Providing Help Files and Library Description Files

You can add your own user-defined documentation to the function/function block POUs contained in a released library. This allows you to provide documentation on the function/function block POUs that will help, for example, other users to understand how the POUs have to be used. The user-defined documentation can be provided by CHM help files and library description files.

Once you have created your user-defined documentation, you can add one or more CHM help files and library description files to a released library by selecting the file(s) in the 'Release As Library' dialog.

CHM help files

With the CHM help file (Compiled HTML help) you can provide a detailed description of the function/function block POUs to other users who will include the POUs in their projects. The help information will be displayed for the function/function block POU when the user presses <Shift>+<F1> for the POU selected in the COMPONENTS area or selects the in-place help button for the POU in the worksheet.

For creating a CHM help file, the HTML Help Workshop (free tool provided by Microsoft) or any other help authoring tool that can produce a CHM file can be used.
For CHM help files to be added to a released library, the following applies:

The CHM help file name must start with the name of the library followed by "_FBFun.chm", for example, "MyLibrary_FBFun.chm" (case must match).
An error message is shown in the Release As Library' dialog when the help file name does not begin with the library name.
Localized CHM help files (chm files in other languages) can be added. The name of the language-specific CHM help files must be as follows:
<libraryname>_<languagecode>_FBFun.chm
where <languagecode> is, for example, en, en-US, de, de-DE, ...
Example: MyLibrary_de-DE_FBFun.chm for German CHM help file.

Contents of a CHM file

Calling a help topic for a function/function block POU

Tip: The HTML Help Workshop provides a decompile command which can be used to extract the files in a CHM help file to a directory on your computer. Use this command to decompile an existing CHM help file for a function/function block library provided with PLCnext Engineer to see which files the CHM help contains.

Note
This help does not describe the procedure how to create CHM help files. For details on this, refer to the documentation provided with the HTML Help Workshop or the help authoring tool you use.

Library description files

PLCnext Engineer allows you to provide library description files with the POUs contained in your released libraries. The library description file is a file in XML format which has a pre-defined structure and content (see below). The description file contains the following information:

Categories under which the function/function block POUs appear in the COMPONENTS area
Short descriptions of the POUs that are shown when hovering with the mouse over the POU in the COMPONENTS area.

For library description files, the following applies:

The file name must be LibraryDescription.xml.
Localized library description files (library description files in other languages) can be added. The name of the language-specific library description files must be as follows:
LibraryDescription.<langcode>.xml
where <langcode> represents the locale code of the used language (for example, "de" for German, "fr" for French, "zh-CN" for Chinese, ...).
Example: "LibraryDescription.de.xml" for German library description file.
The content and structure of the localized library description file is the same as with the English version, except that the content of all Description attributes and the Name attributes of the <ToolboxCategory> elements must be translated.
The XML file must be saved with UTF-8 encoding.

Tip: When providing an own library description file, please start with the automatically generated library description file (when not providing an own file) as a base. All necessary entries are generated and can be found in the library file (*.pcwlx). The .pcwlx file is a zipped file which can be opened and extracted with any unzip program. Modify this automatically generated file according to your needs and then add the file in the 'Release As Library' dialog.

Example