10.4 Creating Help for Your Application

Help created in App Builder displays on a dedicated Help page. To access Help, users click a link that takes them to a dedicated Help page. This Help page displays page and field-level Help topics specific to the page they are viewing.

Topics:

10.4.1 Creating Help in Page Designer

This section describes how to create Help in Page Designer.

Topics:

10.4.1.1 About Creating Help

App Builder includes built-in attributes to create Help for your application. Creating Help for your application involves the following steps:

10.4.1.2 Creating a Help Page and Region in Page Designer

To create a Help page and region in Page Designer:

  1. Create a blank page for your Help.
  2. View the new page in Page Designer:
    1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
    2. Select an application.
    3. Select a page.
    Page Designer appears.
  3. In the Gallery, right-click Help Text region, select Add To, and select the appropriate location.

    Tip:

    You can also drag and drop from the Gallery. From the Gallery select the Help Text region and drag it to the appropriate location in the Layout tab.

  4. To view all attributes in the Property Editor, click Show All .
  5. Edit the following attributes:

    Tip:

    To search for a group or an attribute, enter a keyword in the Filter Properties field.

    1. Identification, Title - Enter a title for the region.

    2. Layout, Sequence - Enter the display sequence for this item. The sequence and other layout settings determine where this item is displayed in relation to other items within the region.

    3. Layout, Parent Region - Select the parent region to which this region belongs. If a parent region is selected then this region is rendered completely inside the parent region.

    4. Layout, Position - Specify the Sequence, Parent Region, and Position.

    5. Appearance, Template - Select a region template to define the appearance and layout of this region. Region templates are defined in the application theme. When a region is created, the template is automatically set to the default region template defined in the current theme.

    6. Appearance, Item Display Position - Select where page items display in relation to the main region content.

    Tip:

    To learn more about an attribute, select the attribute in the Property Editor and click the Help tab in the center pane.

  6. Click Save.

    Tip:

    For more information on supported chart options, see "ojChart" in JSDoc pages for the Oracle JavaScript Extension Toolkit (JET).

  7. Click Save.

See Also:

"Creating a Page from the Application Home Page"

10.4.1.3 Defining Page Help in Page Designer

To define Page Help text in Page Designer:

  1. View the new page in Page Designer:
    1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
    2. Select an application.
    3. Select a page.
    Page Designer appears.
  2. In the Rendering tab, click the page name.
  3. In Property Editor - Page, scroll down to Help and enter text in Help Text attribute.
  4. Click Save.

10.4.1.4 Defining Item Help in Page Designer

To define Page Help text in Page Designer:

  1. View the new page in Page Designer:
    1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
    2. Select an application.
    3. Select a page.
    Page Designer appears.
  2. In the Rendering tab, click item for which you want to define Help.
  3. In the Property Editor, locate and expand Help and enter text in Help attribute,
  4. Click Save.
  5. Repeat the previous steps for each item requiring Help text.

10.4.2 Creating Help in Legacy Component View

This section describes how to create Help in Component View.

Note:

Managing Pages in Legacy Component View

Topics:

10.4.2.1 About Creating Help

App Builder includes built-in attributes to create Help for your application. Creating Help for your application involves the following steps:

Help created in App Builder displays on a dedicated Help page. To access Help, users click a link that takes them to a dedicated Help page. This Help page displays page and field-level Help topics specific to the page they are viewing.

10.4.2.2 Creating a Help Page and Region in Component View

The first step in creating Help for your application is to create a dedicated page and Help Text region. The region you create displays page and item help for the current page when called using following syntax:

f?p=&APP_ID.:Page:Session:&APP_PAGE_ID.

To create a Help page and region in Component View:

  1. Create a blank page for your Help. See "Creating a Page from the Application Home Page."

  2. View the page in Component View. See "Viewing a Page in Legacy Component View."

  3. Create a new region. Under Regions, click the Create icon.

    The Create Region Wizard appears.

  4. Under Regions, the Create icon.

  5. When prompted to select a region type, select Help Text and click Next.

  6. For Display Attributes:

    1. Title - Enter a title for the region. This title displays if the region template you select displays the region title.

    2. Region Template - Choose a template to control the appearance of the region.

    3. Parent Region - Defines the parent region to which the new region belongs.

    4. Display Point - Identify a display point for this region. To learn more, see field-level Help.

    5. Sequence - Specify the sequence for this component. The sequence determines the order of evaluation.

    6. Click Next.

  7. On Source, click Next.

  8. For Conditional Display:

    1. Condition Type - Select a condition type from the list that must be met in order for this component to be rendered processed. See "Understanding Conditional Rendering and Processing."

