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Multiple help plugin directories for workbench and standalone help [message #473907] Tue, 10 June 2008 23:50 Go to next message
Eclipse UserFriend
Originally posted by: alan.ittvis.com

Hi,

I would like to have documentation content plugins in multiple separate
directories, with one or more specified at startup in order to have the
help system display different subsets of online help for different
products. I'd like to use the same Eclipse distribution for both workbench
help and standalone help.

I thought the "links" directory would allow me to set up multiple
locations for help plugins, but from my testing it seems that links are
not recognized by the standalone help system. Even if links worked I'd
prefer a startup parameter to specify the plugin locations rather than a
file.

Currently we are using Eclipse 3.3, but will probably be migrating to
Eclipse 3.4. Can you suggest a way to provide access to different subsets
of help plugins that will work with both the workbench and standalone
help?

Thanks,

Alan
Re: Multiple help plugin directories for workbench and standalone help [message #473909 is a reply to message #473907] Wed, 11 June 2008 17:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Chris Goldthorpe is currently offline Chris GoldthorpeFriend
Messages: 815
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member
One thing which might work for your situation is to use the HELP_DATA
customization. See
http://help.eclipse.org/help33/topic/org.eclipse.platform.do c.isv/guide/ua_help_setup_help_data.htm

and
http://help.eclipse.org/help33/topic/org.eclipse.platform.do c.isv/guide/ua_help_setup_preferences.htm.


This allows you to specify (among other things) a list of books which
should be excluded by using the <hidden> element, and if you use one
startup script for standalone help and a different one for Eclipse you
can exclude different books by specifying different
pluginCustomization.ini files in the scripts which points to different
help data.

Another way to do this is to use enablement filters in your TOC which
can cause books or topics to show up conditionally, for example only if
a particular plugin is installed but I think the first suggestion would
be less work.
Re: Multiple help plugin directories for workbench and standalone help [message #474071 is a reply to message #473909] Mon, 16 June 2008 22:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Eclipse UserFriend
Originally posted by: alan.ittvis.com

Thanks Chris, for the HELP_DATA suggestion. I was unable to get the help
system to pick up the settings I applied in the file specified with
HELP_DATA. I think this may have to do with bug 216170:

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=216170

I was able to use the deprecated fields ignoredTOCS and ignoredIndexes in
the plugin_customization file to work, so I know that at least the
plugin_customization file was being used. Can you clarify what it takes to
get the HELP_DATA file read in Eclipse 3.3?

Even though I was able to use ignoredTOCS and hide the table of contents,
this doesn't completely hide the content from a particular doc plugin. I
wonder if the use of HELP_DATA would be any different. For example, if a
help plugin is hidden with ignoredTOCS and ignoredIndexes, the plugin is
still loaded and a search will display references to topics in the help
plugin. Selecting one of those references in the search list displays the
content that I want to be hidden, and displays a dialog with the message
"The current document displayed does not exist in the table of contents."

Would the behavior using HELP_DATA customization be any different? In
particular, if a category is hidden does it hide all the content from the
help plugin? Would this prevent help content from showing up in a search?

I think that the cached search information from a user's first search is
written to disk and then different configurations using the same Eclipse
directory would not be able to have different subsets of help content.

Is there any OSGI functionality that would allow me to unload a help
plugin at startup?

Thanks,

Alan
Re: Multiple help plugin directories for workbench and standalone help [message #474077 is a reply to message #474071] Wed, 18 June 2008 18:36 Go to previous message
Chris Goldthorpe is currently offline Chris GoldthorpeFriend
Messages: 815
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member
HELP_DATA and ignoredTOCS work in exactly the same way. If the entries
are showing up in the search then that seems like a bug. I think there
are ways to get OSGI to load exactly the set of plugins you want - I
just don't know how to do it.

Alan Youngblood wrote:
> Thanks Chris, for the HELP_DATA suggestion. I was unable to get the help
> system to pick up the settings I applied in the file specified with
> HELP_DATA. I think this may have to do with bug 216170:
>
> https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=216170
>
> I was able to use the deprecated fields ignoredTOCS and ignoredIndexes
> in the plugin_customization file to work, so I know that at least the
> plugin_customization file was being used. Can you clarify what it takes
> to get the HELP_DATA file read in Eclipse 3.3?
>
> Even though I was able to use ignoredTOCS and hide the table of
> contents, this doesn't completely hide the content from a particular doc
> plugin. I wonder if the use of HELP_DATA would be any different. For
> example, if a help plugin is hidden with ignoredTOCS and ignoredIndexes,
> the plugin is still loaded and a search will display references to
> topics in the help plugin. Selecting one of those references in the
> search list displays the content that I want to be hidden, and displays
> a dialog with the message "The current document displayed does not exist
> in the table of contents."
>
> Would the behavior using HELP_DATA customization be any different? In
> particular, if a category is hidden does it hide all the content from
> the help plugin? Would this prevent help content from showing up in a
> search?
>
> I think that the cached search information from a user's first search is
> written to disk and then different configurations using the same Eclipse
> directory would not be able to have different subsets of help content.
>
> Is there any OSGI functionality that would allow me to unload a help
> plugin at startup?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Alan
>
>
Re: Multiple help plugin directories for workbench and standalone help [message #614431 is a reply to message #473907] Wed, 11 June 2008 17:52 Go to previous message
Chris Goldthorpe is currently offline Chris GoldthorpeFriend
Messages: 815
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member
One thing which might work for your situation is to use the HELP_DATA
customization. See
http://help.eclipse.org/help33/topic/org.eclipse.platform.do c.isv/guide/ua_help_setup_help_data.htm

