Questions about Client Help

Classic Servoy
1

Some questions that have come to mind after reading & participating on another thread:

Is it allowable (legal) and advisable to modify the contents of the client_help directory? For instance, to add a link for “MySolution Help” to the left-hand frame and add one’s own html pages?

And would context-senstive Help be doable? If one wished to provide context-sensitive Help within one’s solution, how would one code the Help button on a form? a normal URL would try to launch the user’s default browser, right?

Of course, putting one’s soluton help pages up on the web is an option, but it would be really nice to offer both general Servoy Client help as well as solution-specific help all within Servoy.

kazar

2

kazar:
… it would be really nice to offer both general Servoy Client help as well as solution-specific help all within Servoy.

Yes, I second this request.

3

You could build your Help System Module and store all html pages in a table, if for any help record you keep track of ‘formName’ you can easily have a contextual help system. Obviuosly you will have to display the help pages with a custom formInDialog using the HTTP bean, a bit of work but sounds good to me.

4

Thanks for the idea, Nicola (and for the “me too” Westy).

I guess my main point was twofold: on the one hand, it would be nice to have all Help in one place, both general Servoy Client help (how to perform finds, for example) and solution-specific help; and, further, it would be even nicer to be able to access solution-specific help in a context-sensitive way (i.e., if that solution-specific help were added to the usual Help browser). In other words, the user can press F1 for any kind of Help they might be looking for, be able to search help (for solution-specific as well as general Servoy Client) in the Help browser, etc.

And my questions were twofold, I don’t think I was awfully clear in my post.

Q1: Legal?
It looks pretty clear to me that it is technically feasible to add one’s own entries to the left-hand frame of the Help browser and to add one’s own pages … just a matter of modifying the html files and, if necessary, the css stylesheet. But I do wonder if that’s legal (in view of copyright issues) so long as the text for Servoy Client Help itself is not altered and Servoy’s copyright notice is not removed or altered.

Q2: Technical …
As for context-sensitive help, yes, one could create a table with links and dynamically code which link will be called by clicking a Help button in each form. Hypothetically speaking, then, if one had included one’s solution-specific help pages in the Servoy Client Help browser, what would the link look like to call up a specific page in that browser instead of launching the user’s desktop browser?

kazar

5

That link would be http://serveraddress:serverport/client_manual/

I did modify the help but I also modified the help menu itself so imo I don’t have any copyright issues here :)

Cheers

6

IT2BE:
That link would be http://serveraddress:serverport/client_manual/

OK, the command:

application.showURL('http://localhost:8080/client_manual/')

opens the manual in my desktop browser, not in Servoy Help. What did I miss?

Again, quoting myself here:

if one had included one’s solution-specific help pages in the Servoy Client Help browser, what would the link look like to call up a specific page in that browser instead of launching the user’s desktop browser?

So is there some way to launch a specific page within client help in the Help browser (not in one’s desktop browser) with some kind of other protocol? When I press F1 some kind of call is sent to SAS to open the index page. Is there a way to code this?

kazar

7

Ah, my mistake.

I don’t think you can deeplink from the F1 key or whatever standard menu choice. You would really have to manipulate the menu’s.

What you can do is place a (?) button on your pages and from there link to the requested pages.

Or replace the original index page with a page that gives the user the option to make his/her choice,