Version 2016.9.17.0

Release notes for version 2016.9.17.0.

Potential Breaking Change

The InstallMSHC.bat and RemoveMSHC.bat example scripts used to install and remove MS Help Viewer content have been modified to make them more generic with regard to the version parameter. It is now a simple version number (1.0, 2.0, 2.1, etc.). If you have been using the generated files as-is, you may need to update any installers that use them to handle the new version parameter format.

Sandcastle Tools

  • Fixed MRefBuilder so that it resolves a missing mscorlib with a major version number of 255 to System.Runtime which is common for frameworks like .NETCore that redirect all of their system types there.

  • Added another condition to MRefBuilder's ParameterMatch method to try and match odd intrinsic/generic element type pairings.

  • Added support to MRefBuilder for generating source code context information in the reflection information files. If enabled by specifying a base path to the source code in the new sourceContext element in the MRefBuilder.config configuration file, MRefBuilder will query the program database (PDB) file related to each documented assembly to obtain source code file and starting line number information for the API types and members. If available, the source code file and starting line number will be written out in a new sourceContext element.

  • Fixed the GenerateInheritedDocs tool so that it handles inheritdoc tags correctly that are nested within elements with a name or cref attribute such as a param element.

  • Demoted the circular reference error in the GenerateInheritedDocs tool to a warning (GID0009). This allows for inheriting comments from another element within the same member comments (i.e. a para or span from the summary in the remarks element).

  • Updated the Reflection Data Manager tool to use the latest version of MSBuild to build the reflection data rather than specifically looking for version 12.0 which may not be installed.

Sandcastle Help File Builder

  • Fixed up property name case sensitivity issues and issues with environment variables that match property names when loading project properties.

  • Fixed the Multi-Format Output Component so that it recreates the document for each format from the XML rather than cloning it to workaround an occasional issue with the clone that results in an "invalid parent" error.

  • Added support for the .NETCore and .NETPortable Frameworks distributed as NuGet packages effective with Visual Studio 2015 Update 3. These are denoted with a "(NuGet)" suffix in their title. Use one of these frameworks if the framework assembly references are added via a NuGet package in your documented assembly's project.

  • Added support for the .NET Framework 4.6.2.

  • Added code to bypass the assembly binding redirection plug-in execution and issue a warning if the MRefBuilder.config file is not found (i.e. the Additional Content Only plug-in is enabled as well).

  • Added an application manifest with DPI awareness settings to SandcastleBuilderGUI and SHFBProjectLauncher to prevent scaling issues and blurry fonts on Windows 10.

  • Adjusted all forms and controls so that they look decent with scaling up to 150% at a resolution of 3840x2160 in both the standalone GUI and the Visual Studio package.

  • Added the Source Code Base Path and Warn On Missing Source Context project properties to support generation of source code context information in the reflection information files. These are used in conjunction with presentation styles that support links to online source code. See the property help for known limitations and possible issues.

  • Added support for installing MS Help Viewer output in Help Viewer 2.3.

  • Added the Documented Entities Only Plug-In. This can be used as a way of generating a help file using only the types and members with XML comments without having to manually manage an API filter within the help file builder project.

Presentation Styles

  • Fixed all presentation styles so that they generate the root group topic correctly when namespace grouping is used without a root namespace container.

  • Updated all presentation styles to support the baseSoureCodeUrl transformation argument property and the VS2010 and VS2013 presentation styles to support the requestExampleUrl transformation argument property. These enable generation of links to the online source code and requesting an example for an API member respectively.

  • Added up-to-date, cross-browser compatible clipboard script for website builds of the VS2010 and VS2013 presentation styles. The Copy link on syntax sections and code examples is now visible and enabled for all browsers.

  • Updated the Open XML build task so that it includes the align and posOffset elements as parent elements that can contain text that does not need to be wrapped in a run element.

  • Renamed the [Content_Types].xml and rels\.rels document part files in the Open XML presentation style to work around issues with Open Packaging Conventions filename conflicts in the NuGet distribution. The Open XML build task has been updated to fix the names of those two document part files so that they are correct when the Open XML document is generated.

  • Fixed the VS2010 and V2013 presentation styles so that member list tables each get a unique ID.

  • Thanks to Sue Maurizio for supplying Italian translations for the VS 2013 presentation style content item files.

See Also

Other Resources