How to add a mouse-over summary.

Question

I'm almost certain this is going to be a very simple answer but I can't seem to find it anywhere. We all know when you hover your mouse over something (like a string) a little summary pops up (if its enabled). For a string, it says:

class System.String

Represents text as a series of Unicode characters.

When I mouse over one of my classes, it simply says:

class Namespace.Widget

I've tried the two obvious examples I've found:

/// <summary>
/// This summary does not work, I know it's for html documenting tools but thought it was worth a shot.
/// </summary>

and:

// Summary:
//     This is what is in some of the base libraries, and does not work as well.

So, how do I add a summary to the mouse-over pop-up??

Answer 1

Reset your settings in visual studio, they seem to be messed up. And for it to show up, you'd have to use the first example.

Answer 2

I don't see why your first attempt wouldn't work. It's the <summary> comment tag which supplies the 'tooltip' you're talking about...

/// <summary>
/// This text should automatically show up as the summary when hovering over
/// an instance of this class in VS
/// </summary>
public class MyClass
{
    public MyClass() {}      
}

public class MyClass2
{
    public MyClass()
    {
        //hovering over 'something' below in VS should provide the summary tooltip...
        MyClass something = new MyClass();
    }
}

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Answer 3

The three-slash XML comments may be used to create the IDE tool-tips in Visual Studio. In particular, "summary" and "exception" work very well. (Other things like "code" have not worked in the versions of Visual Studio that I have used.)

If this is not working for you, then something may be wrong with your settings.

Answer 4

You need to use your first syntax, and, if you're using the class outside of your Visual Studio solution, you need to check Generate XML Documentation file in Project Properties.