm-documentation/](http://delynnberry.com/pages/rails-chm-documentation/)

(MacOS X users can read chm files with ‘chamonix’  
[Chamonix download | SourceForge.net](http://sourceforge.net/projects/chamonix/)  
)

2/  
There’s also DevBoi, a Firefox plugin that gives easy access to  
various documentations.  
[http://devboi.mozdev.org/](http://devboi.mozdev.org/)  
You can even have it install local/offline version of some docs.

Alain