Custom Online Help

Custom on-line help can be defined for any menu item on any page, and for any page in any menu page file. On-line help can come from three different sources; an HTML file, an Acrobat PDF file or an AIM Help database.1

See ai.hlp.open (mode, $file, $topic, $window, status)( ) for details on displaying HTML or PDF help files from a V+ program.

The steps to creating help are:

  1. When menu pages and items are created, enter a search string in the help data box of each menu item. The search string for an entire page is specified in the page header.

  2. For AIM help, create a new help database with the same name as the menu page file, only with the extension .HLP. For example, the help file for the menu page file ROBOT.MNU should be ROBOT.HLP.

  3. For AIM Help databases, use the search strings entered into the .MNU file as record names for records in the .HLP file.

When page help is requested (by pressing Shift+F1 or selecting Help -> Page Information) the following events occur:

  1. The search string for the menu page is extracted from the page header.

  2. AIM attempts to open a .HLP file with the same name as the current page's .MNU file.

  3. The name field in the .HLP file is searched for the extracted string. If a help file does not exist or the search string is not located, the message "No help available" is displayed.

  4. If a matching record is found:

    a. The menu page specified in the help record is displayed.

    b. If the standard help page and file are specified, the text in the help file record is displayed. Otherwise, the specified menu page from the specified file is displayed.

When field help is requested (by pressing the "Help" key [F2] or selecting Help -> Field Information) the following events occur:

  1. The search string for the menu item is extracted.

  2. AIM attempts to open a .HLP file with the same name as the current page's .MNU file.

  3. If the file is successfully opened, up to three searches are made:

The request is first handled by the menu item that was selected when help was requested. If the menu item has a help search string, a search of the .HLP is made for a matching marker or record name.

If the menu item does not have a search string or the search fails, the request is handled by any static panel that encloses the menu item. This allows you to create a single help record for a "group" of menu items.

If the menu item is not part of a group (enclosed by a static panel), the static panel does not specify a help search string, or the search fails, the request is handled by the menu page header. If the menu page header does not specify a help search string or a matching record is not found, a "no help available" message is displayed.

  1. If a matching record is found:

    a. The menu page specified in the help record is displayed.

    b. If the standard help page and file are specified, the text in the help file record is displayed. Otherwise, the specified menu page in the specified file is displayed.

Related Topics

A help record can have "related topic" references. When a related topic is double clicked on, the help database is searched for a record corresponding to the related topic. To create a relative reference:

  1. Make the first non-blank character on the line the character:>

  1. Follow the triangle with the descriptive text for the related topic.

  2. Follow the descriptive text with the record name for the topic (the record name must be surrounded by parenthesis and there must be no other parenthesis on the line).

For example, if the topic "Access level" was covered in the help record "usr.lvl", the following line would create a related reference: 

	>	 Access level			(usr.lvl)

To enter the right facing triangle character, type Alt+Shift+! and then type Ctrl+G. (The ASCII value of the triangle character is 135.)

1

HTML and Acrobat files can be used only with AdeptWindows systems.