The General tab page lets you among other things, select which main file to generate documentation for.
The General tab page
Main file
Select either a single source file (*.PAS), or an entire Delphi project (DPR-file), or an entire Borland Pascal project (PAS-file). You can also select a Delphi package (DPK file).
You can also use a relative path. The path is then relative to the folder where the project file (PBR-file) is located.
Example:
The project file is saved at C:\Projects\MyProj.pbr. The main file is C:\Projects\Mine\MyProj.dpr.
You could use the relative path "..\Mine\MyProj.dpr" for the main file.
Description
Enter a descriptive string for this project. The string can be referenced by templates when documentation is created. It is included in the XML file that is generated.
Output root folder
Specify the root folder where Pascal Browser writes the documentation files. For example, if a project called “MyProject” is processed, the documentation files will be written to a folder “\MyProject” just below the output root folder. The folder will be created if it does not exist.
The default output root folder is in a folder below "My Documents", like
"C:\Documents and Settings\<account>\My Documents\Pascal Browser\Projects\Output".
You can also use a relative path. The path is then relative to the folder where the project file (PBR-file) is located.
Example:
The project file is saved at C:\Projects\MyProj.pbr. If you want the output root folder in the same folder, just enter "." as the output root folder.
Parsed files
There are three possible settings:
All files
Pascal Browser will parse all found files if this option is selected.
NB. Selecting this option may force PAB to load and store a huge amount of identifiers and meta-data. This will make the generation process much slower. A good idea is to start with one of the other options, to see if they are sufficient to use.
Main files and directly used (default)
The main files and those files (units) that are listed in the uses lists of the main file, will be parsed.
Main file
Only the selected main file will be parsed.
Erase existing files
Mark this checkbox if you want Pascal Browser to first erase existing files in the output folder, before creating the new files. Only files matching the file extension selected, will be erased. For example, if "htm" is selected as the file extension, only files with this extension are affected. Any sub folders and files in those will also be deleted.
Because Pascal Browser does not necessarily create files with the same names each time you generate documents, it is advisable to turn on this option, so you do not get loose document files hanging around and wasting disk space.
Default = Yes
Ask before deleting files
Mark this checkbox if you want Pascal Browser to ask before deleting files recursively in the output folder. If you run PABCMD.EXE, the command-line version, there will be no question. Always check carefully that you have set your output folder correctly, so you do not inadvertently delete any files.
Default = Yes
Force first character to upper case for todo items
Mark this checkbox if you want the first letter of each todo item to be in upper case.
Default = Yes
Copy files in sub folders
When documentation is generated, files are copied from the template folder. Check this option to also copy files in sub folders.
Note that this could be a dangerous action, if you select the wrong template folder. If for example, "C:" is selected as the root folder, all files on your disk would be copied. So use this option with care.
Default = Yes
Keep XML file
Mark this checkbox if you want Pascal Browser to keep the generated XML file in the output folder. If you plan to customize or write your own XSLT templates, this file will be essential to you, so you would want to keep it. Otherwise Pascal Browser deletes it after the building process, because it is not longer needed.
Default = No
Open in application
Mark this checkbox if you want Pascal Browser to open the main document after completion of the generation. For example, if the main document is Start.htm, this page will load the application you have associated with HTML-files, normally a web browser like MS Internet Explorer.
You can always access the main document with the menu selection "Open main document" in the Generate menu, regardless of this setting.
Default = Yes
Create CHM project files
Mark this checkbox if you want Pascal Browser to create CHM project files, in addition to the web site. This is especially handy if you have generated HTML files and want full-text search.
The CHM project files including the resulting CHM file will be written to the output directory. You can either work with the project files in HTML Help Workshop, or compile them directly from within Pascal Browser.
Default = No
Compile CHM project
Mark this checkbox if you want Pascal Browser to compile the CHM project, and produce a compressed CHM file. You must first download and install "HTML Help Workshop version 1.3" from Microsoft.
When compiling, a log file will be created in the output directory. It will have the name format <ProjectName>.log. Check this file if errors occur.
Default = No
Just keep CHM file
Mark this checkbox if you just want to keep the standalone CHM file, after compiling the CHM project. If Yes, all files in the output folder and all subfolders will be deleted, except for the CHM file.
The CHM file is produced by HTML files, so it is not necessary to keep those, if you just want to use the CHM file.
Default = No
See also: