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Convert XML documentation to HTML pages

I'm using Visual Basic .NET 2005 and been commenting my code with the XML tag formatting. When I build my code I noticed that the compiler generates documentation for it in the form of an XML file. How can I convert that XML file to a readable format like a HTML web page. I've used doxygen for C++ code and it works great. I would like to generate similar documenting with VB.NET.

I couldn't find the option in visual studio. Am I missing something?

riyazthad

I dont think there is a direct method. Usually doing using XSLT.

Here is link which explain you how to convert to HTML.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/06/XMLC/

DEEPESH

Yeas as such there is no internal tool avialbale to document it but there are external tools available. I suggest you to please visit following link

http://aspalliance.com/696_Code_Documentation_in_NET
http://www.thescripts.com/forum/thread363647.html
http://www.fesersoft.com/products/vbxmlcomments/documentation.asp

cmjwebservices

Hi neelbak,

Try NDoc Code Documentation Generator for .NET -

From the description: "NDoc generates class library documentation from .NET assemblies and the XML documentation files generated by the C# compiler (or with an add-on tool for VB.NET)", available from http://ndoc.sourceforge.net/.

A couple of other related resources:

"Title: transforming xml to html for n number of xml files in a file directory using vb.net"
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21003165/transforming-xml-to-html-for-n-number-of-xml-files-in-a-file-directory-using-vb-net.html?query=convert+xml+to+html&topics=866

"How Do I...Apply an XSL Transformation to XML?"
http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickstart/howto/doc/Xml/TransformXml.aspx

Chris

cmjwebservices

Another useful item:

http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/xml_xsl_report_winapp.asp

I translated the source using Instant VB and it worked very well.

neelbak

ASKER

I'm still trying out everyone's suggestions to see which best meet my needs.

However, my requirements are:
1) Works with VB.NET 2005 code
2) Creates call graphs and a html pages (entire site not just one long doc)

Chris,
I've heard of ndoc but that does not seem to work for VB.NET 2005.

Please let me know if anyone has any other suggestions. Thanks!

cmjwebservices

Hi neelbak,

After the holidays I'll take a further look into it and see what I can find. Unfortunately nothing immediately comes to mind other than what I posted, except for ProjectAnalyzer (http://www.aivosto.com/project/project.html), which generates documentation for Visual Basic projects (as well as checks for dead code, performs optimizations, etc.), but the going price for the software is $990 for the Enterprise version which, in my opinion, is the best...

From their web site:

"Document your projects. Generate comprehensive documentation with reports such as procedure list, control list, project dictionary, module diagrams. Std, Pro, Ent Create code manuals and source code web sites."

Chris

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