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I have a C# code base with XML comments and (owing to this site) discovered that Doxygen can easily generate turn code and comments into HTML and PDF documentation So I know how to document classes and other types and their contents.

But how to document projects/assemblies/namespaces? My code base has over 50 of them; their responsibilities must be documented.

I'd prefer to just use XML comments on them as well. but Microsoft's XML commenting manual doesn't give me a clue how to do this, and I can't find any clues in the Doxygen documentation either.

What am I missing? How do you do provide documentation for your C# projects/assemblies?

Update: I now know how to do it with SHFB.

Community
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reinierpost
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1 Answers1

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We too have been in the process of generating the documentation for our assemblies. We have about 20- 25 dll's. We have used Sandcastle [SHFB] and its been a piece of cake. We have used the following procedure.

  1. Check the XML Documentation file in the Project properties [ClassLibrary] and then provide a custom path if required, else the XML will be generated in the bin\debug or bin\release folder.
  2. Then we will fire up the GUI from SandCastle
  3. Then we will place all the pre-requisite dll files in a folder and then we will point to the dlls and the xml files in the UI and then we will build the application. This will generate CHM as well as web pages that you can use to publish in the web as a web help.

Googling a bit will surely give you the screenshot based sample too..

In case you require to use only doxygen, please refer here

Saravanan
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  • Great to read, I was already installing SHFB while I was typing my question, so I'll definitely try this out. However I do not see an answer to my question: how do you specify documentation on the projects themselves? – reinierpost May 06 '13 at 08:48
  • You will just generate the XML documentation by checking the check box in `Project Properties > Build > XML Documentation file `. Also, you can refer to : http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2010/09/build-html-documentation-for-y.html – Saravanan May 06 '13 at 09:01
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    I don't think you understand my question and I don't know how to rephrase it to make it clear. – reinierpost May 06 '13 at 12:55
  • Meanwhile, I have tried SHFB and it does provide a way for me to specify documentation on the projects/assemblies themselves, which I have used. My only remaining wish is that Doxygen would use this information, too. – reinierpost Aug 16 '13 at 11:03
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    Is sandcastle suitable for visual studio 2017 or is there now an alternative? +1 – w0051977 Dec 18 '17 at 23:04
  • may be try this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8866598/good-alternatives-to-sandcastle-to-generate-msdn-style-documentation – Saravanan Dec 21 '17 at 13:40