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Siebel Developer's Reference > Online Help Development > Employee Applications >

Migrating Help

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If you customized the online help in Siebel 98 (Version 4), Siebel 99 (Version 5), or Siebel 2000 (Version 6) and the customization was mostly related to task topics, it may be more effective to rewrite the content because the navigation in Siebel eBusiness Applications has changed considerably.

The following topics are included:

• Help Migration Options
• Sample Scenario
• Updating Siebel Topic Files with Custom Content
• Converting Content to HTML Format Using Siebel File Names
• Converting Content to HTML Format Using Custom File Names

Help Migration Options

There are several ways to migrate customized help content to HTML format:

• Update the Siebel HTML topic file with information from your customized topic file from a previous release.

  See Updating Siebel Topic Files with Custom Content.

• Convert existing content to HTML using the filename found in Siebel Tools.

  See Converting Content to HTML Format Using Siebel File Names.

• Convert existing content to HTML using a filename of your choice, and update the HTML Help URL property.

  See Converting Content to HTML Format Using Custom File Names.

If all users will be running on a MS Windows platform, you can use your current compiled Microsoft Windows help system as the help system for your Siebel application. See Using WinHelp for more information.

NOTE:  In this section, rich text editor refers to a text editor that supports hidden text and footnotes, such as Microsoft Word.

Sample Scenario

For clarity purposes, the procedures in this section are illustrated by an example that assumes that you customized the help content for the Accounts screen to suit your implementation. In earlier versions of Siebel applications, you would have made these changes in the sa_acct.rtf source topic file.

Updating Siebel Topic Files with Custom Content

You can update the online help with customized information contained in your help system from a previous Siebel release using the Siebel topic files included with your Siebel eBusiness Applications.

Advantages

• Maintains formatting, layout, and navigation elements of the original, Siebel-delivered online help.
• Links to the cascading style sheet remain in place.

Disadvantages

• None

To update the Siebel HTML file with information from a customized .rtf file

1. Find the help properties of the screen.

   See Help Properties of Screens and Views for instructions.

   In the sample scenario, the HTML Help URL property associated with the Accounts screen is help/siebaccounts.htm.

2. Open the HTML file referenced in the HTML Help URL property.

   In the sample scenario, open siebaccounts.htm.

   NOTE:  If a redirect tag exists in the file, be sure to remove the tag. The following is an example of a redirect tag:
   <META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="1; URL=siebwelcome.htm"> 

3. Open the source .rtf file (used to create the help content in the previous version) in a rich text editor.

   In the sample scenario, open sa_acct.rtf.

4. Use copy and paste functionality to copy content from the .rtf file to the HTML file.

   In the sample scenario, copy content from sa_acct.rtf to siebaccounts.htm.

5. Apply the appropriate HTML tags to format content and save the HTML file.

   See Help Source Files for a description of the cascading style sheet used in the help.

   In the sample scenario, save siebaccounts.htm.

6. Test your changes and distribute the updated HTML file to the appropriate Siebel Servers, Siebel Mobile Web Clients, and Siebel Dedicated Web Clients.

   In the sample scenario, for Siebel Web Client implementations, replace <install dir>\public\<install language>\help\siebaccounts.htm with your version of siebaccounts.htm created from the  .rtf file.

   For more information, see Testing and Distributing Changes.

Converting Content to HTML Format Using Siebel File Names

If you customized the help content in previous versions of your Siebel application, you can use the method described in this section to convert the customized help content to HTML format. Use your source topic file (rich text format,  .rtf) as a starting point and follow the instructions.

Advantages

• The new help content exactly matches the customized content of the previous release.

Disadvantages

• Creates a risk of unexpected formatting results if the person customizing the help is not familiar with HTML.
• Creates risk of losing navigation elements in the help system (to table of contents and index topics) if the correct HTML code is not inserted in the new HTML file.

To convert a customized .rtf file to HTML using the Siebel filename

1. Find the help properties of the screen.

   See Help Properties of Screens and Views for instructions.

   In the sample scenario, the HTML Help URL property associated with the Accounts screen is help/siebaccounts.htm. The Siebel filename for the topic file is "siebaccounts.htm."

2. Open the source .rtf file (used to create the help content in the previous version) in a rich text editor.

   In the sample scenario, open sa_acct.rtf.

