XLL+ Class Library (6.3)

BuildHelp utility

Overview

BUILDHELP.EXE is a command line utility that can be used to create and build XLL+ help projects outside Visual Studio. It can therefore be used as part of an automated build process.

The utility can be found in the bin sub-directory of the XLL+ installation.

Usage

CopyC++
BUILDHELP options

Options

Option Description
-s SourceFolder Required. The full path to the directory containing the Visual Studio project.
-t ToolsFolder Required. The full path to the directory containing the XLL+ help resources. This is usually the bin sub-directory of the XLL+ installation directory, e.g. C:\Program Files\Planatech\XllPlus\6.0\VS8.0\bin. The directory should contain two sub-directories, files and xsl.
-c HhcExe Required. The full path of the HTML Help Compiler, HHC.EXE, e.g.: -h "C:\Program Files\HTML Help Workshop\hhc.exe".
-b TargetBuilds Optional. The names of the build directories to which the compiled CHM file will be copied. Multiple names should be separated by semi-colons, e.g.: Debug;Release.
-i InputFile Required. The name of a C++ source file that contains add-in functions. At least one -i option should be used. If multiple input files contain add-in functions that are to be to documented, then multiple -i options should be used. Note that all files should reside in the SourceFolder, and that arguments must be simply file names - they may not include paths.
-e ExtensionFile Optional. The full path to an extension file used by the add-in functions, e.g.: -e "C:\Program Files\Planatech\XllPlus\6.0\VS8.0\Include\Extensions\StringPtrHandles.xpe". Each extension file used by the add-in functions must be supported by a separate -e option.
-l language Optional. The language to be used by the add-in. Localized.xsl contains a list of the supported languages. This setting overrides Help/@Language in the help file.
-n boolean Optional. If true, then no logo will be displayed. If false, the program version information will be written to standard output.
-m boolean Optional. If true, no error will be returned if the help compiler, HHC.EXE, is missing. If false (the default) an error will occur if HHC.EXE is not found.
-h Optional. Shows help. No other action takes place and the help project is not built.

Exit codes

Exit code Description
0 Program completed successfully.
1 A command line argument contained an error.
2 An error occurred while the program was running.

Example

In the example below, the line breaks are for readability only, and should not be used as part of the command.

BUILDHELP -s C:\Files\MyAddin -t "C:\Program Files\Planatech\XllPlus\6.0\VS8.0\bin" 
-h "C:\Program Files\HTML Help Workshop\hhc.exe" -b Release 
-i MyAddin.cpp -i MoreSourceCode.cpp
-e "C:\Program Files\Planatech\XllPlus\6.0\VS8.0\Include\Extensions\StringPtrHandles.xpe"
        

Further information

Generating help (User Guide)
Help Generator Reference