Generates Markdown from VS XML documentation file

gistfile1.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Linq;

namespace GithubWikiDoc
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var xml = File.ReadAllText(args[0]);
            var doc = XDocument.Parse(xml);
            var md = doc.Root.ToMarkDown();
            Console.WriteLine(md);
        }
    }

    static class XmlToMarkdown
    {
        internal static string ToMarkDown(this XNode e)
        {
            var templates = new Dictionary<string, string>
                {
                    {"doc", "## {0} ##\n\n{1}\n\n"},
                    {"type", "# {0}\n\n{1}\n\n---\n"},
                    {"field", "##### {0}\n\n{1}\n\n---\n"},
                    {"property", "##### {0}\n\n{1}\n\n---\n"},
                    {"method", "##### {0}\n\n{1}\n\n---\n"},
                    {"event", "##### {0}\n\n{1}\n\n---\n"},
                    {"summary", "{0}\n\n"},
                    {"remarks", "\n\n>{0}\n\n"},
                    {"example", "_C# code_\n\n```c#\n{0}\n```\n\n"},
                    {"seePage", "[[{1}|{0}]]"},
                    {"seeAnchor", "[{1}]({0})"},
                    {"param", "|Name | Description |\n|-----|------|\n|{0}: |{1}|\n" },
                    {"exception", "[[{0}|{0}]]: {1}\n\n" },
                    {"returns", "Returns: {0}\n\n"},
                    {"none", ""}
                };
            var d = new Func<string, XElement, string[]>((att, node) => new[]
                {
                    node.Attribute(att).Value, 
                    node.Nodes().ToMarkDown()
                });
            var methods = new Dictionary<string, Func<XElement, IEnumerable<string>>>
                {
                    {"doc", x=> new[]{
                        x.Element("assembly").Element("name").Value,
                        x.Element("members").Elements("member").ToMarkDown()
                    }},
                    {"type", x=>d("name", x)},
                    {"field", x=> d("name", x)},
                    {"property", x=> d("name", x)},
                    {"method",x=>d("name", x)},
                    {"event", x=>d("name", x)},
                    {"summary", x=> new[]{ x.Nodes().ToMarkDown() }},
                    {"remarks", x => new[]{x.Nodes().ToMarkDown()}},
                    {"example", x => new[]{x.Value.ToCodeBlock()}},
                    {"seePage", x=> d("cref", x) },
                    {"seeAnchor", x=> { var xx = d("cref", x); xx[0] = xx[0].ToLower(); return xx; }},
                    {"param", x => d("name", x) },
                    {"exception", x => d("cref", x) },
                    {"returns", x => new[]{x.Nodes().ToMarkDown()}},
                    {"none", x => new string[0]}
                };

            string name;
            if(e.NodeType== XmlNodeType.Element)
            {
                var el = (XElement) e;
                name = el.Name.LocalName;
                if (name == "member")
                {
                    switch (el.Attribute("name").Value[0])
                    {
                        case 'F': name = "field";  break;
                        case 'P': name = "property"; break;
                        case 'T': name = "type"; break;
                        case 'E': name = "event"; break;
                        case 'M': name = "method"; break;
                        default:  name = "none";   break;
                    }
                }
                if(name == "see")
                {
                    var anchor = el.Attribute("cref").Value.StartsWith("!:#");
                    name = anchor ? "seeAnchor" : "seePage";
                }
                var vals = methods[name](el).ToArray();
                string str="";
                switch (vals.Length)
                {
                    case 1: str= string.Format(templates[name], vals[0]);break;
                    case 2: str= string.Format(templates[name], vals[0],vals[1]);break;
                    case 3: str= string.Format(templates[name], vals[0],vals[1],vals[2]);break;
                    case 4: str= string.Format(templates[name], vals[0], vals[1], vals[2], vals[3]);break;
                }

                return str;
            }

            if(e.NodeType==XmlNodeType.Text)
                return Regex.Replace( ((XText)e).Value.Replace('\n', ' '), @"\s+", " ");

            return "";
        }

        internal static string ToMarkDown(this IEnumerable<XNode> es)
        {
            return es.Aggregate("", (current, x) => current + x.ToMarkDown());
        }

        static string ToCodeBlock(this string s)
        {
            var lines = s.Split(new char[] {'\n'}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
            var blank = lines[0].TakeWhile(x => x == ' ').Count() - 4;
            return string.Join("\n",lines.Select(x => new string(x.SkipWhile((y, i) => i < blank).ToArray())));
        }
    }
}

I've taken this thing and built a NuGet package that sets it up as a build target. Every build you will automatically get your .md file regenerated.

https://github.com/Pxtl/XmlCommentMarkDownGenerator

Patches and insults welcome.

This has some great potential! Any chance you could add support for additional valid tags? For example, paramref and typeparam appear to be unsupported and result in exceptions. Thanks!

I've created an updated version of this code that includes the rest of the C# documentation tags and generates most of them in a 'decent" format. I could update this code (if there is a repository for it) or create a new one on GitHub.

Is anyone interested and does anyone have a good suggestion?

@bradfriedlander I'm going to be writing a tool like this for my project, so I'm interested in the updated version if it's available. 🙂

EDIT: Fixed the project link. Whoops.

@bradfriedlander I would be interested in your updated version.

Take a look at DocXml project. There is a sample markdown documentation generator in the repo.

@loxsmoke

Take a look at DocXml project. There is a sample markdown documentation generator in the repo.

I can't find anything markdown there.

Sample became a .net core global tool. See here mddox

Im getting KeyNotFoundException: The given key was not present in the dictionary error. What should be done to resolve this.