Document! X 2017
Getting Started / Getting Started with .NET Reference Documentation
In This Topic
    Getting Started with .NET Reference Documentation
    In This Topic

    Document! X fully supports documentation of .NET assemblies from compiled assemblies created in any .NET language, including VB.NET, C#, J#, C++/CLI and Delphi.NET. .NET Framework 1.0 - 4.7 and Silverlight are all supported.

    Document! X integrates with Microsoft® Visual Studio® (2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017 RC ) to provide you with the tools you need to author and build documentation for your Visual Studio solutions.

    .NET Reference Documentation Fundamentals

    Create a new .NET Reference Documentation Project

    1. Click the Application Menu button at the top left of the Ribbon;
    2. Select the New page;
    3. Choose Empty Project from the available Project Types;
    4. On the New Project dialog, type a descriptive Project Name for the new project; 
    5. You can optionally choose a specific directory in which to save your project by editing the Project Directory field; the project will by default be saved to a subdirectory of the default New / Save directory which is configurable in the Options editor (Paths page).
    6. Click Ok;

    The new empty documentation project will be created and opened for edit. You can now add the .NET Assemblies that you would like to document:

    1. Click the Add .NET Assembly Ribbon button on the Project Ribbon tab.
    2. Use the displayed file dialog to select the .NET assembly or assemblies that you would like to document in this project.

    The selected .NET assembly or assemblies will be added to the Project Explorer under the Assemblies node. Expand down through each assembly node to tick / untick individual namespaces or types in order to include / exclude them; by default private and internal types are excluded (unticked).

    A Content File will be created and added to the project under the Content Files node for each .NET Assembly added to the project. You can use the Content File to author additional content in the pages that Document! X will automatically generate.

    .NET Xml Comments from your source code will be automatically used in the generated output. Xml Comments content is displayed in the Content File Editor so you can see at a glance what content is already available from source comments and what requires further authoring.

     

    Author content in source code Xml comments

    You can use the .NET Xml comments feature to create documentation content in source code. Document! X supports all of the standard .NET Xml comment tags.

    You can either author .NET Xml comments manually in the source code editor or make use of the Document! X Visual Comment Editor integrated directly with Visual Studio 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017 RC :

    1. Open the source code file that you wish to author documentation Xml comments for (C#, VB.NET and C++ supported).
    2. Click the  Edit Documentation toolbar button on the main Visual Studio toolbar.
    3. A Document! X Visual Comment Editor window will open. The tree on the left hand side allows you to select the code elements in the code file - select a code element and you can edit the documentation directly in the right hand side of the editor. Content that you author is written back to your source code as standard .NET Xml comments.
    Each time you compile your .NET assembly, the compiler will extract your source Xml comments and generate an Xml comment file that Document! X will then use in the documentation generation process.

    Visual Comment Editor Movies

     

    Author content outside of the source code

    If you would like to supplement the content of the pages automatically generated by Document! X outside of the source code, you can do so using the Document! X Content File Editor.

    The Content File Editor allows you to review and author content for any item for which a reference documentation page is generated.

    To open the Content File Editor:

    1. Expand the Content Files node on the Project Explorer.
    2. Locate the Content File for the item you wish to author content for.
    3. Right click on the Content File and select Edit.
    4. The Content File will be opened for edit. The tree on the left hand side of the editor shows you a hierarchical view of the item you are documenting.
    5. Drill down and select an item from the tree and the related documentation pages will be shown in the right hand side of the editor.
    6. Type directly in the editable portions of the page on the right hand side of the editor.
    7. Select a specific content type from the toolbar / vertical menu to edit a specific type of content (e.g. Summary, See Also, Keywords).

    Content File Editor Movies

     

    Add Conceptual Topics

    Conceptual information is a key part of reference documentation, providing a high level introduction, tutorials or other conceptual information. You can easily create conceptual topics in Document! X.

    1. Click the New Topic button on the Project Ribbon tab, or use the Ctrl+T shortcut key.
    2. The new Topic will be created in the currently selected Topic Category on the Project Explorer (or under the (Un-categorized) node if no category is selected) and will be opened for edit.
    3. Type your conceptual content directly in the editable area of the Topic Editor.

    You can find more information on Topic Editing in the Topic Editor topic.

    Conceptual Authoring Movies

     

    Change .NET documentation settings

    The settings that govern .NET documentation generation are defined in the Build Profile editor. In a new project there is a single Build Profile but you can define many build profiles if you want to create multiple outputs with different settings.

    To edit .NET documentation settings:

    1. Expand the Build Profiles node in the Project Explorer.
    2. Select the Build Profile that you wish to edit.
    3. Right click on the Build Profile and select Edit.
    4. The Build Profile will be opened for edit.

    In the Build Profile editor, you can find the various .NET Settings pages under the Reference Documentation section.

    You can change the Template used for .NET documentation (which defines the look and feel of generated pages) on the Templates page.

     

    Identify undocumented items 

    An essential part of delivering a complete documentation set is ensuring that all the items have been documented. Document! X includes the Undocumented Items tool to quickly and easily identify undocumented items.

    To identify undocumented items:

    1. On the Tools Ribbon Tab, click the Undocumented Items button;
    2. If your project contains more than one Build Profile, select the Profile for which you wish to find undocumented items;
    3. Tick the Item Types (e.g. Class, Method, Schema, Column) that you wish to check for undocumented items;
    4. Tick the Content Types that items must have to be considered documented (just Summary by default);
    5. Tick the Content Sources that should be used when checking for content;
    6. Click the Execute button. Any undocumented items will be listed in the results grid.

    See the Undocumented Items topic for more information.

    Find Undocumented Items Movies

     

    Build and deploy .NET reference documentation

    Click the  Build Ribbon button on the Project ribbon tab to build your .NET reference documentation.

    In a new project, the default Build Profile will be configured to generate output in CHM Html Help 1.x format. For .NET documentation you should change this on the Compiled Help page in the Build Profile editor to either Help 2.x (for Visual Studio 2002 - 2008) or Microsoft Help Viewer (for Visual Studio 2010, 2012 and 2013). You can also define new Build Profiles if you want to generate multiple output types.

    By default the generated documentation will be integrated with Visual Studio on the local machine. Refer to the Deployment topic for more information on how to deploy your documentation to other machines.

    Movies

    See Also

    Visual Studio Integration