CoDocker:
CSharp to HTML Converter

Background

As much as I try to do physical hardware type projects (and I do) much of my work ends up being largely software. Since the software is open source, I thought that it would also be nice to be able to display the source code as browsable web pages as well as offering it for download. Besides a being a useful feature, having browsable HTMLized source code would also enable search engines to index it. This will be particularly useful for situations in which people interested in examples of a library functions use (even if they are not interested in the project itself) will be able to find it via search based on the names of specific functions and classes.

Turns out there is not a lot of free and open software out there which will convert CSharp solutions, projects and source code into displayable nicely formatted HTML. Jean-Claude Manolis web based CSharp to HTML converter is one of the best. However, it is only designed to convert single .cs files. I wanted something that could read a solution and output an entire browsable tree of source code files. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I wrote an application which wraps Jean-Claude's formatting engine (he open sourced the code - thank you Jean-Claude) so that it can consume Visual Studio solutions and projects and output them all as an interlinked set of documentation pages.

The CoDocker Software

The CoDocker software is intended to generate browser viewable HTML from the solutions, projects and source code files created by the Microsoft Visual Studio CSharp software. The resulting web pages make the source code content available for reference and documentation purposes. An example of the CoDocker output can be found by viewing the CoDocker source code web pages - these were produced using CoDocker. The CoDocker software is both free and open source and is released under the terms of the MIT License.

Capabilities

• Reads CSharp solutions, projects and files and converts them to HTML web pages. All files referenced in a solution or project are also converted in a cascading manner. In other words, if a solution is converted to HTML then all projects in that solution are converted as are all files in those projects.
• The output files are all written to the same directory - even if, as source code, they are located in different directories. This flat file output structure makes the resulting collection of web pages easy to maintain and simple to transport.
• Certain elements of the Visual Studio syntax highlighting are preserved in the output web pages. For example, comments are posted in a green font and CSharp keywords are highlighted in blue.
• All output files are linked together in a tree like structure so that browsers can easily move between solutions, projects and their contained files.
• The visual appearance of the output files are highly customizable via the use of CSS stylesheets. A default stylesheet is provided.
• A variety of runtime substitution variables are available to automatically configure the banner at the top of the output HTML files with specific information such as current date, current filename etc.
• The configuration settings which determine the visual appearance, output directories etc. can be saved to a file for later re-use. It is also possible to maintain multiple configuration files for different purposes.
• Runs on Windows XP or higher.
• The exe file requires the .NET 3.5 runtime.
• The software was written in C#. A Visual Studio 2008 solution and project are included with the source code.

What CoDocker Does Not Do

The CoDocker software does not perform full syntax highlighting and cross referencing yet. For example in Visual Studio IDE, a class name used in a variable declaration will be appear in a light blue font and it is possible to jump to the definition using a mouse click. CoDocker cannot do this yet. Also CoDocker is purely for CSharp code. It does not support Visual Basic, C++ or any other code type. Sorry about that.

Style Sheets

The visual look and feel of the output HTML web pages can be changed by supplying a user defined stylesheet. The default stylesheet is pretty simplistic. If you make up a nice stylesheet you would like to share feel free to send it in. I am willing to maintain a collection of these and offer them for general download. The link will appear in this section should I get any.

Help Files and Manual

The Help Page discusses the usage of the CoDocker software and what all the configuration items do. The CoDocker software zip file (below) also contains these help files.

License

This software is offered as a binary and with source code under the terms of the the MIT License.

Download

• The version 00.90 Beta zipped binaries (0.3 mb).
• The version 00.90 Beta zipped source code (0.5 mb.
• A web browsable version of the CoDocker Source Code is available.
• The Known bugs and ToDo List.
• The Version Change Log.

Acknowledgements

As discussed, at the top of this page, Jean-Claude Manolis web based CSharp to HTML converter formed the main formatting engine for the CoDocker software. The sections of the source code which are Jean-Claudes contribution have been clearly documented and annotated in the source code comments.

The icon used for the CoDocker app is "Swan" part of the lovely Glass Zoo set by sirea.

Screenshots

The CoDocker Main Form

An example of CoDocker CSharp Source Code Converted to HTML