ASP.NET Web API Help Page documentation using Xml comments on controllers

Question

I installed the ASP.NET Web API Help Page package and would like to use it to generate documentation for my API controller actions using the Xml comments already on them.

I came across an article on Yao's MSDN blog where he discusses how the documentation can be generated based on the XML comments.

However, in the Register method of HelpPageConfig, the SetDocumentationProvider method expects an instance of XmlDocumentationProvider constructed with a physical path to an Xml documentation file.

Is there another way to do this? I'm not clear why I need to point to an Xml documentation file.

Thanks

Si8 · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-21 14:08:06Z

45

If you still problem then see below steps.

Step 1 - Add comment on the controller level

// GET api/documentation
/// <summary>
/// This is how we create a documentation
/// </summary>
/// <returns></returns>
public IEnumerable<string> Get()

Step 2 - Build Property Project Properties page and set up the xml output for documentation

Step 3 - HelpPage Config

To set up the HelpPageConfig to use our documentation xml file, go to ~\Areas\HelpPage\HelpPageConfig.cs.

By default, the config.SetDocumentationProvider statement is commented out. Use that statement, and point the location of DocumentationProvider to our xml file:

public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
{
   // Uncomment the following to use the documentation from XML documentation file.
   config.SetDocumentationProvider(
            new XmlDocumentationProvider(
                HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/Documentation.xml")));
}

EDIT:

The location of the HelpPageConfig in a new Web API 2.2 project created in VS2013 is ~\Areas\HelpPage\App_Start\HelpPageConfig.cs

edited Mar 21, 2017 at 14:08

Si8

9,25522 gold badges120 silver badges223 bronze badges

answered Sep 24, 2015 at 6:43

Rikin Patel

9,4738 gold badges74 silver badges80 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Carl Sharman Over a year ago

The location of the HelpPageConfig in a new Web API 2.2 project created in VS2013 is ~\Areas\HelpPage\App_Start\HelpPageConfig.cs

Kiran · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-12 23:17:32Z

29

The XmlDocumentationProvider is looking for the xml file(having your xml code comments) which gets generated when you compile your project. You can enable generating this by going to your project Properties -> Build -> Output. Here select the checkbox for XML Documentation file.

answered Feb 12, 2013 at 23:17

Kiran

58.1k16 gold badges179 silver badges163 bronze badges

3 Comments

George Durzi Over a year ago

Kiran, thank you, this does the trick. Is there a good way to programmatically access this value at runtime? Right now I'm doing HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath ...

Thomas Stock Over a year ago

thanks a lot for this reply, finally figured out how to get this working.

Si8 Over a year ago

Still same, I still see "No documentation available"

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

ASP.NET Web API Help Page documentation using Xml comments on controllers

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

3 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related