Document! X is a combination of an automated Visual Basic (VB.NET) documentation tool and a full documentation authoring environment which can be used to create accurate, professional quality documentation for assemblies created with VB.NET or any other .NET language (C#, F#, C++/CLI etc.).
Document! X is not just an automated VB.NET documentation build tool - it is also includes a fully featured documentation authoring environment allowing you to create supplementary content (descriptions and remarks for Namespaces, Classes, Interfaces, Enumerations, members, hyperlinks to related pages, example code, index keywords etc.) where required.
These sample outputs illustrate how much can be generated by Document! X right out of the box. All of the Document! X Templates are fully customizable and can be easily adapted or extended to meet your specific requirements.
Lightbox Overview of a .NET class, including an automatically generated Object Relationship Diagram, Inheritance Hierarchy and Syntax in multiple .NET languages.
Lightbox Page for a specific .NET constructor overload, including a link to the method summary page listing other overloads.
Lightbox Overview of the COM class, including an automatically generated Object Relationship Diagram.
Lightbox Page generated for an XSD Complex Type, including a type diagram, overview data tree and XSD Source Code.
Lightbox Page generated for a Javascript method, documenting the syntax and parameters.
Lightbox Page generated for a Table, including Properties, Columns, Indexes, Relationships and SQL Source (where available). Also includes dependencies if documenting a Sql Server database.
Lightbox Page generated for a GET Operation in a REST Web Service. Details the parameters, request/response data types and any fault responses.
Lightbox Page generated for a SOAP Web Service method. Details the parameters, request/response data types and any fault responses.
Lightbox Schema diagrams are automatically generated for web service operations that use XSD Types and XSD documentation pages.
Document! X makes Visual Basic XML comments easier to work with by including a Visual Comment Editor integrated with Visual Studio® 2010-2022.
The Visual Comment Editor allows you to work within a preview of the generated documentation page whilst still reading and writing the content to and from source in standard .NET XML comment format. If you prefer, you can continue to author Visual Basic XML source comments manually.
Lightbox The Document! X Visual Studio Visual Comment Editor provides a unique fully Visual Editor for your VB.NET, C# or C++/CLI source code comments, integrated directly with the Visual Studio IDE. The Visual Comment Editor allows you to create and edit Xml comments in a WYSIWYG preview of the generated documentation.
Lightbox Even though you can author your content in a fully WYSIWYG editor, comments created or edited with the Visual Comment Editor are written back to your source code in standard XML source comment format.
Lightbox Document! X can document assemblies created with any Visual Studio language. The Visual Comment Editor supports C#, Visual Basic, C++/CLI and F# projects.
Lightbox Build your documentation projects directly from Visual Studio. Integrate Document! X with your team build using the provided command line build .exe, msbuild task or Workflow activity.
Document! X will use any Visual Basic XML source comments where they are available - including all of the comment types that Microsoft define in the XML comment specification for Visual Basic and C#.
You can also author content outside of Visual Basic source code if you wish, or combine both approaches and have some content in Visual Basic source XML comments and some in Document! X Content Files.
This approach is quite common as it allows technical writers to contribute more extensive content or examples, or override content defined in source comments for editorial reasons, without stopping developers from documenting in the source.
Lightbox In combination with, or as an alternative to authoring content in Xml Source Comments, create and maintain documentation content using the Document! X Content File Editor.
Lightbox The Document! X Content File editor shows you the .NET Xml source comments whilst you are editing, so that you can instantly see where the source documentation might require additional detail or replacement. Document! X will automatically populate the description of members inherited from elsewhere in your assembly or the .NET Framework to further reduce the amount of documentation authoring effort.
Lightbox A specific designer is included in both the Visual Studio Comment Editor and the Content File Editor to make creating examples quick and easy. Paste example code or use existing code files (or named regions within them) as your source.
Lightbox The generated documentation for classes and structures will automatically include an Object Relationship Diagram. These diagrams are invaluable in helping users of your documentation make sense of the object model contained in your .NET Assemblies.
Lightbox No matter where you decide to author your descriptive content, your assembly xml comment file can always be in sync - Document! X can generate an Xml comment file during build that always reflects the content of the generated documentation so intellisense will be always be accurate and up to date.
Lightbox Document! X can output to a variety of formats, including browser help for publishing to a website, CHM and Microsoft Help Viewer. Microsoft Help Viewer is the help technology used by Visual Studio. Integrating documentation with Microsoft Help Viewer ensures that help for the assemblies you document is only ever an F1 key press away.
The same great authoring environment, including dynamic spell check, hyperlink designer and designers for example code, permissions, exceptions, index keywords etc. are available both in the Visual Studio Integrated VB.NET Visual Comment Editor and in the Document! X Content File Editor.
Document! X automatically generates object relationship diagrams for your classes. Specific relationships can be ignored where necessary (e.g. a relationship back to a parent object). Collection objects are automatically recognized and appropriately represented.
Using Document! X as your Visual Basic documentation tool immediately delivers the following benefits:
