| Providing contextual help in tooling [message #327871] |
Tue, 06 May 2008 17:20  |
Eclipse User |
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Originally posted by: david_whiteman.us.ibm.com
What is the preferred method of providing contextual (F1) help in
tooling? Is there good documentation somewhere showing how one would
instrument their tooling so that F1 brought up the appropriate
documentation? I have a couple of Eclipse books, but something someone
told me recently made me think that there is a different preferred
method these days.
Thanks,
David
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| Re: Providing contextual help in tooling [message #327877 is a reply to message #327876] |
Tue, 06 May 2008 21:07  |
| Eclipse User |
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Originally posted by: david_whiteman.us.ibm.com
Chris Aniszczyk wrote:
> If you create a view using one of the PDE templates, there should be a
> checkbox that says "create context help." With that, the template should
> generate the proper context xml files for you along with the html file.
> Furthermore, it will also add the hook where it informs the Platform
> that you're providing context-sensitive (F1) help.
>
> Let me know if this helps, if not, I can blog about this.
>
> Cheers,
>
> ~ Chris
I've had the view for a long time and did not use the templates when I
created it initially. However, I can certainly generate a dummy view
just to see what is needed, and then copy that approach for my plugin.
Thanks, Chris!
David
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| Re: Providing contextual help in tooling [message #327931 is a reply to message #327877] |
Thu, 08 May 2008 13:17 |
| Eclipse User |
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Originally posted by: david_whiteman.us.ibm.com
David Whiteman wrote:
> Chris Aniszczyk wrote:
>> If you create a view using one of the PDE templates, there should be a
>> checkbox that says "create context help." With that, the template
>> should generate the proper context xml files for you along with the
>> html file. Furthermore, it will also add the hook where it informs the
>> Platform that you're providing context-sensitive (F1) help.
>>
>> Let me know if this helps, if not, I can blog about this.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> ~ Chris
>
> I've had the view for a long time and did not use the templates when I
> created it initially. However, I can certainly generate a dummy view
> just to see what is needed, and then copy that approach for my plugin.
> Thanks, Chris!
>
> David
OK, I have set this up. What I've observed is you can add help hooks to
any control, which takes you to a context that can link you to a topic
in the documentation.
What I'd like to do is have the help hook go straight to the
documentation. If the documentation describes the indicated control,
why should the user have to read something like "This is the panic
button." and click on a link to see the real documentation? Plus, this
introduces more maintenance if you have more to document in the
contexts.xml file.
It would be nice if I could define a <context> and then indicate that a
<topic> auto-loads. That would solve the problem I mentioned nicely.
[Cross posting to eclipse.platform.ua, since I just learned of that
group, and this really belongs there.]
Thanks,
David
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| Re: Providing contextual help in tooling [message #327940 is a reply to message #327933] |
Thu, 08 May 2008 17:17 |
| Eclipse User |
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Originally posted by: david_whiteman.us.ibm.com
Chris Goldthorpe wrote:
> If you use Eclipse 3.4M7 or later a context with a single topic and no
> description will take you straight to the page in the link.
Wow, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!
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