Getting Started

• Welcome — read this first
• Writing your first page
• Diagrams and images
• Organising content and permissions

Welcome — read this first

Welcome to CA UK docs

This is where we document how the CA UK websites work, how the different JSON feeds talk to each other, and anything else worth writing down.

How content is organised

BookStack uses a four-level hierarchy:

• Shelves — optional groupings that hold multiple books.
• Books — the main unit. One book per subject (e.g. "National website", "District shop").
• Chapters — optional sub-sections within a book.
• Pages — the actual content.

Logging in

Click Log In at the top right. Public visitors can read content without logging in.

Next steps

1. Read Writing your first page to learn the editor.
2. Read Diagrams and images to see how to draw architecture diagrams directly in a page.
3. Read Organising content to learn about books, chapters, and permissions.

Writing your first page

Creating a page

1. Open a book (or create one from the home page).
2. Click New Page.
3. Give it a name at the top.
4. Write your content in the editor.
5. Click Save Page.

WYSIWYG vs Markdown

BookStack has two editors. Pick one per page:

• WYSIWYG (default) — rich-text editor, like Google Docs.
• Markdown — plain text with **bold**, # headings, etc.

Basic formatting

• Bold — Ctrl/Cmd + B
• Italic — Ctrl/Cmd + I
• Headings — dropdown in the toolbar
• Code blocks — use the </> button (JSON, PHP, JS, etc.)
• Links — highlight text and press Ctrl/Cmd + K

Linking to other pages

Paste any BookStack URL into the editor and it auto-converts to a nice link.

Diagrams and images

Drawing diagrams

BookStack has diagrams.net (formerly drawio) built in. This is the killer feature for documenting how systems connect.

How to insert one

1. In the editor toolbar, click the diagrams button.
2. A drawio window opens. Draw your diagram.
3. Click Save. The diagram is embedded but stays editable — click it later to re-open.

What to draw

• System architecture (boxes = services, arrows = data flows)
• Sequence diagrams (who calls whom)
• Data flow between JSON feeds and the websites that consume them
• Deployment diagrams

Images

Drag-and-drop images into the editor. They upload automatically.

Code and JSON

Use the code block button (</>) and pick the language. All syntax-highlighted.

Organising content and permissions

Creating books

Click New Book from the home page. Give it a name and description.

Chapters

Inside a book, click New Chapter. Use chapters when a book has 20+ pages.

Moving pages

Open a page → Edit → cog menu → Move Page.

Permissions

The site is currently public — anyone can read without logging in.

Making something private

1. Open the shelf, book, chapter or page.
2. Click Edit → Permissions.
3. Enable Custom permissions.
4. Remove the Public role from View etc.

Permissions cascade down.

Searching

Top-bar search indexes everything. Use tag:feeds to filter by tag.