¡°XML2CHM¡±  shared software helper document

 

NOTE: This shared software will be benefited to the developers who use C# with Microsoft Visual studio .NET.

 

Updated: Dec 2005

Author:  David

Contact: dfliu@163.com

            

Contents:

 

1: Introduction.

2: Where is the XML file comes from?

3: How to translate the XML file to CHM(Microsoft help document format)?

 

 

1: Introduction.

In source code files of C#, lines that begin with /// and that precede a user-defined type such as a class, delegate, or interface; a member such as a field, event, property, or method; or a namespace declaration can be processed as comments and placed in a file.

C# provides a mechanism for developers to document their code using XML.

But the XML file can not be read easily, for this reasons, this software will change this XML file to CHM.

 

 

2: Where is the XML file comes from?

The XML file is outputted by compiler of Visual C# .NET environment, the following content will show the steps.

For details, please see MSDN 2003(or 2005) about ¡°XML Documentation Tutorial¡± articles.

Our sample C# solution come from C# testing tool ¡°NUnit 2.2¡±, you can find it at Internet. It contains source code that is written by C# also, and it is free.

The solution name is nunit.sln.

 

(1)   Open the solution (nunit.sln).

(2)   In Solution Explorer, right-click the project ¡°nunit.framework.dll¡± and click Properties.

(3)   Open the Configuration Properties folder and click Build.

(4)   Set the XML Documentation File property to ¡°nunit.framework.xml¡±.

 

(5)   From the Build menu, click Build. The XML output file will be in the debug directory.

 

(6)   The context of ¡°nunit.framework.xml¡±:

As you have seen, it is not easy to read the comment information, so we will translate it to easy reading format. That is CHM file.

 

 

3: How to translate XML file to CHM(Microsoft help document format)?

(1)   Launch XML2CHM.exe, the initialize GUI like:

 

 

(2)   Click the ¡°Browse¡­¡± button to locate the document XML file, in our sample it is ¡°nunit.framework.xml¡±.

 

NOTE:

a.      You can select multiple files in the pop-up open file dialog box.

b.      You can click the ¡°browse¡­¡± button multiple times to select XML files in difference directory.

c.       You can click the ¡°Clear¡± button at the right of ¡°File List combo-box¡± to remove the files having selected in the combo-box.

 

(3)   Click the ¡°Read¡­¡± button to read the content of XML files to tree list control:

 

 

NOTE:

a.      You can use the buttons at the bottom of the tree control to operate all the tree items, ¡°Expand or Collapse¡±, ¡°Select or Un-Select¡±

b.      You can select or un-select a single item by clicking the check box at the left of it.

c.       The selected and its child items will be output to CHM file.

 

(4)   Set your project properties:

Click the button ¡°¡­¡± at the right of ¡°Output FileName¡± edit box to set the output CHM file name, in our sample it is set to ¡°NUnit¡±.

Type the project description at the edit box at the bottom of label ¡°Project Description¡±, in our sample it is set to ¡°NUnit Framework Class Library¡±.

 

 

(5)   After you have selected the items and set the output properties, click the ¡°Trans¡­¡± button to translate the XML content to CHM.

If no error occurred then the status message will be ¡°Compile helper project OK!¡± and CHM file will be pop-up auto.

 

CHM file: