<include> (Visual Basic)

  • Article

Refers to another file that describes the types and members in your source code.

<include file="filename" path="tagpath[@name='id']" />

Parameters

  • filename
    Required. The name of the file containing the documentation. The file name can be qualified with a path. Enclose filename in double quotation marks (" ").

  • tagpath
    Required. The path of the tags in filename that leads to the tag name. Enclose the path in double quotation marks (" ").

  • name
    Required. The name specifier in the tag that precedes the comments. Name will have an id.

  • id
    Required. The ID for the tag that precedes the comments. Enclose the ID in single quotation marks (' ').

Remarks

Use the <include> tag to refer to comments in another file that describe the types and members in your source code. This is an alternative to placing documentation comments directly in your source code file.

The <include> tag uses the W3C XML Path Language (XPath) Version 1.0 Recommendation. More information for ways to customize your <include> use is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath.

Example

This example uses the <include> tag to import member documentation comments from a file called commentFile.xml.

''' <include file="commentFile.xml"  
''' path="Docs/Members[@name='Open']/*" /> 
Public Sub Open(ByVal filename As String)
    ' Code goes here. 
End Sub 
''' <include file="commentFile.xml"  
''' path="Docs/Members[@name='Close']/*" /> 
Public Sub Close(ByVal filename As String)
    ' Code goes here. 
End Sub

The format of the commentFile.xml is as follows.

<Docs>
<Members name="Open">
<summary>Opens a file.</summary>
<param name="filename">File name to open.</param>
</Members>
<Members name="Close">
<summary>Closes a file.</summary>
<param name="filename">File name to close.</param>
</Members>
</Docs>

See Also

Reference

Recommended XML Tags for Documentation Comments (Visual Basic)