Docusaurus: [v2.alpha.62] sidebars.json is required after upgrading from alpha.61 to alpha.62

[MateuszDabrowski]

🐛 Bug Report

After update from alpha.61 to alpha.62 I'm not able to start a server with my website due to a missing 'sidebars.json' file. It was not required previously. I'm using custom sidebar js files for multiple doc roots: https://github.com/MateuszDabrowski/mateuszdabrowski.pl (one in /docs, one in /ideas)

Have you read the Contributing Guidelines on issues?

Yes

To Reproduce

(Write your steps here:)

1. Update package.json to alpha.62
2. npm run start
3. Error: The sidebar file does not exist for version [current]. A sidebar file is expected to be found at /Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/sidebars.json

Expected behavior

The website should compile without the need for sidebars.json if there are custom sidebars assigned in docusaurus config.

Actual Behavior

The compile breaks with error:

Error: The sidebar file does not exist for version [current]. A sidebar file is expected to be found at /Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/sidebars.json
    at checkVersionMetadataPaths (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/@docusaurus/plugin-content-docs/lib/versions.js:135:15)
    at Array.forEach (<anonymous>)
    at Object.readVersionsMetadata (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/@docusaurus/plugin-content-docs/lib/versions.js:171:22)
    at pluginContentDocs (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/@docusaurus/plugin-content-docs/lib/index.js:27:41)
    at /Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/@docusaurus/core/lib/server/plugins/init.js:72:48
    at Array.map (<anonymous>)
    at Object.initPlugins [as default] (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/@docusaurus/core/lib/server/plugins/init.js:27:10)
    at Object.loadPlugins (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/@docusaurus/core/lib/server/plugins/index.js:49:35)
    at Object.load (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/@docusaurus/core/lib/server/index.js:78:74)
    at FSWatcher.reload (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/@docusaurus/core/lib/commands/start.js:47:18)
    at FSWatcher.emit (events.js:315:20)
    at FSWatcher.emitWithAll (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/chokidar/index.js:534:8)
    at FSWatcher._emit (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/chokidar/index.js:626:8)
    at FSWatcher._remove (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/chokidar/index.js:880:50)
    at FsEventsHandler.handleEvent (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/chokidar/lib/fsevents-handler.js:266:16)
    at FsEventsHandler.checkExists (/Users/md/Documents/Code/JS/md/node_modules/chokidar/lib/fsevents-handler.js:254:12)

Adding sidebars.json file with {} content solves this issue.

Might be connected to https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/issues/3362

Your Environment

• Docusaurus version used: alpha.62
• Environment name and version (VSCode Version: 1.48.2, node v14.2.0):
• Operating system and version (desktop or mobile): Macbook Pro on Catalina 10.15.6

Reproducible Demo

https://github.com/MateuszDabrowski/mateuszdabrowski.pl/tree/772446b0b3a84c69d02cf18c290248818501151b + bump the version of docusaurus to alpha.62

[slorber]

Thanks, this is related to a big docs plugin refactor here: https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/pull/3245

Will make the sidebars optional again in next release

[slorber]

BTW as a side note, instead of your "sites" docs instance without any sidebar, you could also try to use Markdown Pages, released recently.

What's the motivation to use docs plugin for the sites URLs like https://mateuszdabrowski.pl/sites/my-toolset on your site? (this probably make sense, just curious to see if we could improve md pages to support better this usecase)

[slorber]

Will be fixed in https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/pull/3376

Still kept a yellow warning as using docs without sidebar is probably a niche usecase

[MateuszDabrowski]

Ahoj @slorber,

As for /sites path and my-toolset - I opted for making it a docs page because of the markdown support and built-in table of contents (could have swizzled it, but wanted to wait to post-alpha stage with swizzling). Same for pages like http://localhost:3000/sites/privacy or http://localhost:3000/sites/licence
Markdown Pages makes one of the reason no longer valid, so once table of contents is supported for pages just as for docs (or once the docusaurus v2 development reach beta to be stable enough for swizzling) I will move them to be pages instead of pseudo-docs.

As for yellow warning - I would say that if the docusarus config links to a custom sidebar, it should not trigger a warning, as it shows purposeful omission of the default approach.

[slorber]

Released alpha 63 🎊 please spread the word 🙏
https://twitter.com/docusaurus/status/1301562737693138944
https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/releases/tag/v2.0.0-alpha.63

[MateuszDabrowski]

Confirmed! The label also disappeared from the pages :)