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.