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Multi-Line Examples

PowerShell's Comment Based Help was originally designed for .EXAMPLE nodes containing:

  • Only a single-line example
  • Followed by the command's output and/or a description
.EXAMPLE

  Get-RealName -NickName "SomeNick"

  Yasmine

Code Fence Detection​

Unfortunately these single-line examples no longer suffice as authors are now creating advanced functions which require complex multi-lined code examples to properly inform their end-users.

Because Microsoft does not (and cannot) support these use-cases, Docusaurus comes with Code Fence Detection, allowing you to use markdown code fences to indicate where your example code block starts and where it ends.

Code fencing ensures identical rendering across all PowerShell versions and looks similar to:

.EXAMPLE
    ```ps
    $description = 'Code Fenced example with a description'
    $names | Foreach-Object {} {
        Write-Host 'Indentation and empty newlines within the fenced code block will be respected'
    }

    $multipleNewlinesInCode = $True
    ```

    Your description would start here and:

    - is treated as markdown
    - could also contain fenced code blocks itself

Please note that you may use any of the following commonly used opening fences:

  • ```
  • ```ps
  • ```posh
  • ```powershell

For a full list of usage examples see this test module and the markdown it renders.

PowerShell 7 Native Multi-Lines​

Even though PowerShell 7 ships with native support for multi-line code examples it only supports a single use-case as can be seen in this example:

.EXAMPLE
    $exampleType = 'PowerShell 7+ multi-line example with a description'
    $info = 'PS7 will treat all adjecent lines as code'
    $info = 'The code block will end at the first double-newline`

    PS7 will thus use this line, and everything below it, as the description

You could consider using PS7 multi-lines instead of Code Fence Detection if:

  • You will (only) use PowerShell 7 to generate your documentation
  • Your example code does not contain any blank lines

Do not use native PS7 multi-lines if you intend to generate/test documentation using other PowerShell versions!

Default Fallback​

Docusuarus.PowerShell will fall back to using the unaltered PlatyPS generated code blocks if code fencing is not detected.

This is intentional behavior and is done because:

  • It would be impossible to "guess" where the code ends and the description begins
  • We can redirect (and fix) bugs in the right place (PlatyPS repository)
  • It will automatically support the multi-line examples that ships with PowerShell 7

Unexpected Results​

If your example code is not being rendered as expected please make sure to understand why it is not being recognized as multi-line code before creating an issue or pull request. Most likely, updating your help to use Code Fence Detection would be the better alternative.

Additional Information​