Personal Function Documentation

[seadoggie01]

I love the help file and all the information it contains. Its fatal flaw is that it can't be added to. I create a lot of wrapper functions and install a lot of UDFs, so it gets tiring opening the include file each time I need to remember if it returns a 0 or 1 based array, what this particular error means, or what the argument should be. I've been fed up with this for too long, hence this script.

Features

• Reads *.au3 files to parse UDF style headers to get function information (the UDF header style is defined here, thanks water!)
• Supports multiple search paths
• Integration with SciTe (more on this later)
• Stores function documentation so it doesn't need to re-read files each startup (Currently, in a config file)
• Only updates a file based on it's last modification date
• Will update another instance instead of launching a new one before exiting.

Planned Updates

• Optionally (user's choice) use a SQLite Database to increase storage/read speeds
• Redirect unknown functions to AutoItHelper.exe to open the almighty Help File
• Remove functions from folders not in the search folders (would be a lot easier with SQLite)
• Fully support and parse UDF headers

SciTE Integration

This took me a while to figure out (I thought I needed to use lua), but it's totally worth it. By editing your "User Options File" aka SciTEUser.properties files, you can launch this file with a keyboard shortcut. I put this in mine: (After compiling)

command.41.$(au3)="$(SciteDefaultHome)\..\FunctionDocs.exe" "$(CurrentWord)"
command.name.41.$(au3)=Personal Function Docs
command.shortcut.41.$(au3)=Shift+F1
command.subsystem.41.$(au3)=2
command.save.before.41.$(au3)=2
command.quiet.41.$(au3)=1

(Note that 41 is an unused command number. You may need to change this if you've added other tools)

It says (respectively):
 * Launch FunctionDocs.exe from the directory above SciTE.exe with the currently selected word as a command line parameter
 * Make the MenuItem in SciTE named "Personal Function Docs"
 * Use Shift F1 as the shortcut to start the program
 * (I don't know)
 * Don't save the file before launching the program
 * (And my favorite) Don't clear SciTE's output panel

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by seadoggie01
Completion of some planned updates

[seadoggie01]

Updated to version 0.0.0.2... a bug fix (the kind that made it not start) and added features.

If anyone has bugs, questions, comments, concerns, or feature requests, please feel free to comment!

[dmob]

On 3/26/2020 at 9:12 PM, seadoggie01 said:

I create a lot of wrapper functions and install a lot of UDFs, so it gets tiring opening the include file each time I need to remember if it returns a 0 or 1 based array, what this particular error means, or what the argument should be.

Very nice utility

Will be using this a lot, I have same problem even with my own functions/UDFs.

Thank you for sharing.

PS: A little nitpick: Dock the Function search inputs so they dont move when window resized.

Edited March 29, 2020 by dmob
PS

[seadoggie01]

Thanks, glad you like it!

I planned on adding docking to the controls, just haven't gotten around to it yet. I was mostly concerned with functionality at this point

What do you think about adding a side panel similar to the help file that contains the functions grouped into their containing file names to help see related functions. Something like this in a TreeView:

- C:\FilePath\Debug.au3
     * Debug
     * ErrMsg
- C:\FilePath\MailSlot.au3
    * _MailSlotCreate
    * _MailSlotRead
    * _MailSlotWrite

[HighlanderSword]

what is the standard format you are using to parse the UDS's

Can you provide a few sample udf's that have what is needed for the udfs to show in your tool

 

[dmob]

17 hours ago, seadoggie01 said:

to help see related functions

Yes, that would be useful

[water]

How to format an UDF header is described here.

[seadoggie01]

@HighlanderSword I used the standard UDF Header (generally generated in SciTE) as water mentioned. If you're in one of your functions in SciTE and press Ctrl+Alt+H (by default) it will generate a function header for you that works with this program

@dmob Great thanks! I'll work on bringing the GUI up to standard with the next release (possibly today)

[HighlanderSword]

ok, so maybe I'm missing something , I took Water's OutlookEX.au3 udf placed it in a folder by itself , then ran your tool, specified the path to Water's UDF, the tool presented a progress bar for a minute or 2 and did nothing.

I see nothing in the dialog box, I then selected search and put in one of the function names and got nothing.

 

[seadoggie01]

I tried re-creating your scenario, but I wasn't able to get an error or anything similar. When I typed _OL_Open into the search bar, it brought up the expected documentation. The progress bar does get stuck at 100% though

I'll release a version in a bit that will let you know on errors and debug to a log to help me see what might be going wrong  It does write to the AppData directory, so you can check to make sure there is a file named %AppData%\FunctionDocs.ini

[HighlanderSword]

Yes there is a file in the AppData\Roaming folder named FunctionDocs.ini, and it does  contain data , but the function documentation screen contains no data, and you cant search for anything

 

 

[seadoggie01]

Sorry it took so long, things have been crazy lately. (Florida finally issued a stay-at-home order, though, so it may slow down a bit).

Anyways, Version 0.0.0.3 is up! It contains a TreeView to display all of your functions grouped by search path and file to help find related functions.

As always, please post any issues, feedback, comments, or ideas here!

[dmob]

[seadoggie01]

I realized today that there's an issue with viewing the documentation of functions that include a | in the UDF header. The list view is currently using this as the GUIDataSeparatorChar, which results in the lines not being shown (they would get added to non-existent columns). I was thinking I could use a form feed (unicode 0xC or 12) as the separator character, because the documentation shouldn't contain any of those... right?

I could strip out any leading | + or - as the UDF spec states that those are newline characters. This could still be an issue with any |'s in the middle of a description, however.

[seadoggie01]

It's been much too long since I updated this, sorry.

I released a new version today that I've been using for a bit and it works well and seems stable. I ended up using Chr(5) as the GUIDataSeparatorChar, but it's a global variable to make it easy to change. I haven't experienced any issues with it so far. I don't remember why I stopped using Chr(12) to be honest, but I thought I found an issue with it.

Version 1.0.0.0 released!

[MathInDOS]

Thank you friend it's beautiful works 😃