Auto generate function documentation in Visual Studio

Question

I was wondering if there is a way  hopefully keyboard shortcut  to create auto generate function headers in visual studio   Example   Private Function Foo ByVal param1 As String  ByVal param2 As Integer    And it would automagically become something like this        ----------------------------------   Pre    Post   Author    Date    Param1  String     Param2  Integer     Summary   Private Function Foo ByVal param1 As String  ByVal param2 As Integer

User · Answer

You can use code snippets to insert any lines you want.

Also, if you type three single quotation marks (''') on the line above the function header, it will insert the XML header template that you can then fill out.

These XML comments can be interpreted by documentation software, and they are included in the build output as an assembly.xml file. If you keep that XML file with the DLL and reference that DLL in another project, those comments become available in intellisense.

User · Answer

is the shortcut for getting the Method Description comment block  But make sure you have written the function name and signature before adding it  First write the Function name and signature   Then above the function name just type      and you will get it automatically

User · Answer

Make that  three single comment-markers   In C  it s      which as default spits out        lt summary gt            lt  summary gt       lt returns gt  lt  returns gt    Here s some tips on editing VS templates

User · Answer

In visual basic  if you create your function sub first  then on the line above it  you type   three times  it will auto-generate the relevant xml for documentation  This also shows up when you mouseover in intellisense  and when you are making use of the function

User · Answer

Normally  Visual Studio creates it automatically if you add three single comment-markers above the thing you like to comment  method  class    In C  this would be       If Visual Studio doesn t do this  you can enable it in       Options- Text Editor- C - Advanced   and check      Generate XML documentation comments for

User · Answer

Visual Assist has a nice solution too  and is highly costumizable      After tweaking it to generate doxygen-style comments  these two clicks would produce -        Method     FindTheFoo   FullName   FindTheFoo   Access     private    Qualifier     param    int numberOfFoos    return   bool    private bool FindTheFoo int numberOfFoos          Under default settings  its a bit different      Edit   The way to customize the  document method  text is under VassistX- Visual Assist Options- Suggestions  select  Edit VA Snippets   Language  C    Type  Refactoring  then go to  Document Method  and customize  The above example is generated by

User · Answer

I m working on an open-source project called Todoc which analyzes words to produce proper documentation output automatically when saving a file  It respects existing comments and is really fast and fluid   http   todoc codeplex com

User · Answer

You can use code snippets to insert any lines you want.

Also, if you type three single quotation marks (''') on the line above the function header, it will insert the XML header template that you can then fill out.

These XML comments can be interpreted by documentation software, and they are included in the build output as an assembly.xml file. If you keep that XML file with the DLL and reference that DLL in another project, those comments become available in intellisense.

User · Answer

Make that  three single comment-markers   In C  it s      which as default spits out        lt summary gt            lt  summary gt       lt returns gt  lt  returns gt    Here s some tips on editing VS templates

User · Answer

Visual Assist has a nice solution too  and is highly costumizable      After tweaking it to generate doxygen-style comments  these two clicks would produce -        Method     FindTheFoo   FullName   FindTheFoo   Access     private    Qualifier     param    int numberOfFoos    return   bool    private bool FindTheFoo int numberOfFoos          Under default settings  its a bit different      Edit   The way to customize the  document method  text is under VassistX- Visual Assist Options- Suggestions  select  Edit VA Snippets   Language  C    Type  Refactoring  then go to  Document Method  and customize  The above example is generated by

User · Answer

You can use code snippets to insert any lines you want.

Also, if you type three single quotation marks (''') on the line above the function header, it will insert the XML header template that you can then fill out.

These XML comments can be interpreted by documentation software, and they are included in the build output as an assembly.xml file. If you keep that XML file with the DLL and reference that DLL in another project, those comments become available in intellisense.

