Hard-to-diagnose "No metadata is generated" error when code has no namespace

[jskeet]

Title

Hard-to-diagnose "No metadata is generated" error when code has no namespace

Functional impact

Friction when trying to reproduce a trivial issue, or when getting started from scratch for tiny simple demo purposes.

Minimal repro steps

Step 1. Create a project.json file of:

{
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "frameworks": {
      "net451": { }
  }
}

Step 2. Create a DocfxTest.cs file of:

/// <summary>Just a demo</summary>
public class DocfxTest
{
}

Step 3. Ensure it builds:

dnu restore
dnu build

Step 4. Create a docfx.json file of:

{
  "metadata": [
    {
      "src": [
        {
          "files": [ "project.json" ],
          "cwd": "."
        }
      ],
      "dest": "obj/api"
    }
  ],
  "build": {
    "content": [
      {
        "files": [ "**/*.yml" ],
        "cwd": "obj/api",
        "dest": "api"
      }],
    "dest": "_site"
  }
}

Step 5. Try to generate the metadata:

docfx metadata

Expected result

Metadata should be generated, or if this restriction is deliberate, it should give a more detailed warning.

Actual result

Result from step 5:

Info: Config file docfx.json found, start generating metadata...
Warning: No metadata is generated for docfxbug2.


Build succeeded with warning.
Warning: No metadata is generated for docfxbug2.


There are totally 1 Warning(s), 0 Error(s)

Further technical details

On the off-chance, I added a namespace to the code in step 2. Regenerate the metadata (with -f) and bingo - it all works.

I can now submit the bug I was actually trying to reproduce to start with...

[jskeet]

Great - thanks for the swift resolution :)

[matkoch]

First part of this problem is still actual.