Sandcastle (software) - Output

Output

Sandcastle produces XML-based HTML files in a chosen presentation style. (This does not mean, however, that the files are XHTML compliant.) The HTML is defined by XSL transformation files that are included in the particular presentation style being used. A build normally uses only one presentation style at a time.

The HTML files that Sandcastle produces are either conceptual (user) documentation, being the result of a transformation from Microsoft Assistance Markup Language (MAML) topics, or they are reference documentation, which is automatically generated from reflection data and XML documentation comments. These two different types of HTML output share the same presentation style and may be compiled together to produce mixed user/reference documentation.

The processes for building conceptual documentation and reference documentation are similar, with one of the main differences being that conceptual documentation does not require the MRefBuilder program to be used.

Conceptual documentation consists of topics written using a MAML document type schema such as how to, walk-through, troubleshooting and several others. Sandcastle provides a conceptual build component stack (conceptual.config) that resolves shared content and links, and uses XSL files to transform MAML elements into HTML.

Reference documentation is generated automatically for managed Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from reflection data and XML documentation comments. A "doc model" XSL transformation, provided by the chosen presentation style, is applied to define the files that will be generated. Sandcastle provides a reference build component stack (sandcastle.config) that builds in-memory indexes of the data, resolves shared content and links, and uses XSL to generate the final HTML output.