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

Online Help and Siebel Tools

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In Siebel Tools, Screen, View, and Help Id objects are used to establish the link between a screen or a view and a help topic file.

NOTE:  Standard Siebel eBusiness Applications do not contain view-level help topic references; they are all at the screen level. See Implementing Help for a View for instructions about adding view-level help references.

The following topics are included:

• Screen and View Objects
• Help Id Objects
• Help Properties of Screens and Views
• Default Help Topic
• Implementing Help for a Screen
• Implementing Help for a View
• Changing the Keyboard Shortcut for Accessing Help
• Help Menu Items

Screen and View Objects

Each Screen and View object has a Help Identifier property that is used to establish the link with the Help Id object.

The format of the Help Identifier property is ID_type_objdefname, where:

• type is SCREEN or VIEW
• objdefname identifies the screen or view

Help Id Objects

Each Help Id object has a HTML Help URL property that is used to identify the HTML file that contains the help topics for the screen or the view by mapping the Help Identifier to a specific URL. You can use the same value for the HTML Help URL property for different Help Id objects.

The format of the HTML Help URL property is help/helptopics.htm, where:

• help is the server folder where the HTML topic files reside
• helptopics.htm is the HTML file that appears when a user invokes help

See Location of Employee Application Help Files for additional information about where the help files are installed.

Help Properties of Screens and Views

To determine which HTML file contains the help topics for a screen or a view you must: use your Siebel application to determine the Screen or View object used in the screen or view, then use Siebel Tools to find the Help Identifier property of the Screen or View object and then find the corresponding HTML Help URL property in the Help Id object.

NOTE:  Some screens are associated with generic help topics. In this case, you must use a different filename if you want to customize the help. See Customizing Help for Screens with Generic Help Topic Files for instructions.

Example

To determine which HTML file contains the help topics for the Accounts screen, you must find which Screen object is used in the Accounts screen.

To do this, in your Siebel eBusiness Application, navigate to the Accounts screen, then choose Help > About View to access the About View dialog box, shown below.

In Siebel Tools, find the Accounts screen object and find the value of its Help Identifier property (ID_SCREEN_ACCOUNTS) in the Object List Editor window, shown below.

When you know the value of the Help Identifier property of the Screen object (ID_SCREEN_ACCOUNTS), you can find the value of the Help Id object's HTML Help URL property (help/siebaccounts.htm) in the Object List Editor window, as shown below.

Default Help Topic

The start page of the employee applications help system (siebstarthelp.htm) is defined as the default help topic for employee applications. When a user accesses help from a screen or view for which the Help Identifier property is not defined, siebstarthelp.htm appears in a separate browser window.

To change the default help topic

1. In Siebel Tools, in the Object Explorer (Types tab) find and select the Web Page object type.
2. In the Object List Editor, find and select the CC Help Page object definition.
3. In the Object Explorer (Types tab), expand the Web Page object type and select the Web Page Item object type.
4. In the Object List Editor, modify the Caption property of the Online Help object definition to point to your default help topic.

   For example, change the Caption property from help/siebstarthelp.htm to help/index.htm.

5. Recompile the repository file.
6. Test your changes and distribute the repository file and your new default topic file to the appropriate Siebel Servers, Siebel Mobile Web Clients, and Siebel Dedicated Web Clients.

   For example, for Siebel Web Client implementations, copy index.htm to the correct Siebel Server location (<install dir>\public\<install language>\help).

   For more information, see Testing and Distributing Changes.

Implementing Help for a Screen

If you add a custom screen in your implementation of Siebel eBusiness Applications, you can create help for that screen. To do this, you must use Siebel Tools to define the Screen object with a Help Identifier property, and then add a Help Id object with a HTML Help URL property for the screen. The documentation team can develop the content using the name of the file that will be distributed to the appropriate Siebel Servers, Siebel Mobile Web Clients, and Siebel Dedicated Web Clients.

To add help for a new screen

1. In Siebel Tools, if the Screen object does not exist, create it.

   For example, create the My New Screen Screen object.

