How can I create HTML-only documentation from an aspdotnet web project?

Question

I commented all the code with the relevant ms xml documentation tags. How to create HTML-only (or pdf) documentation for all commented code? I downloaded sandcastle, but cannot figure out how to proceed to the next step. Thanks!

Answer 1

You can look at ndoc http://ndoc.sourceforge.net/

Basically, you need to include XML documentation in your project properties. Therefore, right-click on your project, select properties, go to the Build tab and select the XMLDocumentation check box.

This creates an xml file (not html). Then you need to convert (or parse) the xml file using the XSLT stylesheet. This is where nDoc comes from.

Answer 2

Sandcastle (the successor to ndoc ) is a great tool for documentation, but ironically, the path to using it is not easily and efficiently documented. You should use the Sandbule Help File Builder (SHFB) or similar platform, and not try to connect directly to Sandcastle. (Think about the sun: it's great to have around, but you don't want to look directly at it without any strong sunglasses :-) The question is, how to use SHFB?

My September 2010 article, Taming Sandcastle: A .NET Programmer's Guide to documenting your code, details what you need to do and points out a lot about potential pitfalls you are likely to encounter. In October 2010, I followed this up with a one-page wall chart that summarizes the vocabulary of XML documentation for SHFB comments.

From my research for the article, here is a complete list of other useful resources:

• Eric Woodruffs Sandcastle File Archive Documentation (SHFB Creator)
• C # Programming Guide: Recommended Tags for Documentation Comments (MSDN)
• Wm. Eric Brunsens XML Documentation Documentation Guide (Dynicity)
• Anson Hortons XML Documentation in C # (Program Manager for Microsoft C # Compiler)