Download Sandcastle Help File Builder
Brynn Cropp
I restarted my computer to see if that would fix anything but it didn't. I'm not sure why I am experiencing this problem. I've used sandcastle before and didn't experience this. Any help is greatly appreciated.
The additional content help text may need to link to other topics in the help file such as help pagesfor a namespace, class, method, property, etc. To provide this ability, the help file builder will scan each HTMLadditional content file for XML comment style tags. If found, an attempt ismade to convert the tag to a link that takes you to the related help page for the indicated item. Some examplesare shown below.
The additional content model of adding extra content to a help file has been deprecated. While it willcontinue to be supported and will not be removed, it will not receive any more features or updates. Goingforward, conceptual content is the preferredmethod of adding non-reference content to the help file. The additional content feature can still be used tooverride stock content and add supporting files tothe help file.
The first example uses the supplied inner text as the text for the hyperlink. The second example willuse the cref value for the text of the hyperlink. The crefvalue can be a full or partial identifier for an item in any documented namespace as it appears in thereflection.xml file created by Sandcastle. The page names for the namespace items aregenerated at build time so the help file builder attempts to match the identifier with an entry in the reflectioninformation XML file in order to obtain the correct filename as the target of the hyperlink. If a prefix issupplied on the identifier such as N: (namespace), T: (type),M: (method), etc. as shown in the first example, an attempt is made to find an entrystarting with the identifier. If no prefix is supplied, as shown in the second example, an attempt is made tofind a match that ends with the identifier. If neither of those returns a match, it searches for any entry thatcontains the identifier.
Messages are written to the log file indicating how the link was resolved. If no matches are found, amessage appears in the log stating that the identifier could not be found and it will be rendered in bold ratherthan as a link in the help file as is the case with the second example. If a single best match is found, the logmessage indicates the fully qualified name that was matched and the tag is converted to a link to the associatedpage in the help file. If multiple matches are found, the log will include a list of all fully qualified namesthat contained the identifier and the first entry found will be used as the target of the hyperlink.
Use the "Namespaces" button on the top-right of the SHFB screen to include/exclude specific namespaces (useful for external assemblies!), and to provide a short description of those namespaces for use in the help file.
But, the really problem are broken links for the HTML Help Workshop including the CHM compiler. Generating CHM's as an only working Windows application help is not possible for developers when e.g. a new environment must be setup.
There is increasing interest in using the technique as it may help reduce reliance on cement in building materials (cement production being responsible for five per cent of man's CO2 output). Rammed earth materials can usually also be sourced locally, thereby reducing transport needs.
Sandcastle is a set of command line programs, configuration files, build components and XSLT files that work together to convert XML-based documentation into help topics that are fit for viewing in a help system. Sandcastle is typically used to automatically generate web-ready, XML-compliant HTML documentation in one of three built-in presentation styles from .NET assemblies and XML documentation files that are generated by compilers. The resulting HTML files are then used as input to tools such as the HTML Help Workshop to produce compiled help for distribution with the corresponding computer program.
Reference documentation is generated automatically for managed Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from reflection data and XML documentation comments. A "doc model" XSL transformation, provided by the chosen presentation style, is applied to define the files that will be generated. Sandcastle provides a reference build component stack (sandcastle.config) that builds in-memory indexes of the data, resolves shared content and links, and uses XSL to generate the final HTML output.
For example, the typical Help 1.x build process starts by running MrefBuilder.exe to produce an XML reflection file for one or more assemblies. The reflection file is then processed by the XslTransform.exe tool multiple times to apply various XSL transformations that add data such as a "doc model" and optional version information. Next, an XML-based topic manifest is generated and used by the BuildAssembler.exe program, which generates HTML topic files from the reflection data and XML documentation comments. An XML-based table of contents (TOC) file is generated and used by CHMBuilder.exe, along with the HTML files produced by BuildAssembler, to generate HTML Help Workshop project, index and TOC files. Finally, the HTML Help workshop is used to generate a compiled help file (.chm).
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