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In Xcode 4, if you option + click on a keyword, then the said keyword will appear in a popover with a bunch of descriptive information, like so:

enter image description here

However, when I option + click on my own method or variable, all I get is a link to the file in which the object was declared:

enter image description here

How is this done? Can I take advantage of this for my own code?

(I've noticed in some of the framework headers, that there is some sort of special comment syntax. Could that be related?)

Moshe
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2 Answers2

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You must create your own "documentation set" for your API. Search Xcode's documentation for "Documentation Set Guide" and dig in. The "Documentation Sets" section of the guide specifically states that Quick Help uses this.

With a doc set in place, not only will this popup find the description but it will be available in the QuickHelp in the Utility pane as well as the documentation browser in the Organizer.

Joshua Nozzi
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  • I've been researching this a little and you sound correct. Please continue to look into it. – Moshe Apr 22 '11 at 15:44
  • Very cool, this seems to be far from simple, but it looks awesome! – Moshe Apr 22 '11 at 16:19
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    Too bad Apple doesn't release their internal documentation tool as part of Xcode Tools. Then again, I heard it might not pass muster with the developer community (read "could use an overhaul"). :-) – Joshua Nozzi Apr 22 '11 at 16:21
  • @JoshuaNozzi Hehe. I hear ya. – Moshe Apr 22 '11 at 16:25
6

As of Xcode 5.0, Doxygen and HeaderDoc formatting for variables and methods is automatically parsed and rendered in the Quick Help popover. More information about it here, but here's some key bits:

/**
 * Add a data point to the data source.
 * (Removes the oldest data point if the data source contains kMaxDataPoints objects.)
 *
 * @param aDataPoint An instance of ABCDataPoint.
 * @return The oldest data point, if any.
 */
 - (ABCDataPoint *)addDataToDataSource:(ABCDataPoint *)aDataPoint;

renders in Xcode as:

As for properties, it's as easy as:

/// Base64-encoded data.
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSData *data;

When option-clicked, this lovely popover appears:

Community
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cbowns
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  • This works fine when you are in the file itself (as shown in the pics). But if you are working on another piece of code which uses the class, the option-click seems to lose the doc. Am I missing something? Is there a way to get the doc to populate throughout? – Richard Nov 18 '15 at 14:32