User · Answer

Make that  three single comment-markers   In C  it s      which as default spits out        lt summary gt            lt  summary gt       lt returns gt  lt  returns gt    Here s some tips on editing VS templates

User · Answer

GhostDoc   Right-click on the function  select  Document this  and  private bool FindTheFoo int numberOfFoos    becomes       lt summary gt      Finds the foo       lt  summary gt       lt param name  numberOfFoos  gt The number of foos  lt  param gt       lt returns gt  lt  returns gt  private bool FindTheFoo int numberOfFoos     yes  it is all autogenerated    It has support for C   VB NET and C C    It is per default mapped to Ctrl Shift D   Remember  you should add information beyond the method signature to the documentation  Don t just stop with the autogenerated documentation  The value of a tool like this is that it automatically generates the documentation that can be extracted from the method signature  so any information you add should be new information   That being said  I personally prefer when methods are totally selfdocumenting  but sometimes you will have coding-standards that mandate outside documentation  and then a tool like this will save you a lot of braindead typing

User · Answer

GhostDoc   Right-click on the function  select  Document this  and  private bool FindTheFoo int numberOfFoos    becomes       lt summary gt      Finds the foo       lt  summary gt       lt param name  numberOfFoos  gt The number of foos  lt  param gt       lt returns gt  lt  returns gt  private bool FindTheFoo int numberOfFoos     yes  it is all autogenerated    It has support for C   VB NET and C C    It is per default mapped to Ctrl Shift D   Remember  you should add information beyond the method signature to the documentation  Don t just stop with the autogenerated documentation  The value of a tool like this is that it automatically generates the documentation that can be extracted from the method signature  so any information you add should be new information   That being said  I personally prefer when methods are totally selfdocumenting  but sometimes you will have coding-standards that mandate outside documentation  and then a tool like this will save you a lot of braindead typing

User · Answer

GhostDoc   Right-click on the function  select  Document this  and  private bool FindTheFoo int numberOfFoos    becomes       lt summary gt      Finds the foo       lt  summary gt       lt param name  numberOfFoos  gt The number of foos  lt  param gt       lt returns gt  lt  returns gt  private bool FindTheFoo int numberOfFoos     yes  it is all autogenerated    It has support for C   VB NET and C C    It is per default mapped to Ctrl Shift D   Remember  you should add information beyond the method signature to the documentation  Don t just stop with the autogenerated documentation  The value of a tool like this is that it automatically generates the documentation that can be extracted from the method signature  so any information you add should be new information   That being said  I personally prefer when methods are totally selfdocumenting  but sometimes you will have coding-standards that mandate outside documentation  and then a tool like this will save you a lot of braindead typing

User · Answer

In visual basic  if you create your function sub first  then on the line above it  you type   three times  it will auto-generate the relevant xml for documentation  This also shows up when you mouseover in intellisense  and when you are making use of the function

User · Answer

Make that  three single comment-markers   In C  it s      which as default spits out        lt summary gt            lt  summary gt       lt returns gt  lt  returns gt    Here s some tips on editing VS templates

User · Answer

You can use code snippets to insert any lines you want.

Also, if you type three single quotation marks (''') on the line above the function header, it will insert the XML header template that you can then fill out.

These XML comments can be interpreted by documentation software, and they are included in the build output as an assembly.xml file. If you keep that XML file with the DLL and reference that DLL in another project, those comments become available in intellisense.

User · Answer

GhostDoc   Right-click on the function  select  Document this  and  private bool FindTheFoo int numberOfFoos    becomes       lt summary gt      Finds the foo       lt  summary gt       lt param name  numberOfFoos  gt The number of foos  lt  param gt       lt returns gt  lt  returns gt  private bool FindTheFoo int numberOfFoos     yes  it is all autogenerated    It has support for C   VB NET and C C    It is per default mapped to Ctrl Shift D   Remember  you should add information beyond the method signature to the documentation  Don t just stop with the autogenerated documentation  The value of a tool like this is that it automatically generates the documentation that can be extracted from the method signature  so any information you add should be new information   That being said  I personally prefer when methods are totally selfdocumenting  but sometimes you will have coding-standards that mandate outside documentation  and then a tool like this will save you a lot of braindead typing

User · Answer

I m working on an open-source project called Todoc which analyzes words to produce proper documentation output automatically when saving a file  It respects existing comments and is really fast and fluid   http   todoc codeplex com

User · Answer

Normally  Visual Studio creates it automatically if you add three single comment-markers above the thing you like to comment  method  class    In C  this would be       If Visual Studio doesn t do this  you can enable it in       Options- Text Editor- C - Advanced   and check      Generate XML documentation comments for

User · Answer

is the shortcut for getting the Method Description comment block  But make sure you have written the function name and signature before adding it  First write the Function name and signature   Then above the function name just type      and you will get it automatically

[function] Auto generate function documentation in Visual Studio

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