AUV Workbench: Help Page Creation

This is a summary of how to add to the help system for the AUV workbench application. Content is added as HTML files and indexed in an XML catalog file.

JavaHelp support in AUVW is contained in these project areas:

• 1. javahelp/ subdirectory in the SVN archive
• 2. jhall.jar library in the SVN archive
• 3. Java source files, especially AMVWmenuBar.java, which launch the help window.
• 4. A target in build.xml, which builds the search database from the html files..
• 5. If/when context-sensitive help is implemented, other .java files in the project

Further details:

The javahelp/ directory contains the following:

1. AmvwHelpSet.hs -- This is the "master" file that initializes the javahelp system. To simply add content, it does not need to be edited unless further indexing functionality is added.
2. AmvwMap.jhm -- A map file which defines tokens to be used in other parts of the help system. Look at AmvwTOC.xml, for instance, to see how it is used. Add more entries as appropriate.
3. AmvwTOC.xml -- The master TOC tree is defined in this file. As more content is added, there should be more topics and subtopics added here.
4. javahelp/Pages/ -- All html and image content goes in this directory.
5. AmvwHelpIndex.xml -- This file is currently unused. If an index is built for the AMVW help system, it will go here.

The jhall.jar is Sun code which implements the JavaHelp system, as well as containing the search-indexing utility.

Summary:  Write your table of contents in AmvwTOC.xml. Define your tokens in AmvwMap.xml. Write your html, css, images, etc., and put them in javahelp/Pages.

Rendering in external browser:

The JavaHelp html browser is somewhat limited in its abilities. For pages which are either 1) not rendered at all, or 2) rendered inadequately, two methods are supported to force pages to be rendered in an external browser:

• File extension trapping: In the c_app.xml configuration file, a list of file types may be specified which the JavaHelp browser is known not to support. If the user clicks on a hyperlink in a JavaHelp page, and if the url resolves to one of the specified types, the JavaHelp browser does nothing, but the configured external browser is fired off with the url in question.
• Custom protocol specification: Some links may resolve to HTML files, but the browser doesn't render them well. In this case, the href field with the anchor tag should have jhxtrn: prepended to the url. This "piggybacks" onto the real protocol field. For example: href="http://support.microsoft.com..." and href="../../documentation/ ..." show how it would be used. When the javahelp system tries to render such urls, a short message appears on the screen informing the user that an external browser is being used.

Back to the Help page index, the AUV Workbench: Introduction page, or online to AUV Workbench home page.