How to create website from XML documentation comments? [closed]

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22228111

  •  10-06-2023
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Question

I would like to create a documentation website from C# XML documentation comments.

An example from the Python community. This Scipy documentation is created from this python code using a tool named Sphinx.

Is anything like that possible for a C# project?

Example of XML documentation comments in a .NET project (not mine) https://github.com/haf/NodaTime/blob/master/src/NodaTime/Period.cs#L26

/// <summary>
/// Represents a period of time expressed in human chronological terms: hours, days,
/// weeks, months and so on. All implementations in Noda Time are immutable, and return fields
/// in descending size order: hours before minutes, for example.
/// </summary>
public sealed class Period : IEnumerable<DurationFieldValue>, IEquatable<Period>

Edit: The full extent of advice I could find in other questions was 'use Sandcastle'. As far as I can tell from its (ironically limited) documentation, it can only create Windows help files (.chm). Is that correct?

Was it helpful?

Solution

Edit: The full extent of advice I could find in other questions was 'use Sandcastle'. As far as I can tell from its (ironically limited) documentation, it can only create Windows help files (.chm). Is that correct?

No, that's not correct. Sandcastle can build a wide range of output.

However, these days you really want Sandcastle Help-File Builder (SHFB) which makes things a whole lot better. Still not entirely painless, but pretty good. The documentation for SHFB is generally pretty reasonable, too.

Funny you should give an example of Noda Time - SHFB is precisely what we use to generate our online API reference.

OTHER TIPS

You could also try sharpDox. Another free and open source documentation generator. You are able to create html and chm output and soon word documents.

Here is an example for a html output.

P.S.: I am the creator of this tool.

For a one-click solution, you can also try our VSdocman.

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