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Common Desktop Environment: Help System Author's and Programmer's Guide

Writing Your Own Help on Help Volume

If you need to provide your own help on help volume, you should start with the existing Help4Help volume and then make the necessary changes. All the source files used to write the Help4Help volume are provided in the /usr/dt/dthelp/help4help/C directory.

To prevent installation conflicts, name your help on help volume something other than Help4Help. Consider picking a name that is specific to your product. For example, if your application's help volume is Newapp, your help for help volume could be NewappH4H.

Required Entry Points

To ensure that context-sensitive help within a help dialog operates correctly, you must provide the following entry points (IDs) within your help on help volume. (These are already included in the Help4Help source files.)

ID 

Fopic Description 

_hometopic

Displays an introduction to using the help system. This topic is displayed when you choose Using Help from the general help dialog's Help menu, or when you press F1 in a quick help dialog. (The ID _hometopic is created automatically by the <hometopic> element.)

_copyright

Displays the copyright and version information for the help on help volume. This topic is displayed when you choose Version from the general help dialog's Help menu. (The ID _copyright is created automatically by the <copyright> element.)

history

Displays a topic that describes how to use the History dialog. This topic is displayed when you choose Help or press F1 within the History dialog. 

printing

Displays a topic describing how to use the Print dialog. This topic is displayed when you choose Help or press F1 within the Print dialog. 

index-search

Displays a topic describing how to use the Index Search dialog. This topic is displayed when you choose Help or press F1 within the Index Search dialog. 

volume-select

Displays a topic describing how to use the Search Volume Selection Dialog. This topic is displayed when you choose Help or press F1 within the Search Volume Selection Dialog. 

To Copy the Help4Help Source Files

  1. Copy the entire /usr/dt/dthelp/help4help/C directory to a new working directory (new-dir) using a command like this: 

     cp -r /usr/dt/dthelp/help4help/C new-dir

    This creates new-dir and copies all the files and directories into it.

  2. To permit editing the files (which are copied as read only), change the permissions using a command like this: 

     chmod -R u+w new-dir

    The Help4Help volume uses these HelpTag source files:

    • MetaInfo

    • Toc

    • Tasks

    • HomeTopic

    • Concepts

    • Reference

    • Glossary

    Also included is a control directory, where you run HelpTag to create the run-time help file. Graphics are stored in the control/graphics subdirectory.

    Be sure to rename the Help4Help.htg file before running HelpTag. Your help on help volume should have a unique name to prevent conflicts with other help on help volumes.

Example

The following commands create a copy of the help on help volume and make its files writable. (Presumably the projects subdirectory already exists.) 

cp -r /usr/dt/dthelp/help4help/C /users/dex/projects/NewHelp4Help
 chmod -R u+w /users/dex/projects/NewHelp4Help

To build a new version of the run-time help files, first ensure that the directory /usr/dt/bin is in your search path. Then, change to the new directory, rename the Help4Help.htg file, and run HelpTag: 

cd /users/dex/projects/NewHelp4Help
mv Help4Help.htg NewH4H.htg
 dthelptag NewH4H

When the HelpTag software is done, you can display the new help on help volume using this command: 

dthelpview -helpVolume NewH4H