Overview of the Desktop End-User Online Help

The desktop end-user online help is a collection of HTML files that is referenced in the display profile. Each provider, including the various container providers, has a display profile entry for a corresponding help file. In the display profile, each provider definition has the default value for the help file. If a channel that uses the provider has a different help file, the helpURL property can be defined in the channel definition also, overriding the provider’s value.

The display profile entries for the online help are defined in the provider properties. The entries define the string name, helpURL, and its value.

The helpURL property is a conditional property. Multiple values can be associated with the helpURL property and the display profile API returns the proper value depending on the client type and locale. If your portal server is configured to serve multiple clients (such as HTML, WML) in multiple locales (such as english, french), the helpURL property will allow you to set up multiple help files based on the type of client and type of locale you are serving.

Example 12–1 HelpURL Property in Display Profile Definition

<ConditionalProperties condition="client" value="WML">
    <ConditionalProperties condition="locale" value="en">
        <String name="helpURL" value="en/wml/help.wml"/>
    </ConditionalProperties>
    <ConditionalProperties condition="locale" value="fr">
        <String name="helpURL" value="fr/wml/help.wml"/>
    </ConditionalProperties>
</ConditionalProperties>
<ConditionalProperties condition="client" value="HTML">
    <ConditionalProperties condition="locale" value="en">
        <String name="helpURL" value="en/html/help.html"/>
    </ConditionalProperties>
    <ConditionalProperties condition="locale" value="fr">
        <String name="helpURL" value="fr/html/help.html"/>
    </ConditionalProperties>
</ConditionalProperties>

The value of the helpURL property can be either a relative path or an absolute path. The location shown in the above example is relative to the Desktop static content root.

The static content root is the install directory of static content. By default the static content root is PortalServer-base/.

The relative path will be generated as:

static-content-root/doc-root/locale/helpURL-value

The doc root is defined in the display profile also. For example, if the doc root is docs, and the user’s locale is en_US, with the helpURL value, the final value for the help location will be:

PortalServer-base/web-src/docs/en_US/desktop/userinfo.htm

The following is an example of an absolute URL that defines a help file location. Use a similar format for using an absolute URL to define the location of an online help file.

<String name="helpURL" value="http://sesta.com/docs/desktop/userinfo.htm"/>