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Updating and Converting Help Content

If you created custom help in Siebel CRM version 4, version 5, or version 6, and if the customization was mostly related to task topics, then it is recommended that you rewrite the content because Siebel CRM modified navigation considerably since Oracle published these releases.

The tasks in this topic use an example that assumes you modified the sa_acct.rtf source file to configure the help content for the Accounts screen. It assumes you made this modificaiton to support an earlier release of your Siebel application.

In this topic, the phrase rich text editor describes a text editor that supports hidden text and footnotes, such as Microsoft Word.

Updating Help with Custom Content from an Earlier Release

You can update help with custom content from an earlier Siebel release. This configuration provides the following advantages:

• Maintains format, layout, and navigation elements of the original predefined help
• Retains the links to the cascading style sheet

To update help with custom content from an earlier release

1. Identify the HTML file that contains the help content.

   In this example, the siebaccounts.htm file contains help for the Accounts screen. For more information, see Example of Identifying the HTML File That Contains Help Content.

2. Use a rich text editor to open the source.rtf file.

   Assume you used the source.rtf file to create the help content in the previous version. In this example, open the sa_acct.rtf file.

3. Make sure you remove any redirect tags.

   For more information, see Removing the Redirect Tag.

4. Copy and paste content from the source.rtf file to the HTML file.

   In this example, copy content from the sa_acct.rtf file to the siebaccounts.htm file.

5. To format the content, apply the appropriate HTML tags.

   For a description of the cascading style sheet that Siebel CRM uses in help, see Location of Help Files for an Employee or Partner Application.

6. Save the HTML file.
7. Test your modifications, and then distribute the updated HTML file to the appropriate Siebel Servers and Siebel clients.

   In this example, for the Siebel Web Client, replace the siebaccounts.htm file that resides on the Siebel Server with your version of the siebaccounts.htm file. For more information, see Testing and Distributing Modifications.

Converting Help Content to HTML

If you created custom help content in an earlier release of your Siebel application, then you can use the configuration that this topic describes to convert the custom help content to HTML format. You use your source topic file in rich text format as a starting point. The new help content matches exactly the custom content of the earlier release. If you use this configuration, then it is recommended you use the following guidelines:

• To avoid format errors, make sure the person who configures help is familiar with editing HTML.
• To avoid losing links to the table of contents and index, make sure the correct HTML code is inserted in the new HTML file.

To convert help content to HTML

1. Complete Step 1 through Step 3.
2. Use a rich text editor to open the source.rtf file.

   Assume you used the source.rtf file to create the help content in the previous version. In this example, open the sa_acct.rtf file.

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

   In this example, save the sa_acct.rtf file as siebaccounts.htm.

4. Open the file you created in Step 3, and then do the following:
   1. Add a reference to the siebhelp.css Siebel help cascading style sheet.
   2. Add the necessary blocks of code to define the navigation links.

      You can copy this information from one of the predefined HTML files.

5. Clean up the HTML code to use styles defined in the style sheet.
6. Save the HTML file.
7. Test your modifications and distribute the updated HTML file to the appropriate Siebel Servers and Siebel clients.

   In this example, for the Siebel Web Client, replace the siebaccounts.htm that resides on the Siebel Server with your version of siebaccounts.htm. For more information, see Testing and Distributing Modifications.

Converting Help Content to HTML With a Custom File Name

You can convert existing help content that is in rich text format to HTML using your own file naming format. This configuration requires minimal work from your help developer. You must do the following:

• Update the help properties for each topic file that does not use a Siebel name.
• Make sure you enter the file names correctly in Siebel Tools.

To convert help content to HTML with a custom file name

1. In a rich text editor, open the source .rtf file that you used to create the help content in the earlier release of Siebel CRM.

   In this example, open the sa_acct.rtf file.

2. Save the rtf file in HTML format.

   You can use a custom file name. In this example, save the sa_acct.rtf file as sa_acct.htm.

3. In Siebel Tools, do the following:
   1. Identify the HTML file that contains the help content.

      For more information, see Example of Identifying the HTML File That Contains Help Content.

   2. Update properties of the ID_SCREEN_ACCOUNTS help Id object to reflect the correct file name. Use values from the following table.

      Property	Value
      HTML Help URL	help/sa_acct.htm

4. Compile and test your modifications.
5. Distribute the Siebel repository file and the new HTML file to the appropriate Siebel Servers and Siebel clients.

   For example, for the Siebel Web Client, copy the sa_acct.htm file to the appropriate directory on the Siebel Server. For more information, see Testing and Distributing Modifications.