how-to-add-input-types-to-a-cmdlet-help-topic.md

description	ms.date	ms.topic	title
How to add input types to a cmdlet help topic	07/10/2023	reference	How to add input types to a cmdlet help topic

How to add input types to a cmdlet help topic

[!INCLUDE use-platyps]

This section describes how to add an INPUTS section to a PowerShell cmdlet Help topic. The INPUTS section lists the .NET classes of objects that the cmdlet accepts as input from the pipeline, either by value or by property name.

There is no limit to the number of classes that you can add to an INPUTS section. The input types are enclosed in a <command:inputTypes> node, with each class enclosed in a <command:inputType> element.

The schema includes two <maml:description> elements in each <command:inputType> element. However, the Get-Help cmdlet displays only the content of the <command:inputType>/<maml:description> element.

Beginning in PowerShell 3.0, the Get-Help cmdlet displays the content of the <maml:uri> element. This element lets you direct users to topics that describe the .NET class.

The following XML shows the <maml:inputTypes> node.

<command:inputTypes>
  <command:inputType>
    <dev:type>
      <maml:name> Class name </maml:name>
      <maml:uri>  URI of a topic that describes the class </maml:uri>
      <maml:description/>
    </dev:type>
    <maml:description>
      <maml:para> Brief description </maml:para>
    </maml:description>
  </command:inputType>
</command:inputTypes>

The following XML shows an example of using the <maml:inputTypes> node to document an input type.

<command:inputTypes>
  <command:inputType>
    <dev:type>
      <maml:name>System.DateTime</maml:name>
      <maml:uri>https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/system.datetime</maml:uri>
      <maml:description/>
    </dev:type>
    <maml:description>
      <maml:para> You can pipe a date to the Set-Date cmdlet. <maml:para>
    <maml:description>
  </command:inputType>
</command:inputTypes>