[Offtopic - Maybe] MSDN Documentation

[Mythran]

Can someone please point me to some articles explaining how to convert the
code comment xml files into MSDN documentation? I've made some
modifications to Enterprise Library and would like to create the msdn
documentation for my changes (which have been documented using code comments
following the same patterns that the P&P guys use)...since these assemblies
will be used by my co-workers, the MSDN docs should be updated to reflect my
changes as well....

Thanks,
Mythran

 

[Zhi-Xin Ye [MSFT]]

Dear Mythran,

As I understand, you want to using comments in the source code to generate
MSDN-style documentation and integrate the documentation into the MSDN
library. If I misunderstand you, please let me know.

There're two help tools available for authoring and integrating help
documents: Sandcastle and HelpStudio Lite.

Sandcastle produces accurate, MSDN style, comprehensive documentation by
reflecting over the source assemblies and optionally integrating XML
Documentation Comments.
You can visit Sandcastle blog for the latest version of Sandcastle at :
http://blogs.msdn.com/sandcastle/

HelpStudio Lite is a set of tools that you can use to author and build Help
content, and create, manage, and compile Help projects. HelpStudio Lite
produces compiled Help files (.hxs and .hxc) that can be integrated into
the Visual Studio Help collection.

For more information about the help tools, you can refer to:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb707561.aspx

If you have anything unclear about this, please feel free to let me know.

Sincerely,
Zhi-Xin Ye
Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team

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[Mythran]

Dear Mythran,

As I understand, you want to using comments in the source code to generate
MSDN-style documentation and integrate the documentation into the MSDN
library. If I misunderstand you, please let me know.

There're two help tools available for authoring and integrating help
documents: Sandcastle and HelpStudio Lite.

Sandcastle produces accurate, MSDN style, comprehensive documentation by
reflecting over the source assemblies and optionally integrating XML
Documentation Comments.
You can visit Sandcastle blog for the latest version of Sandcastle at :
http://blogs.msdn.com/sandcastle/

HelpStudio Lite is a set of tools that you can use to author and build
Help
content, and create, manage, and compile Help projects. HelpStudio Lite
produces compiled Help files (.hxs and .hxc) that can be integrated into
the Visual Studio Help collection.

For more information about the help tools, you can refer to:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb707561.aspx

If you have anything unclear about this, please feel free to let me know.

Zhi-Xin Ye,

I am aware of both, HelpStudio Lite and Sandcastle. What I need to know now
is after I compiled the files into hxs and hxc files, how do I go about
integrating/registering them in a deployment script to be installed on
fellow developer machines so when they open MSDN (either from Visual Studio
2008 or from the program group icon), they can see the documentation in the
index for the main MSDN collection.

Thanks,
Mythran

 

[Zhi-Xin Ye [MSFT]]

Dear Mythran,

You can use Microsoft Windows Installer and the Help merge modules supplied
with the Visual Studio SDK to integrate and register the help
documentation, here is a walkthrough for your information:

[Walkthrough: Registering and Integrating Your Help Collection Using
Windows Installer ]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb164959(VS.80).aspx

You can also refer to this document if you want to know more about the
deployment of Help documentation.

[Deploying a Help Collection]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb165765.aspx

Please follow the steps in the walkthrough and let me know wether it helps
or not.

Have a nice weeken!

Sincerely,
Zhi-Xin Ye
Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Mythran]

Dear Mythran,

You can use Microsoft Windows Installer and the Help merge modules
supplied
with the Visual Studio SDK to integrate and register the help
documentation, here is a walkthrough for your information:

[Walkthrough: Registering and Integrating Your Help Collection Using
Windows Installer ]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb164959(VS.80).aspx

You can also refer to this document if you want to know more about the
deployment of Help documentation.

[Deploying a Help Collection]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb165765.aspx

Please follow the steps in the walkthrough and let me know wether it helps
or not.

Have a nice weeken!

The problem with using Microsoft Windows Installer is that we use a
third-party installation creation tool (InnoSetup). But, I did resort to
creating an installer using VS and just included this installer as a silent
install with my InnoSetup script.

How can I integrate, if possible, my help collections with the default help
collection (when MSDN is opened outside of Visual Studio)?

Thanks,
Mythran

 

[Zhi-Xin Ye [MSFT]]

Dear Mythran,

Have you tried the steps in the document I posted in my last reply? The
document link is:

[Walkthrough: Registering and Integrating Your Help Collection UsingWindows
Installer ]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb164959(VS.80).aspx

It provides a detailed tutorial on how to register and integrate the help
collections into the default MSDN help collection.
You can follow the steps to create an installer, and include it as a silent
install with your InnoSetup script.

If any of the steps in the document is unclear, please feel free to let me
know, I will be happy to be of assistance.

Sincerely,
Zhi-Xin Ye
Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Zhi-Xin Ye [MSFT]]

Dear Mythran,

As far as I know the manually way to register and integrate the Help
documents on target machines would be complex. Two installers might not be
ideal, but it's the most quick way to deploy the Help documents as you use
a third party deployment tool, it will save you a lot of time to write
code.

Sincerely,
Zhi-Xin Ye
Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


Does my last reply make sense to you? If you need further help, please feel
free to let me know, I will be happy to be of assistance.

Have a nice day!

 

[Mythran]

Dear Mythran,

As far as I know the manually way to register and integrate the Help
documents on target machines would be complex. Two installers might not be
ideal, but it's the most quick way to deploy the Help documents as you use
a third party deployment tool, it will save you a lot of time to write
code.

Sincerely,
Zhi-Xin Ye
Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.


Does my last reply make sense to you? If you need further help, please
feel
free to let me know, I will be happy to be of assistance.

Have a nice day!

Your reply leads me to believe that there is a manual way to register
documentation. If this is true, is there documentation available on how to
do it? Sure, I can see that it is troublesome and/or very complex/time
consuming, but hey, I'd like to make the decision on which way to go, if
possible.

Thanks,
Mythran

 

[Zhi-Xin Ye [MSFT]]

Dear Mythran,

Yeah, after doing more research on this issue, I find there's a manually
way to register the Help document, we can use the H2Reg.exe tool from
helpware.net to register help documents during installation, this approach
would avoid creating a separate MSI installer.

For more information about the H2Reg.exe, you can refer to these documents:

H2Reg Home Page
http://helpware.net/mshelp2/h2reg.htm

H2Reg & Inno Installer
http://www.helpware.net/mshelp2/h2reg_inno.htm

Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Sincerely,
Zhi-Xin Ye
Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team

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Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
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feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.