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Title	An ASP Documentation Tool™
Description	The ASP Documentation Tool™ automates the documentation of web applications developed using ASP 2.0 or 3.0 and the VBScript and JScript scripting languages
Keywords	asp, documentation, tool, utility, vbscript, jscript
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Page Content	ASP Kitchen Search: Go Home \| ASP Articles \| ASP.NET Articles \| Tools \| Table Of Contents \| What's New An ASP Documentation Tool This article describes the ASP Documentation Tool , a utility I wrote to automate the documentation of web applications developed using ASP 2.0 or 3.0 and the VBScript and JScript scripting languages. When developing applications using Java and Perl, I've always been impressed with the JavaDoc and PerlDoc documentation utilities these languages support. When producing work for a client, these utilities take a lot of the hard work out of the mundane (but critically important) work involved with documenting the project. Unfortunately there is no such standard documentation utility for ASP, and having not found a suitable commercial offering, I decided to write my own documentation utility for ASP. Since I often work on projects inherited from other developers, such a utility would be able to give a useful overview of the project without having to manually look through the ASP code. The utility would also (hopefully!) create much of the low level documentation required when handing over work to clients, saving valuable development time. Figure 1. The ASP Documentation Tool 's GUI. Click image for full sized version. Features The ASP Documentation Tool scans all the files of a web project, and outputs a report based on what it finds within the files. The report contains a list of the following: A summary of the project. Pages within the site (.asp, .asa and .inc - other file types may be added if required). Full source code for each page, with optional syntax highlighting. A list of VBScript functions in the site, showing where they are defined and used. A list of VBScript subroutines in the site, showing where they are defined and used. A list of JScript functions in the site, showing where they are defined and used. A list of client-side JavaScript functions in the site, showing where they are defined. A list of ActiveX objects, showing where they are instantiated. A list of VBScript constants. A list of HTML Forms and Form elements. A list of Request.QueryString, Request.Form and Request.ServerVariables used. A list of email addresses used in the site A list of ASP Application and Session variables used. Details of SQL Server 2000 user tables and stored procedures in database(s) associated with the project. Details of Microsoft Access tables and queries in database(s) associated with the project. The report is produced in standard HTML [ view sample ], with an option to export the report in Microsoft's HTML Help [ view sample ] and plain text format [ view sample ]. The HTML output can be viewed in any web browser on any operating system. By contrast, the HTML Help format is restricted to machines running Microsoft Windows. HTML Help does, however, have some useful advantages over the standard HTML output: The documentation is stored as a single .chm file, making it easier to redistribute. The documentation contains a useful table of contents showing an overview of the site. There is an index as well as a search facility. The search facility also allows full searching of the source code of each page in the documented website. Figure 2. The HTML Help report compiled by the ASP Documentation Tool allows easy searching of the project documentation, including the ASP source code. System Requirements The ASP Documentation Tool is written in Perl 5, but has been compiled into a Windows executable file that can be used on any machine without requiring Perl. If you want the ASP Documentation Tool to create a report in HTML Help format then you will need to download and install the HTML Help Workshop. This is a free download from Microsoft.com. It is strongly recommended that you install the HTML Help Workshop to the default location, which is C:\Program Files\HTML Help Workshop . If the HTML Help Workshop is installed elsewhere then the ASP Documentation Tool will need to be modified to change the value of the variable called HTMLHelpProg . Configuring and Running the ASP Documentation Tool The ASP Documentation Tool is installed using a standard Windows installation routine. There is a graphical user interface - The ASP Documentation Tool Configurator - for configuring documentation jobs. The ASP Documentation Tool executable file must be supplied with several command line options which control the behaviour of the script and the appearance of the output report. There are just two mandatory command line options, which are used to specify the input folder (i.e. the folder containing the ASP files that are to be documented) and the output folder (i.e. where the report should be placed). Option What it does Example --i Input folder containing the website's files. Use a vertical bar to specify