C# XML Documentation Website Link

Question

Is it possible to include a link to a website in the XML documentation? For example, my method's summarized as

///<Summary>
/// This is a math function I found HERE.
///</Summary>
public void SomeMathThing(Double[] doubleArray)
{
   ...
}

and when I type

SomeMathThing(

I want IntelliSense to show the summary with the option to click on "HERE" to link to an outside website. Is this possible? How would it be done?

This was implemented by this Roslyn issue on GitHub: <see> tags in XML docs should be clickable links in the IntelliSense popups. — Chiramisu
– Chiramisu, Commented Aug 5, 2020 at 0:12

dizzwave · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-05 18:32:58Z

312

+350

Try:

///<Summary>
/// This is a math function I found <see href="http://stackoverflow.com">HERE</see>
///</Summary>

edited Aug 5, 2011 at 18:32

answered Aug 5, 2011 at 17:55

dizzwave

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14 Comments

john Over a year ago

No luck I'm afraid. It didn't even display "HERE".

dizzwave Over a year ago

Hmmm, my apologies. I did a little more research (see here and here) -- and it looks like the VS IDE won't display those hyperlinks, but a documentation tool such as SandCastle would be able to display them.

paulguy Over a year ago

For me it wasn't working because my link had an ampersand in the url. Once I changed that to https://somewhere.com?test1=1&test2=2 it worked.

JB06 Over a year ago

This works in VS 16.4.2. Not sure what version it was added, only that you can now click links in the method info window.

Tore Aurstad Over a year ago

Works in VS 2019, the exact version number is VS 16.6.4. First I tried with "cref", but "href" renders nice. One trick is that when the tooltip hovers, move your mouse pointer not outside the tooltip and you can click on the link to navigate to the url too. Great stuff VS! Does it work in Vs Code too ? Hmmmm..

|

MHolzmayr · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-01 12:59:13Z

117

A bit late on the hype-train, but here is what I found out for Visual Studio 2015.

My sample looks like this:

    /// <summary>
    ///     Retrieves information about the specified window. 
    ///     The function also retrieves the value at a specified offset into the extra window memory.
    ///     From <see cref="!:https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms633585(v=vs.85).aspx">this</see> MSDN-Link.
    ///     AHref <a href="http://stackoverflow.com">here</a>.
    ///     see-href <see href="http://stackoverflow.com">here</see>.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="hwnd"></param>
    /// <param name="index"></param>
    /// <returns>
    ///     Testlink in return: <a href="http://stackoverflow.com">here</a>
    /// </returns>
    public static IntPtr GetWindowLongPtr(IntPtr hwnd, int index)
    {
        return IntPtr.Size == 4 ? GetWindowLongPtr32(hwnd, index) : GetWindowLongPtr64(hwnd, index);
    }

The results are:

Tooltip:
- Shows cref-url with !:, but hides "this"
- Hides ahref-url but shows text
- Hides seehref url and text

Object Browser:
- Shows cref-url with !:, but hides "this" (not clickable)
- Hides ahref-url but shows text (not clickable)
- Hides seehref url and text (not clickable)

ReSharper (CTRL+SHIFT+F1, Command ReSharper.ReSharper_QuickDoc)
- Hides cref-url with !:, but shows "this" (not clickable)
- Does now interpret ahref-url (Version from 2016 and newer)
- Hides seehref url and text (not clickable)

Conclusion: Best one, as Heiner pointed out, would be

See <a href="link">this link</a> for more information.

Update As Thomas Hagström pointed out, Resharper now Supports clickable a-href URLs. Updated screenshot accordingly.

edited Jun 1, 2016 at 12:59

answered Sep 22, 2015 at 8:47

MHolzmayr

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7 Comments

Thomas Hagström Over a year ago

Actually, with ReSharper and CTRL+SHIFT+F1 an url is clickable and HTML link is compatible, so that's indeed the best option

MHolzmayr Over a year ago

Thanks Thomas Hagström, updated the anwer and screenshot.

