Adding IntelliSense tooltips, XML comments, and documentation
Adding IntelliSense tooltips, XML comments, and documentation <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/dotnet/faqs/?id=tooltipsxmldocumentation&lang=en> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adding IntelliSense tooltips, XML comments, and documentation Adding tooltips in IntelliSense for Visual Basic .NET assemblies and creating HTML Help documentation: Visual Studio .NET takes the text shown in IntelliSense tips from an XML file that is provided in addition to the assembly (for example, a DLL). The XML file must have the same name as the corresponding DLL with ".xml" appended and has to be placed in the same folder as the assembly (assembly "Foo.dll", XML file "Foo.dll.xml"). The format of the XML file taken by Visual Studio .NET is specified here: C# Programmer's Reference -- Processing the XML File <URL:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/csref/html/vclrfprocessingxmlfile.asp> For C#, Visual Studio .NET creates this XML file automatically (compiler option "/doc"). This is supported by Visual Basic 2005 too, but there is no built-in support in Visual Basic .NET 2002/2003. In C# XML comments are preceeded by '///', in Visual Basic 2005 they are preceeded by three consecutive single quote characters '''''. An XML comment skeleton is inserted automatically when entering this character sequence. You can create the XML file by hand, but notice that this will take a lot of time and it will be hard to keep the file up to date when parts of the assembly change. It's much easier to use one of the tools listed below to create the XML file. Tools like NDoc will take the XML file and create an HTML Help file from the XML formatted data. One easy way to create the XML file is to provide information for tooltips as XML comments inside the Visual Basic .NET source files and then use tools like VB.DOC to create the XML file that contains the data. Then you can copy this file into the assembly's directory to provide information to Visual Studio .NET that enables it to display tooltips, or you can create a help file. The help file can be deployed with the assembly and can be used by other developers who use the assembly as reference. .NET 2.0: <URL:http://www.help-info.de/en/Visual_Basic_2005/vb_2005.htm>. NDoc 2.0 (for .NET 2.0) development has been cancelled: NDoc 2.0 - R.I.P <URL:http://weblogs.asp.net/bhouse/archive/2006/07/26/NDoc-2.0-_2D00_-R.I.P.aspx> Fix for NDoc 2.0: NDoc 2.0 Alpha <URL:http://www.kynosarges.de/NDoc.html> Microsoft is preparing a replacement product called Sandcastle: Sandcastle - July 2006 Community Technology Preview (CTP) <URL:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E82EA71D-DA89-42EE-A715-696E3A4873B2&displaylang=en> News on Sandcastle <URL:http://blogs.msdn.com/sandcastle/> Visual Basic .NET 2002/2003: VB Commenter <URL:http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/ide/> -> "VB Commenter" Generating Documentation for Your Visual Basic .NET Applications <URL:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/VBGeneratingDocs.asp> Dokumentationen für Visual Basic .NET-Anwendungen <URL:http://www.microsoft.com/germany/msdn/library/net/vbnet/DokumentationenFuerVisualBasicNETAnwendungen.mspx> XML Documentation <URL:http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/vb/> -> "XML Documentation" VBXC - VB.NET XML Commentor <URL:http://vbxmldoc.tor-erik.net/> NDoc Code Documentation Generator for .NET <URL:http://ndoc.sourceforge.net/> VB.DOC <URL:http://vb-doc.sourceforge.net/> <URL:http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/Workspaces/Workspace.aspx?id=112b5449-f702-46e2-87fa-86bdf39a17dd> Commercial: VBdocman .NET <URL:http://www.vbdocman.com/> C# XML comments: C# Programmer's Reference -- Recommended Tags for Documentation Comments <URL:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/csref/html/vclrfTagsForDocumentationComments.asp>