Getting MSDN help urls for .NET BCL types and Members

 Often when playing with .Net objects in Monad, I need to use MSDN class library reference to learn how to use a particular type and its members. Now, I have my bookmarks and favorite search engine but I always thought it would be cool if get-member cmdlet could provide me a help link/reference to go to. Thanks to the way MSDN organizes the class library content this seems possible.  MSDN uses the .Net namespace to organize the content. So http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/System.Diagnostics.Process.aspx  refers to the page providing information on the Process Type while http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/System.Diagnostics.Process.Start.aspx refers to the page providing information on the Start method.

Using monad’s Extended Type System (ETS) features and the way MSDN orgranizes the information I can achieve what  I want.  The get-member cmdlet outputs an object of Type System.Management.Automation.Commands.MemberDefinition. I will extend this type by adding a ScriptProperty called HelpLink via types.mshxml.  The following is the xml snippet that I add to my types.mshxml. The ScriptBlock basically constructs a url string based on the type name and name of the member being accessed. You will have to restart msh to get the changes in.

<Type>
    <Name>System.Management.Automation.Commands.MemberDefinition</Name>
    <Members>
        <ScriptProperty>
         <Name>HelpLink</Name>
         <GetScriptBlock>  “http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/” + $this.typename +”.” +$this.name+”.aspx”</GetScriptBlock>
        </ScriptProperty>
     </Members>
 </Type>

 This is what the get-member output looks like before adding the extension.

MSH> $a = ps msh

MSH > $a | get-member -membertype method -name Start | format-list

TypeName   : System.Diagnostics.Process
Name       : Start
MemberType : Method
Definition : System.Boolean Start()

This is what the get-member output looks like after the extension.

MSH C:\> $a | get-member -membertype method -name Start | format-list

HelpLink   : http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/System.Diagnostics.Process.Start.aspx
TypeName   : System.Diagnostics.Process
Name       : Start
MemberType : Method
Definition : System.Boolean Start()

I can now navigate to the exact help link directly from monad whenever needed :-). This seems to work ok for types in the base class library, but will not work for COM objects or the adapted objects or any custom types you might have.

-Abhishek Agrawal

 

[Edit: Monad has now been renamed to Windows PowerShell. This script or discussion may require slight adjustments before it applies directly to newer builds.]