more than one input folder (useful if your includes are in a separate location). C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mywebsite , or C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SampleWeb\|C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\includes --o Output folder where the report should be placed D:\reports\mywebsite So the following command when typed in the folder in which the ASPDocumentationTool.exe resides would document the web project in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mywebsite and output the report in the folder D:\reports\mywebsite: ASPDocumentationTool.exe --i= C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mywebsite --o= D:\reports\mywebsite Note that the script will overwrite a previous report in that folder. The following command line options are optional: Option What it does Example --v Verbose mode outputs script status to console. 0 or 1 --cs Specifies whether the source code of ASP pages and SQL stored procedures should by color coded and syntax highlighted. 0 or 1 --h Whether entities in the source code should be hyperlinked. 0 or 1 --c Whether entities in the source code should be color coded. 0 or 1 --l Whether the source code pages should display line numbers. 1 = numbering, 0 = no line numbering. Numbering is on by default. This is a useful option if you want to use the ASP Documentation Tool to create syntax highlighted ASP for publication purposes (like I do on my own ASPAlliance site!) 0 or 1 --txt Whether the report should be exported as plain text format (using the filename projectname .txt). 0 or 1 --dsn Connection string allowing script to access a SQL Server 2000 database. At the very least this should contain the name of an ODBC data source, together with a SQL Server username and password. DSN=Northwind;UID=webuser;PWD=Htf674HHs --db name of database to document. Use a vertical bar to specify more than one database. Northwind , or Pubs\|Northwind --hh Whether the output should be compiled in HTML Help format. 0 or 1 --project Specifies a name for the project. SampleWeb As an example, the ASP Documentation Tool could be called from the command line using: ASPDocumentationTool.exe --i= C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mywebsite --o= D:\reports\mywebsite --cs=1 --v=0 --hh=1 --project= SampleWeb Don't forget that it is possible to run the ASP Documentation Tool on Windows machines from .bat scripts, which can of course be scheduled using the AT command or the Windows Task Scheduler. The ASP Documentation Tool reports are created in standard HTML, which can be subsequently edited using any HTML editor. The HTML Help format output may also be edited by using Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop - the HTML Help Workshop project file is created in the output folder along with the rest of the report, and it has a .hhp file extension. Figure 3. Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop can be used to modify the HTML Help report. The ASP Documentation Tool creates a log file in plain text format [ view sample ]. Obtaining the ASP Documentation Tool See downloads section below The evaluation version is fully functional, but has a few limitations, including: There is no support for ASP written in JScript. There is no facility for documenting SQL Server or Access databases. There is no facility for exporting the documentation in HTML Help format. Line numbering of the source code files is mandatory. There is no text output option. HTML Forms are not shown in the report. VBScript subroutines are not shown in the report. Application Variables are not shown in the report. There is no access to product updates. Pop-up window on all source code pages. This version can only be used for evaluation purposes. The full version of the ASP Documentation Tool is available for online purchase from RegSoft from just $49.99 . Purchasing the ASP Documentation Tool allows you to download the current version, and all subsequent versions released up to six months from the date of purchase. Comments/Suggestions? I've released the ASP Documentation Tool in the hope that other users may find it useful! If you would like new features added, then don't hesitate to contact me - most user requests are incorporated into future releases! Downloads Download the ASP Documentation Tool Evaluation Version (3.5 Mb ZIP file). Purchase the ASP Documentation Tool Full Version ($49.99). Further reading Practical uses of the ASP Documentation Tool . ASP Documentation Systems . Useful Development Tools ASP Documentation Tool Automatically creates developer documentation for ASP 2.0 and 3.0 web applications written in VBScript and JScript. Documentation for Microsoft Access, SQL Server 7/2000 databases and Visual Basic 6.0 components associated with the web application can also be incorporated into the reports. