This article explains how to recover parameter names in an Java Binding Project by using Javadoc generated from the Java project.

Overview

When binding an existing Java library, some metadata about the bound API is lost. In particular the names of parameters to methods. Parameter names will appear as p0, p1, etc. This is because the Java .class files do not preserve the parameter names that were used in the Java source code.

A Xamarin.Android Java binding project can provide the parameter names if it has access to the Javadoc HTML from the original library.

Integrating Javadoc HTML into a Java Binding Project

Integrating the Javadoc HTML into a Java Binding project is a manual process consisting of the following steps:

1. Download the Javadoc for the library
2. Edit the .csproj file and add a <JavaDocPaths> property:
3. Clean and rebuild the project

Once this is done, the original Java parameter names should be present in the APIs bound by a Java Binding Project.

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Note: There is a great deal of variance in the JavaDoc output. The .JAR binding toolchain does not support every single possible permutation and consequently some parameter may not be properly named.

Summary

This article covered how use Javadoc in a Java Binding Project to provide meaning parameter names for bound APIs.