Vsxmd
A MSBuild task to convert XML documentation to Markdown syntax. Support both .Net Framework and .Net Core projects.
Features
- Provide full information from the XML documentation file.
- Provide easy reading facilities - parameter table, link tooltip, etc.
- Provide table of contents to type and member links.
- Highlight code block through
<code lang="csharp">
tag. - Reference
System
types to official MSDN pages.
Get Started
If you are using Visual Studio:
- In Visual Studio, right click project name to open project properties window.
- Switch to Build tab, in Output section, check XML documentation file checkbox.
- Install Vsxmd package from NuGet.
- Build the project, then a markdown file is generated next to the XML documentation file.
If you are using Rider:
- Open the .csproj of your project
- Add
<GenerateDocumentationFile>true</GenerateDocumentationFile>
to thePropertyGroup
section. - Add
<DocumentationMarkdown>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Readme.md</DocumentationMarkdown>
to thePropertyGroup
section. - Install Vsxmd package from NuGet.
- Build the project, then a markdown file is generated next to the XML documentation file.
If you are using .Net Core CLI:
- Open project's CSPROJ file, declare
DocumentationFile
property inPropertyGroup
section. The path is relative to the project directory. MSBuild Reserved and Well-Known properties are also available for this property. - Run
dotnet add package Vsxmd
to install the the package to the project. - Run
dotnet build
to build the project and generate the XML documentation and Markdown files.
Vsxmd Options
There are some properties to customize the Markdown file generation process. They are all optional. If you want to use them, declare them in CSPROJ file's PropertyGroup
section.
DocumentationMarkdown
It is used to specify the generated Markdown file path. It defaults to the XML documentation file name with .md
extension, under the same folder as the XML file. Similar to DocumentationFile
property, the path is relative to the project directory and MSBuild properties are available.
Example
<PropertyGroup>
<DocumentationMarkdown>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\API.md</DocumentationMarkdown>
</PropertyGroup>
VsxmdAutoDeleteXml
A boolean flag to delete the XML documentation file after the Markdown file is generated.
Example
<PropertyGroup>
<VsxmdAutoDeleteXml>True</VsxmdAutoDeleteXml>
</PropertyGroup>
Extend XML documentation
There are some extended features based on XML documentation. They are not described in XML recommended tags, but they are worth to use.
Highlight Code Block
To highlight code block in the Markdown file, declare the attribute lang
in <code>
tag and set it to a program language identifier.
Example
<code lang="javascript">
function test() {
console.log("notice the blank line before this function?");
}
</code>
Programmatic API
This library provides the following programmatic API to convert XML documentation file to Markdown syntax programmatically.
Markdown File Demo
The best demo is this project's documentation file, Vsxmd.md. It is generated by this project itself.
Known Issue
The syntax for the list
comment tag is not well defined. It will be skipped during render. If you have ideas, please open an issue.
Credits
This project is initially inspired from a gist. But in the later releases, the implementation is rewritten.
License
MIT License.