Summary

Extend the javadoc -link and -linkoffline options to support references to other modules in external documentation.

Problem

The javadoc link and linkoffline options take an argument which provides the location of a file which is used when generating links to external documentation. The file is currently called package-list and currently just contains a list of packages. This functionality should be generalized to support references to modules in external documentation.

Solution

A new file named element-list will be introduced, which will list either just packages, or modules and packages, depending on the documentation with which it is associated. The old name and format will be supported, for now, as an alternative when the new file is not found.

While the file will continue to be a simple text file, the exact form of the file contents is not specified. Such files are generated by javadoc as part of the documentation for an API, and subsequently read by javadoc, to generate references to that API.

Specification

-link extdocURL

where:

• extdocURL is a URL for the root directory of some external javadoc-generated documentation, which should contain either a element-list or package-list file

-linkoffline extdocURL elementlistLoc

where

• extdocURL is a URL for the root directory of some external javadoc-generated documentation
• elementlistLoc is the path or URL to a local directory containing the element-list or a package-list file for the external documentation.

Note: these are existing options, and the syntax of these options is unchanged. The change is to behavior of these options, in looking for a new file named element-list in preference to a file named package-list.