[Doxygen-develop] Link generation in overview pages

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I found an entry asking roughly the same question in the help forum, but =
it=20
was several years old and unanswered.=20

When using Javadoc, you can specify the =E2=80=93overview tag to include =
a=20
project-wide overview section.  This is roughly equivalent to the Doxygen=20
technique of adding an @mainpage tag to a source file, followed by a tag=20
such as =E2=80=9C@htmlinclude overview.html=E2=80=9D.=20

I created a Java source file with a class named =E2=80=9CNew1=E2=80=9D, a=
nd created the=20
file overview.html with the following contents:=20

  <body>Brief overview. A link: {@link New1}</body>=20

When I run Javadoc against my source file and specify the -overview switc=
h=20
pointed to my overview.html file, a link is produced on the overview page=20
with the text string =E2=80=9CNew1=E2=80=9D which links to the documentat=
ion for class=20
New1.=20

When I run Doxygen, I get the text string =E2=80=9C{@link New1}=E2=80=9D =
in my output=20
and no link.=20

The first question: is there a better way to incorporate an overview page=20
that will cause the link tags to be evaluated into an actual links the wa=
y=20
Javadoc does?=20

Second question: In order to use the Javadoc overview feature you use a=20
command line option (no tags).  This means you can add an overview page t=
o a=20
project without editing source files to add special tags like=20
=E2=80=9C@mainpage=E2=80=9D.=20

Would you consider adding such a switch to Doxygen so that Doxygen can=20
produce the same overview pages as Javadoc without requiring a change to =
the=20
source files (adding one or more tags)?=20

Extra info:  We deliver Javadoc with our product, but are considering usi=
ng=20
Doxygen for internal use.  The hope is that initially, there will be no=20
source code changes required until we are able to get the effort moving.=20

Thanks!
Jim