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dynamic help / help view [message #474160]

Fri, 18 July 2008 10:41

Sebastian Fuchs

Messages: 97
Registered: July 2009

Member

Hello,

In my RCP application I must show informations about each input element
in a complex form editor.
Those help informations should be available from the help system too.

I 'upgraded' from a customized browser widget to contex help with
success. Now I can use all the features of the help system like platform
URLs (which allows me to package my plugins as jars) or common css.

The disadvantage is the less control I have over the help view. The help
view is defined as sticky, what prevents me from placing it where I want
and to stay in one perspective.

1. Can I get rid of the sticky behaviour ? I already tried
equinox.tranforms but I learned that this solution is too heavyweight
for me.

2. If not, how can I use the help system features as described above in
a browser widget, e.g. get the help system to render a context help
html-page to pass to it ?

Thanks
Sebastian

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Re: dynamic help / help view [message #474163 is a reply to message #474160]

Mon, 21 July 2008 22:14

Chris Goldthorpe

Messages: 815
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

You can change the F1 behavior to open in an infopop rather than in the
help view. This is controlled by the preferences window_infopop and
dialog_infopop, see
http://help.eclipse.org/help33/topic/org.eclipse.platform.do c.isv/guide/ua_help_setup_preferences.htm

The second thing you would need to do to prevent the help view from
appearing is to fix help/search to show the external browser rather than
the help view. Unfortunately there is not a preference for this, there
probably should be. If that is important to you please open a bug report
and I'll see if I can attach a snippet to direct search to the browser.

Sebastian Fuchs wrote:
> Hello,
>
> In my RCP application I must show informations about each input element
> in a complex form editor.
> Those help informations should be available from the help system too.
>
> I 'upgraded' from a customized browser widget to contex help with
> success. Now I can use all the features of the help system like platform
> URLs (which allows me to package my plugins as jars) or common css.
>
> The disadvantage is the less control I have over the help view. The help
> view is defined as sticky, what prevents me from placing it where I want
> and to stay in one perspective.
>
> 1. Can I get rid of the sticky behaviour ? I already tried
> equinox.tranforms but I learned that this solution is too heavyweight
> for me.
>
> 2. If not, how can I use the help system features as described above in
> a browser widget, e.g. get the help system to render a context help
> html-page to pass to it ?
>
> Thanks
> Sebastian

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Re: dynamic help / help view [message #474164 is a reply to message #474163]

Tue, 22 July 2008 10:14

Sebastian Fuchs

Messages: 97
Registered: July 2009

Member

Thank You Chris,

unfortunatly none of both options apply to my requirements.
What I need is a (non-sticky) view where I can show a specific help topic.

Sebastian

Chris Goldthorpe schrieb:
> You can change the F1 behavior to open in an infopop rather than in the
> help view. This is controlled by the preferences window_infopop and
> dialog_infopop, see
> http://help.eclipse.org/help33/topic/org.eclipse.platform.do c.isv/guide/ua_help_setup_preferences.htm
>
>
> The second thing you would need to do to prevent the help view from
> appearing is to fix help/search to show the external browser rather than
> the help view. Unfortunately there is not a preference for this, there
> probably should be. If that is important to you please open a bug report
> and I'll see if I can attach a snippet to direct search to the browser.
>

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Re: dynamic help / help view [message #474168 is a reply to message #474164]

Mon, 28 July 2008 11:08

Sebastian Fuchs

Messages: 97
Registered: July 2009

Member

I managed to extract the URL the Help-System uses itself.

IHelpResource helpResource =
HelpSystem.getContext(contextID).getRelatedTopics()[0];
String href = helpResource.getHref();
url = PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getHelpSystem().resolve(href, true);

Then I pass this URL to a browser widget in a view.

Works great.

Sebastian

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