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats. View Sample Output (HTML Help format). View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (5.2Mb ZIP file). Index Server Companion The Index Server Companion is a Windows application that extends the functionality of Microsoft Index Server so that it is able to index content from remote websites and also from ODBC databases. As such it can be used as a low cost alternative to Site Server 3.0 Search. View Product Documentation (119K ZIP file). Try Sample Search Facility . Download Trial Version (1.7Mb ZIP file). ASP.NET Documentation Tool Automatically creates developer documentation for ASP.NET web applications written in C# or VB.NET. Documentation for SQL Server 7/2000 databases and C#/VB.NET components associated with the web application can also be incorporated into the reports. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats. View Sample Output (HTML Help format). View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (727K ZIP file). SQL Documentation Tool The SQL Documentation Tool creates technical documentation for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and 2000 databases. Technical documentation is created in HTML and HTML Help formats. The HTML Help format documentation is fully searchable and cross referenced. The SQL Documentation Tool documents SQL Server Tables, Views, Stored Procedures, Triggers and Table Relationships. View Sample Output (HTML Help format). View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (10.3Mb ZIP file). The Website Utility The Website Utility examines websites for errors and areas that need to be optimised for search engines by using a built in web crawling engine. Errors checked for include broken or moved hyperlinks, missing page titles and missing meta tags. It also generates HTML for use in creating website site maps (table of contents pages - like this one ), and is able to create both client-side JavaScript Search Engines and server-side ASP Search Engines for a website. View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (3Mb ZIP file). Text Workbench Text Workbench is a file search and replacement utility for text files and Microsoft Office documents. Make rapid file replacements on multiple files and folders full of files. Advanced replacement options include regular expressions support. It even works on remote file systems via FTP. A Regular Expression Laboratory allows advanced pattern matching and replacement expressions to be built and tested. This great utility will make your everyday development tasks much easier! Download Trial Version (3Mb ZIP file; you have the option to either install directly from this link or save the file for later installation). Author details Brett Burridge spent two years working in the University of Essex Computing Service, before moving to The Internet Applications Group in the Autumn of 1999, where he developed e-Business applications for a range of corporate clients and dot-com start ups. Brett is presently employed as an Internet developer and technical writer through his own company, Winnersh Triangle Web Solutions Limited . The company produces a number of innovative products, including the popular ASP Documentation Tool , the Index Server Companion , the ASP.NET Documentation Tool , the SQL Server Documentation Tool and The Website Utility . The company is also available for web application design and development at reasonable rates, primarily using Microsoft technologies (ASP, ASP.NET, Visual Basic, SQL Server) but also using open source technologies such as PHP, MySQL and Perl. Specialist services include development of search solutions using Microsoft's Index Server and Site Server 3.0 Search. As well as the ASPAlliance, Brett has written articles for Ariadne.ac.uk and ASPToday , and has contributed recipes to the ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook . links Outside web development, Brett is interested in digital photography (here's my photo gallery ), tropical fishkeeping and collecting contemporary works of art by artists such as Doug Hyde . Article history An ASP Documentation Tool published on ASPAlliance.com on 02 June 2002, last revised 22 May 2003. ASP Kitchen : Classic ASP Articles : An ASP Documentation Tool page content copyright Brett Burridge 1998 - 2004.
Image Alt Tags	ASPAlliance The ASP Documentation Tool use a graphical user interface to edit the ASP Documentation Tool's configuration options The HTML Help report compiled by the ASP Documentation Tool%99 allows easy searching of the project documentation, including the ASP source code Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop can be used to modify the HTML Help report View Sample Output (HTML Help format) View Sample Output (HTML Format) Download Trial Version View Product Documentation Try Sample Search Facility Download Trial Version View Sample Output (HTML Help format) View Sample Output (HTML Format) Download Trial Version View Sample Output (HTML Help format) View Sample Output (HTML Format) Download Trial Version View Sample Output (HTML Format) Download Trial Version Download Trial Version of Text Workbench Index Server Companion - allows Index Server to index content from remote websites and ODBC databases!!! Download a Free ASP Documentation Tool Now! Google Search Engine Builder - Build a search engine for your website!
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