Programmatically get Summary comments at runtime

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I'm looking for a way to programmatically get the summary portion of Xml-comments of a method in ASP.net.

I have looked at the previous related posts and they do not supply a way of doing so in a web environment.

I can not use any 3rd party apps and due to a web environment, Visual studio plugin's aren't much use either.

The closest thing I have found to a working solution was the JimBlackler project, but it only works on DLL's.

Naturally, something like 'supply .CS file, get XML documentation' would be optimal.

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Current situation

I have a web-service and trying to dynamically generate documentation for it.

Reading the Methods, and properties is easy, but getting the Summary for each method is throwing me off a bit.

/// <summary>
/// This Is what I'm trying to read
/// </summary>
public class Some_Method(){}

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c# asp.net reflection documentation

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edited Oct 12 '17 at 14:32

wonea

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asked Mar 24 '13 at 18:57

Riaan Walters

1,56921130

• What exactly is it you're trying to accomplish? What's the "summary of a method"? Why couldn't you use third-party code in a web environment, I use a whole mess of it? Which Jim Blackler project? Why is it a problem that it only works on DLLs? That's how .NET web apps get deployed. It seems like you're assuming we can read your mind, you have to actually clarify what you're talking about and what you've researched and tried. – millimoose Mar 24 '13 at 18:59 
• Ill try clarify, will update the post in a sec. – Riaan Walters Mar 24 '13 at 19:01
• millimoose, which 3rd party tools do you use for this purpose, i couldnt find anything efficient? – Riaan Walters Mar 24 '13 at 19:06 
• If you have access to the .cs file you're trying to read, you can use CodeDOM to compile it and extract the XML doc comments. MSDN even has a howto that demonstrates some the APIs: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404261.aspx (It goes the other way around though, by generating code at runtime, but it should be possible to somehow feed a CS file to CodeDOM.) – millimoose Mar 24 '13 at 19:11 
• I've changed title - feel free to revert if you disagree. – Alexei Levenkov Mar 24 '13 at 19:51

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5 Answers

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The XML summary isn't stored in the .NET assembly - it's optionally written out to an XML file as part of your build (assuming you're using Visual Studio).

Consequently there is no way to "pull out" the XML summaries of each method via reflection on a compiled .NET assembly (either .EXE or .DLL) - because the data simply isn't there for you to pull out. If you want the data, you'll have to instruct your build environment to output the XML files as part of your build process and parse those XML files at runtime to get at the summary information.

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answered Mar 24 '13 at 19:12

SecurityMatt

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up vote27down vote

A Workaround - Using reflection on Program.DLL/EXE together with Program.XML file

If you take a look at the sibling .XML file generated by Visual Studio you will see that there is a fairly flat hierarchy of /members/member. All you have to do is get hold on each method from your DLL via MethodInfo object. Once you have this object you turn to the XML and use XPATH to get the member containing the XML documentation for this method.

Members are preceded by a letter. XML doc for methods are preceded by "M:" for class by "T:" etc.

Load your sibling XML

string docuPath = dllPath.Substring(0, dllPath.LastIndexOf(".")) + ".XML";

if (File.Exists(docuPath))
{
  _docuDoc = new XmlDocument();
  _docuDoc.Load(docuPath);
}

Use this xpath to get the member representing the method XML docu

string path = "M:" + mi.DeclaringType.FullName + "." + mi.Name;

XmlNode xmlDocuOfMethod = _docuDoc.SelectSingleNode(
    "//member[starts-with(@name, '" + path + "')]");

Now scan childnodes for all the rows of "///" Sometimes the /// Summary contains extra blanks, if this bothers use this to remove

var cleanStr = Regex.Replace(row.InnerXml, @"\s+", " ");

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edited Jan 28 '15 at 20:38

Aleksandar Toplek

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answered Dec 26 '13 at 19:49

Joe Frank

44646

• 12
  This is great, although you can greatly simplify your first line by using Path.ChangeExtension(dllPath, ".XML") – blockloop Feb 16 '16 at 16:54

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up vote13down vote

You could 'document' your method using the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.DisplayAttribute attribute, e.g.

[Display(Name = "Foo", Description = "Blah")]
void Foo()
{
}

then use reflection to pull the description at runtime.

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answered Mar 24 '13 at 22:32

Netricity

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up vote1down vote

You can look at https://github.com/NSwag/NSwag - source for nuget NSwag.CodeGeneration - it gets summary as well, usage

var generator = new WebApiAssemblyToSwaggerGenerator(settings);<br/>
var swaggerService = generator.GenerateForController("namespace.someController");<br/>
// string with comments <br/>
var swaggerJson = swaggerService.ToJson(); 

(try ILSPY decompiler against your dll, you check code and comments)

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edited Sep 5 '17 at 19:11

Arun Vinoth

7,100132336

answered Sep 10 '16 at 2:54

Sasha Bond

48046

• Thank you - worked for me like a charm. In my case I have adapted this reflection. – Anton Krouglov Jul 12 '17 at 14:32 

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up vote0down vote

If you have access to the source code you're trying to get comments for, then you can use Roslyn compiler platform to do that. It basically gives you access to all the intermediary compiler metadata and you can do anything you want with it.

It's a bit more complicated than what other people are suggesting, but depending on what your needs are, might be an option.

It looks like this post has a code sample for something similar.

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