3. Save the file in HTML format, using the appropriate Siebel filename.

   In the sample scenario, save sa_acct.rtf as siebaccounts.htm.

4. Open the newly created HTML file.
5. In the HTML file, add a reference to the Siebel help cascading style sheet (siebhelp.css) and add the necessary blocks of code to implement the navigation hyperlinks.

   NOTE:  You can copy this information from one of the Siebel-delivered HTML files.

6. Clean up the HTML code to use styles defined in the style sheet and save the HTML file.
7. Test your changes and distribute the updated HTML file to the appropriate Siebel Servers, Siebel Mobile Web Clients, and Siebel Dedicated Web Clients.

   In the sample scenario, for Siebel Web Client implementations, replace <install dir>\public\<install language>\help\siebaccounts.htm with your version of siebaccounts.htm.

   For more information, see Testing and Distributing Changes.

Converting Content to HTML Format Using Custom File Names

You can use existing content in .rtf format and convert it to HTML using your own file naming convention.

Advantages

• Requires very little work from your help developer or technical writer.

Disadvantages

• Siebel Tools developers have to update the help properties for each topic file that does not use a Siebel name.
• Increases risk of errors because the names of files may be entered incorrectly in Siebel Tools.

To convert existing content to HTML using a filename of your choice

1. Open the source .rtf file (used to create the help content in the previous version) in a rich text editor.

   In the sample scenario, open sa_acct.rtf.

2. Save the .rtf file in HTML format, with a name you choose.

   In the sample scenario, save sa_acct.rtf as sa_acct.htm.

3. Test your changes by opening the HTML file in a Web browser.
4. In Siebel Tools, find the help properties of the screen.

   See Help Properties of Screens and Views for instructions.

5. Update the HTML Help URL property of the Help Id object to reflect the correct filename.

   In the sample scenario, update the HTML Help URL property for the ID_SCREEN_ACCOUNTS Help ID object to be help/sa_acct.htm.

6. Do one of the following:
   • If you only changed HTML Help URL properties, recompile the Repository Help Id project to create an SRF and implement the changes.
   • If you made other changes, recompile all affected projects to create an SRF and implement the changes.
7. Test your changes and distribute the repository file and the new HTML file to the appropriate Siebel Servers, Siebel Mobile Web Clients, and Siebel Dedicated Web Clients.

   In the sample scenario, for Siebel Web Client implementations, copy sa_acct.htm to the correct Siebel Server location (<install dir>\public\<install language>\help).

   For more information, see Testing and Distributing Changes.

Using WinHelp

If all users will be running on a Microsoft Windows platform, you can use your current compiled Microsoft Windows help system (WinHelp) as the help system for your Siebel eBusiness Applications.

It is important to note that this solution is not recommended and that there are several drawbacks to this implementation:

• Each time a user invokes help, the Web browser's File Download dialog box will appear, and the user must respond to access the help. The only way to avoid this is for your administrator to change security settings.
• When a user invokes help at a screen, the default topic in the WinHelp file appears in the help window, not the context-sensitive topic associated with the screen.

  In WinHelp, you specify the default topic for the help file in the [OPTIONS] section of the help project file (.hpj). If you do not specify a default topic, WinHelp uses the first topic of the first file listed in the help project (.hpj) file.

• From the help window, the user can access the Index, but the table of contents (usually available through the Contents tab of the Help Topics window) is not available. Microsoft is aware of this problem, but since WinHelp is no longer the Microsoft method of choice for help delivery, Microsoft will not fix this defect.

NOTE:  The following procedure assumes that you want to use siebhelp.hlp (a WinHelp file) as the help system for your Siebel eBusiness Applications.

To use a compiled WinHelp file

1. In Siebel Tools, update the HTML Help URL property for all Help Id objects to reflect the correct filename.

   In this example, update the HTML Help URL property for all Help Id objects to be help/siebhelp.hlp.

2. Do one of the following:
   • If you only changed HTML Help URL properties, recompile the Repository Help Id project to create an SRF and implement the changes.
   • If you made other changes, recompile all affected projects to create an SRF and implement the changes.
3. Distribute the repository file and the help file (Windows compiled help file) to the appropriate Siebel Servers, Siebel Mobile Web Clients, and Siebel Dedicated Web Clients.

   For example, for Siebel Web Client implementations, distribute the repository file and copy siebhelp.hlp to the correct Siebel Server location (<install dir>\public\<install language>\help).

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