Helps 1.2.9

There is a newer version of this package available.
See the version list below for details.

dotnet add package Helps --version 1.2.9

NuGet\Install-Package Helps -Version 1.2.9

This command is intended to be used within the Package Manager Console in Visual Studio, as it uses the NuGet module's version of Install-Package.

<PackageReference Include="Helps" Version="1.2.9">
  <PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
  <IncludeAssets>runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers</IncludeAssets>
</PackageReference>

For projects that support PackageReference, copy this XML node into the project file to reference the package.

paket add Helps --version 1.2.9

The NuGet Team does not provide support for this client. Please contact its maintainers for support.

#r "nuget: Helps, 1.2.9"

#r directive can be used in F# Interactive and Polyglot Notebooks. Copy this into the interactive tool or source code of the script to reference the package.

// Install Helps as a Cake Addin
#addin nuget:?package=Helps&version=1.2.9

// Install Helps as a Cake Tool
#tool nuget:?package=Helps&version=1.2.9

The NuGet Team does not provide support for this client. Please contact its maintainers for support.

PowerShell Help Builder

Helps.ps1 provides functions for building PowerShell XML help files from help scripts and for creating help script templates for existing objects. Help may be created for everything that supports XML help: cmdlets, providers, scripts, and functions in scripts or modules.

Help scripts are similar to the result help and they are easier to compose than XML. Scripts make a lot of things easy. One of them is building localized help.

Quick Start

Step 1: Helps is distributed as the NuGet package Helps. Download it by NuGet tools or directly. In the latter case save it as ".zip" and unzip. Use the package subdirectory "tools". Consider adding this directory to the path.

Step 2: Choose the command, for example My-Command cmdlet from MyModule, and make the command available, i.e. import the module. If My-Command is a script function then dot-source the script.

Import-Module MyModule

Step 3: Dot-source the script Helps.ps1. This command loads its utility functions into the current scope, the global scope if it is called from the command line:

. Helps.ps1

Step 4: Create and copy/save the template help script of My-Command, paste/open the script in an editor and fill the empty placeholders it with proper content.

New-Helps -Command My-Command
New-Helps -Command My-Command | Set-Clipboard
New-Helps -Command My-Command > MyModule.dll-Help.ps1

Step 5: Build the XML help Module.dll-Help.xml from the help script. Copy the result to the module/script directory or a culture resource subdirectory, say, en-US.

Convert-Helps MyModule.dll-Help.ps1 MyModule.dll-Help.xml

This is it. In a new PowerShell session import the command's module or dot-source the command's script and get the command help:

Import MyModule
Get-Help My-Command

How To Get Help

Make sure Helps-Help.xml is in the same directory with Helps.ps1 or in a culture resource subdirectory (like en-US or ru-RU in the package).

For Helps.ps1. Assuming it is in the path:

help Helps.ps1

For its functions. At first dot-source the script and then call help:

. Helps.ps1
help Convert-Helps -Full
help New-Helps -Full
...

NuGet packages

This package is not used by any NuGet packages.

GitHub repositories

This package is not used by any popular GitHub repositories.

Version	Downloads	Last updated
1.2.10	239	1/18/2024
1.2.9	275	12/4/2023
1.2.8	223	12/2/2023
1.2.7	249	3/10/2023
1.2.6	288	3/9/2023
1.2.5	1,607	2/19/2021
1.2.4	682	12/5/2019
1.2.3	686	9/5/2019
1.2.2	1,139	2/24/2018
1.2.1	1,060	11/14/2017
1.2.0	1,422	12/16/2015
1.1.5	1,272	9/5/2015
1.1.4	1,515	6/12/2014
1.1.3	1,240	6/10/2014
1.1.2	1,277	6/8/2014
1.1.1	1,231	5/6/2014
1.1.0	1,294	5/3/2014
1.0.9	1,254	4/30/2014
1.0.8	1,334	7/15/2013
1.0.7	1,416	1/15/2013
1.0.6	1,917	12/12/2011
1.0.5	1,610	10/3/2011