Embarking on your coding journey often involves wrangling complex ideas and processes. Visualizing these concepts can be a game-changer, and that's where Mermaid diagrams come to the rescue. In this beginner-friendly guide, we'll explore the world of Mermaid diagrams, and showcase examples to get you started on the right track.

What is it?

Mermaid is a JavaScript based diagramming tool that transforms your text-based syntax into easy-to-understand diagrams. It supports various types of diagrams, such as flowcharts, pie charts, sequence diagrams, Git graphs, and more, making it easier to communicate and understand complex systems.

Why use it?

If you've ever struggled with updating process diagrams using tools like Draw.io or Excalidraw, Mermaid is here to make your life easier. Once you update the text, the diagram gets updated seamlessly. Mermaid diagrams are easy to create, share, collaborate on, maintain, and update.

Getting Started

The official live editor provides a playground to explore the possibilities..

To use this in GitHub or VSCode, enclose your code in triple backticks block and then specify mermaid as the code type ```mermaid ```

You need to download Markdown Preview Mermaid Support or any similar extension to enable you visualize the diagram in VSCode.

In Notion,

1. Open the document
2. Type /code or triple backticks (```) to use the code option
3. Update the code type to "Mermaid"
4. Type your flow in mermaid syntax and
5. Click on Preview to view the resulting diagram

Examples

Below are Markdown-inspired text definitions and the resulting Mermaid diagrams.

Flow chart

Explains how things get done, with steps shown as boxes and the order they happen, connected by arrows.

  flowchart LR
    A[Visit Registration Page] --Provide Details--> B[Submit Form]
    B -->|Validate and Store| C[Create Account]
    C -->|Send Confirmation Email| D{Is confirmation successful?}
    D -->|Yes| E[(User Registered)]
    D -->|No| F[User Not Registered]
    E -->|No| G([End])
    F -->|No| G([End])

The LR specifies the chart's direction (Left to Right). You can also choose TD for Top to Down arrangement. The alphabets represents the node ID and can be substituted with what you want to use as an identifier.

Sequence Diagram

Likened to a timeline that shows how different steps in a process happen one after the other.

    sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant Platform
    participant Course

    User ->> Platform: Login
    User ->> Platform: Browse Courses
    User ->> Course: Select Course
    Platform ->> Course: Retrieve Course Details
    Course ->> Course: Fetches Course from database
    Course -->> User: Return course details
    User ->> Platform: Enroll in Course
    Note left of User: Prevent multiple enrolment
    Platform ->> Course: Add User to Course
    Course -->> Platform: Enrollment Successful
    Platform -->> User: Confirmation Message

Mind map

Mind maps are like helpful doodles that make it easy to show and remember ideas. They're great for connecting information in a simple and understandable way.

mindmap
      root(Summer Vacation))
        Destinations
          Europe
            France(Paris)
            Italy(Rome)
          Asia
            Japan(Tokyo)
        Budget
          Airfare
          Hotels
          Food
        Activities
          Sightseeing
          Adventure Sports
        Accommodation
          Hotels
          Vacation Rentals

Conclusion

You've only begun to explore the world of Mermaid diagrams. Whether you're mapping out a project, documenting code, or clarifying a process, Mermaid simplifies it all. It's not just useful in corporate settings for brainstorming with your team or presenting processes to stakeholders; you can also apply it in your personal life for event planning and more.

Consider exploring other types of diagrams that Mermaid supports to enhance your project documentation and collaboration.