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Resolved Code / Object Documentation Generator (like JavaDoc)

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  1. Dan Cooperstock
    Dan Cooperstock
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Thursday, 8 June 2023 18:12 PM UTC

I'm wondering whether anyone knows of or has developed any tools for scanning your libraries and generating nicely formatted HTML docs, based on standard formatting of comments (like JavaDoc does).

I searched and found PBDoc from PBDR, but I'm not sure it really works with current releases. (I tried installing it, it was missing atl71.dll, but I found that elsewhere. But when I got it seeming configured to work on a PBL, it gave a nonsensical error message after working through the objects.)

There's also Visual Expert, but it seems to do so much more and is rather expensive.

I realize I could try writing something myself but it's a moderately large job. Getting the source code of all objects seems fairly easy, but then the big jobs are parsing it for the desired info, and generating nice HTML docs.

BTW the reason for this would be to help a new person learn our objects & code (especially a shared library), especially if I wasn't available.

Thanks.

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Dan Cooperstock
Dan Cooperstock Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Tuesday, 13 June 2023 20:54 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

I actually developed something for this (fun job!) and am offering it for free use. It's in the thread https://community.appeon.com/index.php/qna/q-a/free-generator-of-html-documentation-from-pbls here. 

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Chris Pollach @Appeon
Chris Pollach @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 8 June 2023 19:23 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

Hi Dan;

  How about just using the LibraryDirectory command?

https://docs.appeon.com/pb2022/powerscript_reference/libraryDirectory_func.html

  Then transfer that information into a DataWindow. Then publish that as HTML using the HTML DW feature.

Food for thought.  ;-)

Regards ... Chris

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Dan Cooperstock
  1. Dan Cooperstock
  2. Thursday, 8 June 2023 20:18 PM UTC
I want much more than that Chris. I want the comments for each event and function in objects and windows, I want lists of parameters to functions and their types (augmented by descriptions of each parameter from appropriately styled comments) etc. etc. Like JavaDocs.

Here's an example JavaDoc: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/List.html

Here's an example from PBDoc: https://pbdr.com/software/pbdocex/skyblue/index.htm
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Chris Pollach @Appeon
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Thursday, 8 June 2023 20:50 PM UTC
Hi Dan;

Yes, VisualExpert would be more like JavaDoc. Here is an example of VE's automated documentation on my STD framework ...

https://sourceforge.net/projects/stdfndclass/files/FrameWork/Integrated/Documentation

The PBDOC one is also a good "basic" one too.

Regards ... Chris
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