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RCP Based Standalone Help [message #467668]

Wed, 09 May 2007 17:52

Eclipse User

Hi there,

Somewhat new to RCP, but we've already got a full eclipse based product.
Our product has fairly extensive user help docs in the form of multiple
plugins which each have their own extension for org.eclipse.help.toc /
cheatsheets etc.

We want to create an RCP plugin project that will consolidate all of the
help docs into a single standalone help center. (Some users want to access
the help without installing the product...) I don't really want any UI
elements for the RCP app (other than maybe my 'helpcenter' splash.bmp), I
just want to be able to do something in my rcp Application like:

helpSystem.start()
helpSystem.displayHelp()

and have it pop open the help browser that will use my cobbled together
list of toc.xmls etc (I found something somewhere about specifying a
HELP_DATA property that would allow you to specify something like this...)

I've been looking around old newsgroups/mailing lists for tips on how best
to do this, but running into some road blocks. I also understand things
have changed with the new 3.3 milestone (we're migrating to M7 at the
moment, so I'm using that as the basis of my development)

Can anyone point me in the right direction or offer some tips to sooth my
aching head? ;)

Much appreciated...
Todd

Re: RCP Based Standalone Help [message #467674 is a reply to message #467668]

Wed, 09 May 2007 18:28

Eclipse User

Does the help topic on standalone help give you what you need?

http://help.eclipse.org/help32/topic/org.eclipse.platform.do c.isv/guide/ua_help_setup_standalone.htm

Alex.

Re: RCP Based Standalone Help [message #467733 is a reply to message #467674]

Thu, 10 May 2007 09:31

Eclipse User

Thanks for the link Alex,
Yes - that was the starting point for my reading...
However, it only seemed to get me part way. I know that you can use the
displayHelp(ref) to have it display a particular item, but I guess what
I'm wondering is what's the best way, if I have a bunch of user.doc
plugins that have their respective tocs, to have displayHelp() show the
entire collection?

From the little blurb in the help articles, it looks like specifying a
customized HELP_DATA for the org.eclipse.help plugin does what I need but
it would be helpful to have an example.

Also, it seems from other discussions around the mail lists that there
have been pretty substantial changes in 3.3M7 that aren't necessarily
reflected in the docs (ie Jetty vs. Tomcat?). If anyone has a link or can
provide an example that might be helpful it would be greatly appreciated!
;)

BTW - just so you know where I'm going with this, we're trying to get this
'standalone' help to run from a CD. So part of the criteria will be
specifying a -data which will point to a writable location (ie
%temp%\data) and allowing the system to start and stop gracefully (ie -
shutdown javaw after closing help).

Thanks
Todd

Re: RCP Based Standalone Help [message #467814 is a reply to message #467733]

Thu, 10 May 2007 18:53

Eclipse User

You want to fire up a web browser, too?

Alex.

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