    2. Authorization Scheme - Optionally select an authorization scheme which must evaluate to TRUE in order for this component to be rendered or otherwise processed. See "Providing Security Through Authorization."

    3. Click Next.

  9. Click Create Region.

10.4.2.3 Defining Page Help in Component View

To define page Help text in Component View:

  1. Navigate to the page for which you want to add page Help. See "Viewing a Page in Legacy Component View".
  2. Under Page, click the Edit icon.
  3. Scroll down to Help.
  4. Enter your Help text in the field provided.

    Tip:

    By default, Help is populated with the text No help is available for this page.

  5. Click Apply Changes.

Repeat the previous procedure for each page requiring page Help text.

10.4.2.4 Defining Item Help in Component View

To define item Help in Component View:

  1. Navigate to the page for which you want to add Help. See "Viewing a Page in Legacy Component View".
  2. Under Items, locate the item you want to edit.
  3. Access the attributes page for the item. Under Items, select the item name.

    The Edit Page Item page appears.

  4. Scroll down to Help Text.
  5. Enter your Help text in the field provided.
  6. Click Apply Change.

Repeat the previous procedure for each item requiring Help text.

10.4.3 Editing Multiple Item Help Topics Simultaneously

This section explains various ways to edit multiple Help topics at once.

Topics:

10.4.3.1 Using the Bulk Edit Item Help Report

If you are including Help in your application, you can edit all Help topics within an application at once using the Bulk Edit Item Help report. In addition, you can use the Bulk Edit Item Help report to view the item Label and Name, access the item, or link to the page containing the item.to the associate page

If you are including Help in your application, you can edit multiple Help topics at once using the Bulk Edit Item Help report.

To view the Bulk Edit Item Help report:

  1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
  2. Select an application.
  3. Click the Utilities icon.
  4. From Page Specific Utilities, select Item Utilities.
  5. Click Grid Edit of All Item Help Text.
  6. In Bulk Item Help Report, you can:

    • Update existing Help topics. Edit the Help text that appears and click Apply Changes.

    • Link to the page containing the item by clicking the page number.

    • Link to the Page Item by clicking the item name.

See Also:

"Seeding Item Help Topics"

10.4.3.2 Seeding Item Help Topics

If your application does not yet contain Help, you can perform a mass update of default Help text.

To seed Help topics:

  1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.
  2. Select an application.
  3. Click the Utilities icon.
  4. From Page Specific Utilities, select Item Utilities.
  5. Click Grid Edit of All Item Help Text.
  6. Click Seed Item Help Text.
  7. To edit existing item Help:
    1. In Item Help Text, enter the default text to appear in all Help topics.
    2. Click Apply Changes.
  8. To create help text for all items that currently do not have help text, click Seed Item Help Text and follow the on-screen instructions.
  9. Click Apply Changes.

10.4.4 Creating a Help Navigation Bar Entry

Once you have created your Help, the next step is to create a navigation bar entry so users can link to it.

To create a navigation bar entry:

  1. Navigate to the Navigation Bar Entries page:

    1. Navigate to the Workspace home page.

    2. Click the App Builder icon.

    3. Select an application.

    4. On the Application home page, click Shared Components.

    5. Under Navigation, click Navigation Bar Entries.

  2. Click Create.

    The Create Navigation Bar Entry Wizard appears.

  3. For Method, select From Scratch and click Next.

  4. For Type, select Navigation to URL and click Next.

  5. For Attributes, specify the following:

    1. Sequence - Specify the order of evaluation for this component.

    2. Entry Label - Enter display text for this navigation bar entry.

    3. Icon Image Name - Enter an image name. For naming conventions, see field-level Help. See "Viewing Field-Level Help."

    4. Image ALT - Enter ALT text for navigation icons that are images. If you do not specify an image name, then this text displays.

    5. Image Height - Define the height of the image in pixels.

    6. Click Next.

  6. For Target:

    1. Target is a - Select Page in this application.

    2. Page - Specify the page number of the help page you created in "Creating Help in Page Designer."

    3. Request - Enter the following:

      &APP_PAGE_ID.

      By specifying substitution string &APP_PAGE_ID as the Request, you are instructing the Application Express engine to display Help text for the current page when the user clicks this icon.

    4. Click Next.

  7. To set a condition for displaying the navigation bar entry, select a condition type.

  8. Click Create.

See Also:

"Creating a Navigation Bar Entry"