B4J Question Comments in a B4xlib Manifest file.

[stevel05]

Is it possible to add comments to the B4xlib manifest file? I would like to store some information like which project the library came from, creation date etc. I may generate a b4xlib from 1 module in a large project and don't really want to create a new project for the purpose so it's obvious.

 

[PaulMeuris]

You can put comments in a XML file the same way as in HTML: <!-- comments -->
The comments can span multiple lines. You can't use 2 dashes -- in the comments.
The manifest editor (B4A) uses single quotes as comments and these comments don't appear in the manifest.xml file.
You can of course change the manifest.xml file yourself.

 

[stevel05]

Thanks Paul, but I'm asking about the Manifest file in a B4xLib, which is delimited plain text.

 

[PaulMeuris]

Sorry, i assumed that it was a XML file.
After reading this thread it became clear: XML generation tool

b4xlibs do not require an XML file. The IDE parses the packed code modules.

 

[PaulMeuris]

In the B4X CustomViews booklet at page 31 i read:

A B4X library is a simple zip file with the following structure:
• Code modules. All types are supported including Activities and Services.
• Files, including layout files.
• Optional manifest file with the following fields:
o Version
o Author
o DependsOn (list of required libraries), Supported Platforms. Fields can be shared
between the platforms or be platform specific.
o Comment: adds a comment to the library.
This comment will be shown in the Libraries Manager Tab.

It seems that the manifest file has a comment field...

 

[stevel05]

Ahh OK thanks, I don't remember seeing that. But what I'm really after are private comments (as in code comment) that are just ignored.

 

[teddybear]

Is it possible to add comments to the B4xlib manifest file? I would like to store some information like which project the library came from, creation date etc. I may generate a b4xlib from 1 module in a large project and don't really want to create a new project for the purpose so it's obvious.

Yes, you can add comments to the B4xlib manifest file. such as:

Version=2.00
B4J.DependsOn=jXUI, jDateUtils
B4A.DependsOn=XUI, DateUtils
B4i.DependsOn=iXUI, iDateUtils
Your comments.....

 

[stevel05]

Thanks @teddybear I'll give it a go.
I could have just tried it, I thought that maybe there was a designated character for the parser to ignore.

 

[Erel]

The manifest parser ignores invalid lines though it is better to start comments with apostrophe:

'comment here. The equal sign will not cause an error = jklfdsjflksd