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We've recently made some more changes to how we present the Visual Studio 2005 beta documentation online. Please give us feedback on the changes and any issues you find.
As with the previous set of changes made in September 2004, there are a number of differences that you won't easily see, but they remain significant to us and will lay the foundation for a greater range of features in the future.
New URL Scheme
One of the things you may notice, which the new system enables, is a change to the URL scheme. We've heard clearly from you that our URLs change too often, resulting in broken links and broken favorites. This new URL system is based on unique content IDs that will stay constant over time. You'll notice that any of the URLs on MSDN2 that you may have previously bookmarked will continue to work, even though the content beneath them has undergone a significant overhaul.
The system also supports URLs of the format http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/content_alias where content_alias can be a namespace, class name, member or method. This makes navigating to API reference pages quicker and easier.
Examples:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/system.xml.serialization.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/system.datetime.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/system.string.format.aspx
New Rendering System
We've spent time improving the rendering system to complement the backend enhancements. Expect to see a number of improvements, including better performance in terms of page load time, cleaner presentation and consistency in fonts and styles. If you're visiting the site with a browser other than Internet Explorer, you'll notice the increased support for a range of different Web browsers through the increased use of standards-compliant XHTML.
The content itself has also seen some feature enhancements, including syntax highlighting in code samples and the ability to view example code snippets in just one or a few of the offered languages through a Language Filter at the top of the page.
Updated Table of Contents Interface
With the previous release of the Visual Studio 2005 beta documentation, we tried an experiment with an alternate UI for navigating the docs using nested Table of Contents (TOCs) instead of a tree control. We heard, almost universally, that you preferred the treeview style of navigation that exists in the MSDN Library today.
Well, it's back, new and improved. We're using the TreeView as provided by ASP.NET 2.0 to render the navigation system.
What's more, we've moved away from a frameset-based page while retaining the left-hand navigation panel and independent scrolling regions. Resize the Table of Contents on the left if you choose, or use the keyboard shortcut Shift-T to collapse and expand the treeview.
Printing Content
We've taken additional steps to ensure content in the system can be easily printed for reference. Follow the 'Printer Friendly Version' link at the bottom of the page to open a plain, full-width version of the page suitable for printing.
Improved Search
Search results for content on MSDN2 should now include brief descriptions of page content so you can make sure you're going to the right page before committing to that click. Behind the scenes, we're using the Request.Browser property to determine whether an incoming request is from a search crawler. If it is, we'll switch to a different master page more suited to search engines. See an example search-friendly page.
Known Open Issues
- Some content is missing. Please remember that this is beta documentation and is still under construction. You may see some broken links or broken navigation elements.
See the new changes to the Visual Studio 2005 beta documentation now.
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