HelpGUI is a general-purpose help browser written entirely in Java and
licensed under the GNU General
Public License. This version has been modified from
the Sourceforge
distribution to incorporate the ability to change help pages
from the main program by specifying "keys" to
locate the proper help page. The topical help abilities were added by Approximatrix,
but are not officially supported. This version also supports the
specification of a full filesystem path to help files instead of
relying on resources that must lie within the classpath.
1.Table of Content
First of all you have to create a simple Table of content file (TOC) as
a xml format.
This Table of content contains the title of each page, and the
associated web page. Here is a simple example of a toc.xml
file.
2.Directory and web pages
Then you can edit all your web pages as the same schema on the XML
file. All the pages could have links to HTTP web pages or to
another help
page.
You have to put all your file on a simple directory. The
standard directory could be /docs/help/.
As standard, the /docs/help/ directory is includes on the jar file of
the software.
3.Launch HelpGUI
For launching the helpGUI only use the following line
JFrame helpFrame = new net.sourceforge.helpgui.gui.MainFrame("/docs/help/","java");
helpFrame.setVisible(true);
"/docs/help/" is the directory where the files are
located.
"java" is the icon theme (choose between bluecurve,
crystal, eclipse, gtk, java, jfa, kde, nuvola, plastic, slick, windows.
To specify a help location on the filesystem, use the following line:
JFrame helpFrame = new net.sourceforge.helpgui.gui.MainFrame("/usr/share/docs/help",MainFrame.PATH_TYPE_FILESYSTEM,"java");
helpFrame.setVisible(true);
"/usr/share/docs/help" is the directory where the
files are
located.
"MainFrame.PATH_TYPE_FILESYSTEM" specifies that the
directory is a filesystem directory.
"java" is the icon theme (choose between bluecurve,
crystal, eclipse, gtk, java, jfa, kde, nuvola, plastic, slick, windows.
4.Specify Topic in Window
Assuming you've already opened a MainFrame, the window can now be
updated to a specific topic based on a text key. For example,
assuming the MainFrame is called helpFrame and the topic of interest
can be specified with the "license"
key, the proper help page can be shown as follows:
helpFrame.gotoTopic("license");
The page displayed in helpFrame should now be the page associated with
the "license"
key.
5.Copyright
HelpGUI remains copyrighted by
Alexandre Thomas, but this distribution
is provided by Approximatrix, as distributed with its products.
Some public domain code has been taken from Dem Pilafian.
NOTE: HelpGUI is licensed under the GNU General Public License and does not include a
classpath exception. It may not be linked against any GPL-incompatible software.