Eric Mutta Over a year ago

+1 just confirmed that JetBrains Rider (the complete C# IDE from JetBrains with many of the Resharper features) only supports <a href="...">text</a> and will NOT display the link or text if you try <see href="...">text</see>

MemeDeveloper Over a year ago

For me, I can use a, see, and seealso inside a summary

/// <summary>    ///  Some Txt<br/>    ///  <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=c%23+XML+comments&amp;sca_esv=5fddc3dd36c4976b">a with href</a><br/>    ///  <see href="https://www.google.com/search?q=c%23+XML+comments&amp;sca_esv=5fddc3dd36c4976b">see with href</see><br/>    ///  <seealso href="https://www.google.com/search?q=c%23+XML+comments&amp;sca_esv=5fddc3dd36c4976b">seealso with href</seealso><br/>    /// </summary>

Visual Studio Community 2022 Version 17.8.6 + JetBrains ReSharper 2023.2.2

MemeDeveloper Over a year ago

Note that seealso is a bit odd, and probably should not be used generally. i.e. seems was intended to power a diff section, and supposedly should NOT be used in summary tags, but for intellisense it seems it is ignored when NOT in a summary tag. So... prob best to use <see href=""> or <a href="">

|

Heiner · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-23 09:13:40Z

76

You can use the standard HTML syntax:

<a href="http://stackoverflow.com">here</a>

The text will be displayed in Visual Studio.

answered Jul 23, 2013 at 9:13

Heiner

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4 Comments

Snæbjørn Over a year ago

This is the best approach. As the output will still make sense in Visual Studio (it just shows the text) and the link will work in documentation tools like Sandcastle.

EriF89 Over a year ago

The link becomes clickable in VS 2022. This should be the accepted answer.

jurilents Over a year ago

Only this way works for me in JetBrains Rider 2021.3

Cristian Berlingó Over a year ago

It is the only one that worked for me in Rider 2023.2.3

Pang · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-04 03:18:51Z

30

Use the <a> tag. For example, I used this solution in my project:

Result:

My XML code:

/// <summary>
/// This is C# XML Documentation Website Link
/// <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6960426/c-sharp-xml-documentation-website-link">See more</a>
/// </summary>

Or use the <see> tag. Result is the same to the <a> tag.

/// <summary>
/// This is C# XML Documentation Website Link
/// <see href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6960426/c-sharp-xml-documentation-website-link">See more</see>
/// </summary>

edited Sep 4, 2020 at 3:18

Pang

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answered Jan 16, 2020 at 11:56

Ramil Aliyev 007

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Comments

fubaar · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-11 10:08:35Z

24

You can include a !: prefix in a cref to have it passed through untouched in the generated Xml documentation so that tools such as Innovasys Document! X and Sandcastle will use it. e.g.

/// <summary>
/// This is a math function I found <see cref="!:http://stackoverflow.com">HERE</see>
/// </summary>

Visual Studio intellisense won't display that as a link for intellisense though - wouldn't be much point as it's a tooltip so you can't click it anyway.

answered Aug 11, 2011 at 10:08

fubaar

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2 Comments

binki Over a year ago

There’d be a point if Object Browser actually made <see/> clickable and recognized website URIs somehow (since Object Browser is not a tooltip). Just sayin’ ;-).

Rab Over a year ago

This approach is now outdated; it produces code analysis warning CA1200: Avoid using cref tags with a prefix. Prefer anchor tags (<a href="...">).

gregsonian · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-24 18:47:57Z

3

I also tried <see href="https://some.com/> first and it did not work; however, I then tried <seealso href="https://some.url/"> and it did work.

answered Sep 24, 2020 at 18:47

gregsonian

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Comments

Jainam Bhavsar · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-24 10:27:47Z

Working solution:

/// <remarks>
/// <![CDATA[ Wireframe link: https://9ljx1q.axshare.com/#id=pinlb0&amp%3Bp=employee_complaint_form&amp%3Bg=1%3B2 ]]>
/// </remarks>

where, The <![CDATA[ and ]]> tags indicate character data that should not be parsed as XML, allowing you to include special characters without XML parsing issues.

if your Link( URL ) contains special characters like ',', '&', ';', then you have to replace it with HTML Character Entities Ex. & => & , ;=> %3B

Otherwise, if your URL is simple, then <see href="http://stackoverflow.com">HERE</see> will work

Note: If you are planning to use a clickable URL, then remember that ASP.NET Core XML documentation doesn't support rendering hyperlinks.

And apart from that, it's better to display your link in a remark section because summary section text is not copyable.

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