June 09, 2008
DocProject 1.11.0 Release Candidate is now available on CodePlex. It supports the Sandcastle May 2008 Release and contains many bug fixes and new features, most of which are listed below.
Full support for both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 using a single installer. Conceptual topics created in Topic Exporer are now saved with friendly file names and an .aml extension. A dependent companion file (.cmp) for storing metadata is created as well. The topic import feature has been improved and now supports the inclusion of raw HTML topics in Topic Exporer. Legacy MAML topics (those with an .xml extension) are automatically imported into the new format and, if possible, a friendly name is chosen automatically. An optional Import Topics and Settings wizard step has been added to the New Project Wizard. It allows for a single DocProject or DocSite file to be specified from which topics and settings will be imported into the new project automatically. Wildcard characters, including directory recursion (**\ - but only on the most nested directory) is now supported in various dialogs, including External sources. The External sources dialog is now available in the last step of the New Project Wizard. Automatic checkout of source-controlled project items occurs whenever a project option or dialog must write to a file in the project. ResolveExternalLinksComponent now works for conceptual builds and is automatically added to the conceptual configuration files when new DocProjects and DocSites are created. (The standalone release will also be updated.) Open in Visual Studio toolbar button added to the DocProject External UI. New Topic Explorer context menu commands: Copy as reference link, Copy as conceptual link and Copy as topic identifier. New Topic Properties window that provides a user interface (UI) for editing conceptual topic metadata, such as Help 2.x DocSet attributes, index keywords and the topic's display title. This window is reachable by right-mouse clicking a conceptual topic in Topic Explorer and selecting Properties in the context menu. New Help\Settings files are automatically included when DocProjects and DocSites are created: - conceptual_snippets.xml: Specifies code snippets written in multiple programming languages that may be included in conceptual topics.
- tokens.xml: Specifies shared content items for both conceptual topics and XML documentation comments; items are referenced using <token>name</token> elements.
- links.xml: Specifies external hyperlinks that can be used in both conceptual topics and XML documentation comments. (See ResolveExternalLinksComponent for more information.)
- metadata.xml: Specifies global Help 2.x metadata that is inserted into all conceptual topics and auto-generated reference topics. Metadata can include attributes such as DocSet, Product, TargetOS and custom values.
- bibliography.xml: Specifies global reference information for topic bibliographies. Conceptual topics and XML documentation comments that have citations as <cite>name</cite> elements will have bibliographies generated automatically.
New management dialogs for Help 1.x and Help 2.x configuration. (Settings are persisted to certain files in Help\Settings\Projects\, Help\Topics\Html\MSHelp2\ and the root Help\ folder.) - Configurable Help 1.x project options such as the list of source files, Binary TOC, Default Window and Display progress during builds.
- Configurable Help 2.x project options.
- Named URL values such as DefaultPage and HomePage, which may be chosen from a list of topics, and AboutPageInfo, EmptyIndexTerm and NavFailPage, which can be created with DocProject's HTML editor.
- The Help > About image that appears in Document Explorer. (An HTML page that references the image is automatically generated for the AboutPageIcon named URL.)
- Global metadata attributes, which are stored in Help\Settings\metadata.xml (more information above).
Improved MAML topic templates. The behavior for detecting out-of-date sources and files has changed to allow for more control over change tacking. - Modifying individual conceptual topics may change the type of the next build. Changes are detected for MAML topics in Help\Topics\ and raw HTML topics in Help\Topics\Html\.
- Starting Visual Studio and loading a DocProject or a DocSite does not force a full build anymore unless the output is actually outdated.
- Another effect is that deleting the .chm or .HxS files no longer causes a partial build; instead, it always causes a full build. To force a partial build you must modify a partial build item.
Generate root API topic is now enabled by default in new DocProjects and DocSites. Added inheritdoc tag to the DocProject configuration file so that it appears in the Topic Editor sections list when writing external XML documentation.