Sandcastle Help File Builder is a powerful documentation generation tool developed to create comprehensive help files for managed class libraries, particularly those built on the .NET Framework. Here’s an overview of what the product does and its key features:
Purpose
Sandcastle is designed to automatically generate MSDN-style code documentation from reflection information of .NET assemblies and XML documentation comments found in the source code. It can produce both conceptual (user) documentation and reference documentation, ensuring that all aspects of the software are well-documented.
Key Features
Documentation Generation
- Sandcastle converts XML-based documentation into help topics that can be viewed in a help system. It uses reflection data and XML documentation comments to generate reference documentation for managed APIs.
Presentation Styles
- The tool allows users to choose from several built-in presentation styles to generate web-ready, XML-compliant HTML documentation. The HTML output is defined by XSL transformation files included in the chosen presentation style.
Build Components
- Sandcastle includes several command-line programs and build components such as MrefBuilder, XslTransform, and BuildAssembler. These components work together to reflect against managed assemblies, apply XSL transformations, and assemble the final output.
Conceptual and Reference Documentation
- It supports the generation of conceptual documentation from Microsoft Assistance Markup Language (MAML) topics, which includes how-to guides, walk-throughs, and troubleshooting sections. For reference documentation, it uses reflection data and XML comments to generate detailed API documentation.
User Interface and Integration
- Sandcastle offers a lightweight graphical user interface (GUI) as well as integration with Visual Studio through a Visual Studio package. This allows users to manage help projects entirely from within Visual Studio. The GUI provides an environment to edit project properties, manage files, and build the help file.
Customization and Management
- The Sandcastle Help File Builder includes a comprehensive interface with menus for file management, documentation building, and viewing the compiled help in various formats. Users can customize the appearance and features of the compiled help file through the GUI.
Community Tools and Extensions
- In addition to the official tools, several community-developed GUI tools are available, providing additional features and simplifying the usage of Sandcastle.
Overall, Sandcastle is a robust tool for generating high-quality documentation for .NET applications, making it an essential asset for developers who need to produce detailed and user-friendly documentation.