API Documentation for Sitefinity

Hi All,

Just wondering if I'm missing anything when it comes to documentation for the API. At this moment (and there have been several now over the last few weeks), I'm looking for more information on a very specific piece of Sitefinity (HierarchicalTaxonFieldDefinitionElement), and am feeling that I'm missing big chunks of information / getting frustrated with lack of documentation.

I'm familiar with the Developer's guide, for example:

www.sitefinity.com/.../hierarchicaltaxonfield

And of course the forums. But I'm looking for a more thorough definition of the API with all methods and properties of a given class, similar to the .NET documentation on MSDN.

Does this exist?

Thanks

Jonathan

I think that what you are after might be in the SDK.

Once downloaded and installed, browse your install folder for ...\SDK\Content\Documents\Chm\.

There is an install and remove bat file to make it available from VisualStudio.

I have both the 5.0 and 5.1 SDKs, and neither of them have a Chm file... The 5.1 has a folder "Telerik\Sitefinity 5.1\SDK\Content\Documents\Pdf" with 4 PDFs, but that's all I see there.

There should be a "Telerik\Sitefinity 5.1\SDK\Content\Documents\Chm" folder, with about 6 files, including the 2 batch files mentioned.

I just downloaded and installed the 5.2 SDK, and it's not there either... What version of SDK are you 2 referring to?

Hi,

The version that contains the CHM file with the API documentation is the 5.0 version of the SDK.

What I would suggest is to uninstall all versions of the SDK and install the 5.0 version of the SDK - it should install the required files as well. You can then follow my colleague's instructions for installing the API reference:

www.sitefinity.com/.../how_to_view_the_sitefinity_api_reference_in_visual_studio_2010

Greetings,
Victor Velev
the Telerik team

FWIW: I currently have the 5.1 API installed, and it has the required \chm\ folder with the various documentation files.

OMG, this is painful!

I'm now ready to get the magical version 5.0 of the SDK that comes with the (IMHO) absolutely necessary API reference, only to find that it's not available under my account under "Home / Your Products / Older Product Versions". I have access to 5.1 3270 at the earliest (I'm sure this is the first one I installed). Is the 5.0 SDK available anywhere else? Or at least the chm/bat files?

Please, Telerik, put the API reference online, with commenting (a la MSDN). In the meantime, though, I wants me some 5.0

Please and thanks

I think you should have access to versions of the SDK dating back to 4.1.1339 - by clicking on the 'All product versions" link in the box to the right of the current version shortcut of the SDK Download page in your account - certainly that's what I have for my account.

However, FWIW, I have the 5.1.3270.0 SDK installed, and have a access to the documentation files and installer.

Sadly I do not (attached screenshot). Perhaps because I purchased my license when 5.1 was out, and you've had yours since 4.1? Also, I think you have your API documentation because you initially installed version 5.0 of the SDK and then upgraded?

The SDK is downloaded from Your Account -> Manage Products -> Free Products -> Sitefinity SDK

(I agree this is not exactly obvious)

The current version is the displayed default, but you can download earlier versions from the box on the RH Site.

Thank you for seeing this through, it's appreciated.

I click on the links as you suggest, and then on "All Product Versions" to get the older versions, but I end up with just the list as illustrated in my screenshot.

I'm thinking that, as mentioned above, it might be because of the date of my license or something (can only get products released after license date?). Though for free products that seems odd. I'm thinking I may need to contact my Telerik rep.

Yes, that sounds like the best idea. It's crazy that you should need to waste this much time to get hold of the documentation, or even to get hold of an earlier version of a free SDK - quite likely to do with the new website imposing restrictions that it shouldn't.

Hi everyone,

We decided to remove this API Reference from the SDK. One, because you'd have to install the whole SDK even if you only need the documentation and two, because it increased the download size of the SDK installer.

We will provide the API reference as a separate download in your accounts in the upcoming days. Thank you for the feedback.

Hi everyone,

Just a quick follow-up: we wanted to inform you that we have just uploaded the API reference to , you should be able to find it in your client account under the Sitefinity SDK product version. For your convenience I'm pasting a direct link to the download  (please note this should be available once you are logged in).

Regards,
Boyan Barnev
the Telerik team

Slavo & Boyan,

Thank you very much for this. I've just finished downloading the API package.

Thanks Boyan! Is this download for Visual Studio 2010 only? I tried to install in Visual Studio 2012. I first copied the files to C:\Program Files (x86)\Telerik\Sitefinity 5.2\SDK\Content\Documents\CHM. The installation procedure in the post below fails with a warning explaining that any help content should be installed first before adding new content. But I already had help content installed.
www.sitefinity.com/.../how_to_view_the_sitefinity_api_reference_in_visual_studio_2010

I then tried to install it directly from Visual Studio rather then running the bat file (choose Help - Add and Remove Help Content). That sort of worked. The Sitefinity content is not listed in the chapters on the left (see attachment). The content is available though, but images are missing (also see attachment).

How should this be fully installed in VS 2012?

I agree with the last post here, PLEASE this is very valuable information, How do I access this?

Hi guys,

We have only tested the procedure described in the blog post with Visual Studio 2010. Microsoft have changed the version of the help viewer application for 2012 and the tools we use to generate this API Reference are having trouble with it. We will need to investigate why the errors in 2012 appear and if it's possible to use the docs there, but this may be to a number of reasons (bug in the tools, bug in the help viewer). We will try to provide an update which fixes the errors for the next release.

Have the issues with installing this API documentation with vs2012 been resolved?  I have tried both installing with the bat file and through the vs2012 help viewer IDE and still am seeing script errors, missing images and the lack of a Sitefinity API chapter showing up.

Hello,

We are currently researching the possible options for distribution of the API Reference in second format, which includes both research towards providing compatibility for VS 2012, and possible options for another format export (CHM, HTML).

Currently the documentation gets compiled, and we're not able to get a hold of the intermediate HTML to provide you with, however please stay in touch as we progress with this task and will announce it once complete.


All the best,
Boyan Barnev
the Telerik team

Any news on this topic?  Is this going to be another "next release" issue?

Hi Chris,

Thnak you for getting back with us.

We have logged the task for researching alternative formats for our API reference and will work actively on that task. Currently as a workaround  the API reference will work fine with VS 2010.

Kind regards,
Boyan Barnev
the Telerik team

How's the progress on this?  It's 2013 and VS 2013 has been released - only having 2010 compatible documentation seems a little outdated!

Hi Nick,

Currently the API Reference for Sitefinity is available online as part of our Sitefinity Documentation. The current version covers the Sitefinity 6.2 Release. The API Reference for Visual Studio now support Vs 2012 as well, and we're currently working on making it compatible with VS 2013 as well, however the product we're using for generating it has not released an official build that supports it - once we have that available we'll release a VS 2013 version as well.

Regards,
Boyan Barnev
Telerik