Missing Tags Category Properties
The following properties are available in the Show Missing Tags category. These define for which help topic elements a red "missing" message will appear if the related tag has not been used where needed or contains no text. These can help you locate help topics that need additional work to fully specify the documentation. In addition to the inserted messages, a warning is written to the log file noting the missing item as well.
Tip
You can simplify your project comments for derived classes, interface implementations, overridden
members, and other members with common comments by making use of the inheritdoc XML
comments element.
Auto-document constructors (AutoDocumentConstructors)
This is used to indicate whether or not constructors are automatically documented if they are missing
the <summary> tag and for classes with compiler-generated constructors. Set this
to True (the default) to automatically add default text for the <summary> tag on
constructors that are missing it and for classes with a compiler-generated constructor. If set to false and Show Missing Summaries is true, a "missing summary" warning will appear instead. A
message is also written to the log file when a constructor is auto-documented.
Auto-document Dispose methods (AutoDocumentDisposeMethods)
This is used to indicate whether or not dispose methods are automatically documented if they are
missing the <summary> tag and for classes with compiler-generated dispose methods.
Set this to True (the default) to automatically add default text for the <summary>
tag on dispose methods that are missing it and for classes with compiler-generated dispose methods. If set to
false and Show Missing Summaries is true, a "missing summary" warning will appear instead.
A message is also written to the log file when a dispose method is auto-documented. If a Dispose(Boolean) method is present, its parameter will also be auto-documented if
necessary. If set to false and Show Missing Params is true, a "missing parameter"
message will appear instead.
Show missing namespace documentation (ShowMissingNamespaces)
This property lets you indicate whether or not a red "missing" message is inserted into each namespace
group or namespace topic that is missing its namespace comments. The default is True to add the message.
Namespace comments can be added using the Namespace Summaries project property, by using
an external XML comments file, or by using a NamespaceGroupDoc and NamespaceDoc class in your code. See the Summaries Category Properties
for details.
Show missing <summary> elements (ShowMissingSummaries)
This property lets you indicate whether or not a red "missing" message is inserted into the help topic
if the <summary> tag has not been specified for the item. The default is True to
add the message.
Show missing <param> elements (ShowMissingParams)
This property lets you indicate whether or not a red "missing" message is inserted into the help topic
for each method parameter that is missing its related <param> tag documentation.
The default is True to add the message.
Show missing <typeparam> elements (ShowMissingTypeParams)
This property lets you indicate whether or not a red "missing" message is inserted into the help topic
for each generic type or method type parameter that is missing its related <typeparam>
tag documentation. The default is True to add the message.
Show missing <returns> elements (ShowMissingReturns)
This property lets you indicate whether or not a red "missing" message is inserted into the help topic
if the method returns a value and the <returns> tag has not been specified for the
item. The default is True to add the message.
Show missing <value> elements (ShowMissingValues)
This property lets you indicate whether or not a red "missing" message is inserted into the help topic
for property items that are missing the <value> tag documentation. The default is
False to ignore properties with missing or empty <value> tags.
Show missing <remarks> elements (ShowMissingRemarks)
This property lets you indicate whether or not a red "missing" message is inserted into the help topic
if the <remarks> tag has not been specified for the item. The default is False to
ignore items with missing or empty <remarks> tags.
Show missing <include> element targets (ShowMissingIncludeTargets)
This property lets you indicate whether or not a red "missing" message is inserted into each topic in
which an include tag is found. This indicates that the target of the include (either
the file or the XPath query) could not be found at the time the assembly was compiled. The default is False to
ignore include tags.
Note
If you are writing C# code, invalid include comment tags are easy to find at
the time the assembly is built as the compiler issues a warning (CS1589 or CS1592). The VB.NET compiler does not
output a warning, nor does it write the invalid tag to the comments file. As such, this option will have no
effect in VB.NET generated XML comments files. The same is true for managed C++ generated XML comments files
except the compiler does generate a warning (C4637).
By now you're probably wondering "So, what was the point of adding this property?" Well, somebody requested it and I didn't find out it was only useful with C# XML comments files until after I'd done the work and by then I couldn't be bothered to go back and take out all the code and resource items. So, it's there but off by default.