The desktop provides a special help volume called the index
volume that lists help volumes available on your system. The index
volume is displayed by clicking the Help Viewer control in the Front
Panel.
You can view assorted help volumes directly from the index
volume. This allows access to application-specific help without
starting the application. If you are writing standalone help, this
is the only way for users to get to your help.
To make your help volume available in the index volume, you
create a help family file. When your application is registered on
the desktop, the presence of a family file causes the help volume
to be included in the index volume.
Index
Volume |
 |
A desktop utility creates and updates the index volume. When
a user clicks on the Front Panel Help Viewer for the first time,
the utility is automatically run. It identifies help volumes and
help family files that are located in the help search path directories.
It creates a file called index.hv
in the user's HomeDirectory/.dt/help/$DTUSERSESSION
directory. After its initial creation, the volume is updated only
if changes have occurred.
To manually update the index volume, refer to “Generating
a Browser Help Volume (dthelpgen)”.
Any help volume listed in the index volume can be viewed by
selecting the volume title. Because you can display and navigate
through different volumes, the index help window includes an additional
button, called Top Level.You can use this button to return to the
index list after displaying one or more volumes.
Help Family File |
|
The desktop utility examines help family files to identify
which help volumes are gathered into the index volume. Figure 4-1 “Index help volume
displaying help families” shows two
help families, Common Desktop Environment and Overview and Basic
Desktop Skills, listed in the index volume. Each family file consists
of one or more related help volumes. For example, the Common Desktop
Environment family includes different volumes that describe the
desktop.
Refer to the Advanced User's and System Administrator's Guide
for a detailed explanation of how an application and its help files
are installed on the desktop.
To Create a Help Family |
|
Pick a file name that is unique to your product. Use the.hf
extension to identify the file as a help family.
family.hf
Enter the following lines into the file:
*.charSet: character-set
*.title: family
title
*.bitmap: icon file
*.abstract: family
abstract
*.volumes: volume volume
volume ... |
Where character-set specifies the character
set used by the family title and family
abstract strings. “Understanding
Font Schemes” for a list of supported character
sets. The family title and family abstract
should not contain any DocBook markup; this file is not
processed with the DocBook software.
The icon file is optional. If you provide
one, the path you use to specify the location of the file should
be a complete path name. If you do not provide an icon, do not include
the *.bitmap resource in
your family file.
The list of volume names identifies which
volumes belong to the family. The volumes will be listed in the
order they appear on this line. A volume may be listed in more than
one family.
If any of the values occupy more than one line, end each line
— except the last — with a backslash (\).
Any line in the file that begins with an !
(exclamation mark) is a comment line and is ignored.
When you prepare your final product, you should
install your family.hf
file with the rest of your help files. When the desktop integration
script, (dtappintegrate) is
run, it creates the symbolic links to your family file.
The Advanced User's and System Administrator's
Guide describes how to run the dtappintegrate
script.
Here's an example of a family file for the desktop's online
help.
*.charSet: ISO-8859-1
*.title: Common Desktop Environment
*.bitmap: /usr/dt/appconfig/help/C/graphics/cdelogo.pm
*.abstract: Overview and Basic Desktop Skills \
* File Manager and the Desktop \
* Front Panel \
* Application Manager \
* Style Manager \
* Text Editor \
* Mailer
*.volumes: Intromgr.sdl Filemgr.sdl FPanel.sdl
Appmanager.sdl Stylemgr.sdl
Textedit.sdl Mailer.sdl
|
The help family file actually included with the desktop software
may not exactly match this example.
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