and
http://help.eclipse.org/help33/topic/org.eclipse.platform.do c.isv/guide/ua_help_setup_preferences.htm


This allows you to specify (among other things) a list of books which
should be excluded by using the <hidden> element, and if you use one
startup script for standalone help and a different one for Eclipse you
can exclude different books by specifying different
pluginCustomization.ini files in the scripts which points to different
help data.

Another way to do this is to use enablement filters in your TOC which
can cause books or topics to show up conditionally, for example only if
a particular plugin is installed but I think the first suggestion would
be less work.
Re: Multiple help plugin directories for workbench and standalone help [message #615279 is a reply to message #473909] Mon, 16 June 2008 22:04 Go to previous message
Eclipse UserFriend
Originally posted by: alan.ittvis.com

Thanks Chris, for the HELP_DATA suggestion. I was unable to get the help
system to pick up the settings I applied in the file specified with
HELP_DATA. I think this may have to do with bug 216170:

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=216170

I was able to use the deprecated fields ignoredTOCS and ignoredIndexes in
the plugin_customization file to work, so I know that at least the
plugin_customization file was being used. Can you clarify what it takes to
get the HELP_DATA file read in Eclipse 3.3?

Even though I was able to use ignoredTOCS and hide the table of contents,
this doesn't completely hide the content from a particular doc plugin. I
wonder if the use of HELP_DATA would be any different. For example, if a
help plugin is hidden with ignoredTOCS and ignoredIndexes, the plugin is
still loaded and a search will display references to topics in the help
plugin. Selecting one of those references in the search list displays the
content that I want to be hidden, and displays a dialog with the message
"The current document displayed does not exist in the table of contents."

Would the behavior using HELP_DATA customization be any different? In
particular, if a category is hidden does it hide all the content from the
help plugin? Would this prevent help content from showing up in a search?

I think that the cached search information from a user's first search is
written to disk and then different configurations using the same Eclipse
directory would not be able to have different subsets of help content.

Is there any OSGI functionality that would allow me to unload a help
plugin at startup?

Thanks,

Alan
Re: Multiple help plugin directories for workbench and standalone help [message #615294 is a reply to message #474071] Wed, 18 June 2008 18:36 Go to previous message
Chris Goldthorpe is currently offline Chris GoldthorpeFriend
Messages: 815
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member
HELP_DATA and ignoredTOCS work in exactly the same way. If the entries
are showing up in the search then that seems like a bug. I think there
are ways to get OSGI to load exactly the set of plugins you want - I
just don't know how to do it.

Alan Youngblood wrote:
> Thanks Chris, for the HELP_DATA suggestion. I was unable to get the help
> system to pick up the settings I applied in the file specified with
> HELP_DATA. I think this may have to do with bug 216170:
>
> https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=216170
>
> I was able to use the deprecated fields ignoredTOCS and ignoredIndexes
> in the plugin_customization file to work, so I know that at least the
> plugin_customization file was being used. Can you clarify what it takes
> to get the HELP_DATA file read in Eclipse 3.3?
>
> Even though I was able to use ignoredTOCS and hide the table of
> contents, this doesn't completely hide the content from a particular doc
> plugin. I wonder if the use of HELP_DATA would be any different. For
> example, if a help plugin is hidden with ignoredTOCS and ignoredIndexes,
> the plugin is still loaded and a search will display references to
> topics in the help plugin. Selecting one of those references in the
> search list displays the content that I want to be hidden, and displays
> a dialog with the message "The current document displayed does not exist
> in the table of contents."
>
> Would the behavior using HELP_DATA customization be any different? In
> particular, if a category is hidden does it hide all the content from
> the help plugin? Would this prevent help content from showing up in a
> search?
>
> I think that the cached search information from a user's first search is
> written to disk and then different configurations using the same Eclipse
> directory would not be able to have different subsets of help content.
>
> Is there any OSGI functionality that would allow me to unload a help
> plugin at startup?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Alan
>
>
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