XML Comments with assembly defintion

Hi guys,

I have set up a few UPM packages that I pull from github. This all works great.
Each of the packages has an asmdef assembly definition, which compiles the package scripts and places them in the Library/ScriptAssemblies folder.

I have also added xml comments to all the classes in each of those assemblies, but the only way to see the comments through intellisense is if I put the generated xml comment files directly inside the Library/ScriptAssemblies folder.

The issue here is that this folder gets wiped by Unity on various occassions, one of which is project startup. In any case, I saw in many places that I should not manually place anything inside the Library folder.

My question is then how can I include xml comment files with my UPM packages so that I can see comments and documentation in intellisense? Is there a way to make Unity automatically copy these files alongside the compiled dlls?

Thanks in advance!

 

I just posted about the exact same problem. I'll delete my post and just bump yours. Something I'd like to add is that if you add a package locally from disk then all the xml comments do appear just not with packages from a scoped registry.

 

Back to the same topic a few months later - is there any progress on this feature?

 

Visual Studio 2019 for myself. Though I see the same issue in VS Code as well.

 

Hi,

For me it happened in both Visual Studio 2017 and 2019.
I have just submitted a bug report, referencing this post, a short description and a step by step reproduction.

The bug reporter said that an error occured the first couple times I tried submitting it.. but it appears that it submitted the bug multiple times (Case 1192759 Case 1192760 Case 1192761).

 

Hello, I could not find any issues related to this in the issue tracker.

Has this issue been fixed in some version of Unity?

 

I really hope this is fixed. My team would be willing to upgrade to the latest editor version just for this fix.

 

The difference is that local packages are considered editable and their source files are included in the generated C# project. Whatever editor you use then indexes these files, including their xml docs.

On the other hand, for read-only remote packages from an npm repository or from git, Unity compiles them and then only adds the assembly to the project. Because Unity doesn't generate comment xml files when compiling the assemblies, there editors can't display any documentation.

There are probably performance tradeoffs here. Generating the xml documentation files will slow down compilation to some degree and including all source files from all packages will slow down the editors.

Still, showing the documentation inline is incredibly helpful and so I hope Unity will start generating xml comments. Especially for remote packages, which don't change often, generating the comment xml files should make little difference.

There has been no change as of the latest 2020.1.0a16 alpha.

 

Using the new input system comes with zero documentation because of this problem:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/why...entation-not-show-up-in-visual-studio.800502/

 

This does not work for 2019.3

 

Regarding .csproj generation on 2019.3, you need to uncheck and check again "Generate all .csproj files" in Unity preferences for newly created projects.

 

Hi, is there any development on this issue? When can we have a fix for it? And can Unity 2019.4 have that fix too? So far I've been doing fine without the comments of APIs from remote packages. But I think I'm reaching the point where it will be pretty annoying. And I have no desire to "pollute" my project with a bunch of .csproj. (Because I'm using UPM to avoid that in the first place.)

 

Is there any update on this? We've started to rely on the package management system quite a bit, and this issue is impacting our workflow accordingly.

 

Unity still does not generate XML documentation for compiled assemblies. It does however provide options to reference the package sources instead of the compiled assemblies, in which case the documentation will be picked up (and your editor will have to index more files).

Go to Preferences » External Tools and check the package types you want to generate csproj files for and thus include as sources. I think the exact options you see depend on the editor package you use and which editor you've selected.

 

Thanks! I'm aware, but given the number of packages we're using, this adds a considerable amount of clutter to the solution file, which offsets the usability gains by added intellisense. Hoping for the actual fix

 

This post should be on a tutorial somewhere for UPM package authors and users. Enabling "Generate .csproj files for" Registry and Git packages is absolutely the way for documentation of UPM packages to show up in Intellisense.

 

No, it's not the way. It's just a workaround. The problem still needs an actual fix. Because libraries provided via Nuget (prebuilt .DLLs) don't need a .csproj to show you their API documentation.

 

I never said there's no need for an actual fix.

 

Any fix for this still? I am using the Addressables, new InputSystem, etc from the package manager. Their source looks like they have comments, but none of them are showing up in the intellisense. Quite a waste to have them if they're not even showing up. It'd save some time to not have to open the documentation on Google when it's already there. Any solution?

 

Which Unity version do you have?

 

Now is 2023, and the problem still not fix

 

The end of 2023 is near but this issue still persists.

 

Found a solution here: https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/173628/intellisence-doesnt-show-the-ecs-api-summaries

Sadly it only works before you update the packages...

 

Hey there,

Consider using Unity's post-build events to automatically copy XML comment files to a safe location outside the Library folder after compilation. This ensures they remain intact for IntelliSense without interfering with Unity's folder management.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you need further assistance.