   See Siebel Tools Reference for instructions.

2. In the Screen object, define the Help Identifier property.

   For example, ID_SCREEN_MYNEWSCREEN.

3. Create a new Help Id object with the following properties:

   Property	Value	Example
   Name	Value of the Help Identifier property of the screen	ID_SCREEN_MYNEWSCREEN
   Project	Repository Help Id	Repository Help Id
   Type	Screen	Screen
   HTML Help URL	Name of the file that will contain the help content	help/mynewscreen.htm

4. Recompile the repository file.

   NOTE:  You must compile the Repository Help Id project and the Screen object. In our example, you must compile the My New Screen Screen object and the Repository Help Id project.

5. Create a new HTML file with help content for the screen.
6. Save the HTML file using the name defined in the HTML HELP URL property of the Help Id object associated with the screen.

   For example, mynewscreen.htm.

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.

   For example, for Siebel Web Client implementations, copy mynewscreen.htm to the correct Siebel Server location (<install dir>\public\<install language>\help).

   For more information, see Testing and Distributing Changes.

Implementing Help for a View

To add help for a view, you must use Siebel Tools to define the View object with a Help Identifier property, and then add a Help Id object with a HTML Help URL property for the view. At the same time, the documentation team can develop the content, and they can use the name of the file that will be distributed to the appropriate Siebel Servers, Siebel Mobile Web Clients, and Siebel Dedicated Web Clients.

To add help for a view

1. In Siebel Tools, if the View object does not exist, create it.

   See Siebel Tools Reference for instructions.

2. In the View object, define the Help Identifier property.

   For example, for the Opportunity Detail - Contacts View, use ID_VIEW_OPPORTUNITY_DETAIL_CONTACTS as the Help Identifier.

   NOTE:  If you leave the Help Identifier property blank for the View object, the Screen-specific help will be used as the default help topic for the view.

3. Create a new Help Id object with the following properties:

   Property	Value	Example
   Name	Value of the Help Identifier property of the view	ID_VIEW_OPPORTUNITY_DETAIL_CONTACTS
   Project	Repository Help Id	Repository Help Id
   Type	View	View
   HTML Help URL	Name of the file that contains the help topics	help/siebopportunities_detailcontacts.htm

4. Recompile the repository file.

   NOTE:  You must compile the Repository Help Id project and the View object. In our example, you must compile the Opportunity Detail - Contacts View object and the Repository Help Id project.

5. Create a new HTML file with the help content for the view.
6. Save the HTML file using the name defined in the HTML HELP URL property of the Help Id object associated with the view.

   For example, siebopportunities_detailcontacts.htm.

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.

   For example, for Siebel Web Client implementations, copy siebopportunities_detailcontacts.htm to the correct Siebel Server location (<install dir>\public\<install language>\help).

   For more information, see Testing and Distributing Changes.

Changing the Keyboard Shortcut for Accessing Help

Since most users are accustomed to accessing help by pressing the F1 key, you may want to map F1 to display online help in your Siebel application. To do this, you must add an accelerator in Siebel Tools.

To change the keyboard shortcut for accessing help

1. In Siebel Tools, select the Command object type in the Object Explorer.

   The Commands list appears in the Object List Editor.

2. In the Commands list in the Object List Editor, find the Contents Help (SWE) command object and select the row.
3. In the Object Explorer, click Accelerator.

   The Accelerators list appears below the Commands list in the Object List Editor.

4. Change the two Accelerator objects as shown below:

   Name	Display Name	Key Sequence
   1	F1	F1
   2	F1	F1

5. Recompile the repository file.
6. Distribute the repository file to the appropriate Siebel Servers, Siebel Mobile Web Clients, and Siebel Dedicated Web Clients.

Help Menu Items

If you create a new application using Siebel Tools, you can add options to the Help menu in your application. For example, you may want to add an option that allows the user to access the Bookshelf from within the application.

The Help application menu option is configured using the Command and Menu objects.

The Command object created for online help is Contents Help (SWE).

See Siebel Tools Reference for instructions about using the Command and Menu objects.

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