Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: Generate XML comments for 3rd party DLL using reflection and Help Documentation?

  1. #1

    Thread Starter
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Posts
    16

    Generate XML comments for 3rd party DLL using reflection and Help Documentation?

    When I am creating add ins for 3rd party software (SolidWorks mostly) and they do not include any xml but provide really good online documentation I am annoyed with having to bounce between Visual Studios and their web page for really basic info like return types when intellisense just shows it as an object. So I have toyed with the idea of making something that generates an xml file for a dll using reflection and help documentation. I know there are tools out there that generate API help documents from the xml comments so why not something reverse the process!

    But I do not 100% understand how Visual Studios links the xml files with it's dll. So is this even possible, and if it is just how deep of a rabbit hole am I about head down? Or is there already something out there that does this? Though I would probably still dive into it if it's open source. Maybe someone has done this for SolidWorks?

  2. #2
    Karen Payne MVP kareninstructor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Oregon
    Posts
    6,684

    Re: Generate XML comments for 3rd party DLL using reflection and Help Documentation?

    There is a utility, Sandcastle builder (which is free) that may or may not extract xml comments from an assembly. Years ago when I used it I generated help via the resulting XML file generated by Visual Studio and may be possible w/o the XML.

    I do remember by default it will throw an exception for each method without proper XML documentaton but can be configured not to.

  3. #3
    Karen Payne MVP kareninstructor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Oregon
    Posts
    6,684

    Re: Generate XML comments for 3rd party DLL using reflection and Help Documentation?

    There is a utility, Sandcastle builder (which is free) that may or may not extract xml comments from an assembly. Years ago when I used it I generated help via the resulting XML file generated by Visual Studio and may be possible w/o the XML.

    I do remember by default it will throw an exception for each method without proper XML documentaton but can be configured not to.

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  



Click Here to Expand Forum to Full Width