Bug 341 - Help Widget ideas
: Help Widget ideas
Status: NEW
: Chameleon
Widget
: 1.99
: All All
: P2 enhancement
: FUTURE
Assigned To:
:
:
:
:
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Reported: 2004-04-01 17:40 by
Modified: 2004-11-03 14:19 (History)


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Description From 2004-04-01 17:40:08
I think it would be useful to have a generic HelpWidget which takes user-defined
help content and displays to HTML.  The help content can be stored in XML
(scalable for language, as per the ALT text language files), then the HelpWidget
would process the XML accordingly.

What we would initially need is an XML grammar for help content.  I propose and
attach a sample.

Then, the HelpWidget would process the XML doc by:

- rolling all items and generating a list at the top of the HTML page with
HREF's to the pointers in <anchor>
- print out all <item> elements and their contents

Essentially HelpWidget would be an XML processor.

I've attached a sample XML help document, following by what a processed HTML
response would look like.

<CWC2 TYPE="Help" ...whatever atts would be useful for links/>

- Help.widget.php would go in htdocs/widgets/
- Help.en-CA.xml would go in data/language/

Keep in mind the widget would have to integrate other objects in the app (style,
css, shared resources, etc.)

Comments?

Below are file examples:

Sample Help XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<Help>
	<title>Help Page</title>
	<description>This is the help page for this app</description>
	<image src="http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca/gdp/hmi/common/images/ml/ES.gif"
width="34" height="35" desc="help page"/>
	<topLabel>Go to Top of Page</topLabel>
	<item>
		<title>Zoom In</title>
		<description>click the zoomin button then draw or click to zoom in on the
map</description>
		<anchor>zoomin</anchor>
		<image
src="http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca/cs/ml/applets/ResultsViewer/buttons/zoomin2E.gif"
width="24" height="24" desc="Zoom-in to region specified"/>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Query Map Information</title>
		<description>click a point on the map to query</description>
		<anchor>query</anchor>
		<image
src="http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca/cs/ml/applets/ResultsViewer/buttons/toggleLabelsE.gif"
width="24" height="24" desc="query image"/>
	</item>
</Help>


Sample HTML output:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<HTML>
	<HEAD>
		<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8">
		<META HTTP-EQUIV="pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
		<META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires" CONTENT="Thu, 01 Dec 1994 120000 GMT">
		<TITLE>Help Page</TITLE>
		<LINK REL="stylesheet"
HREF="http://132.156.10.239/prototypes/owsview/owsview.css" TYPE="text/css">
	</HEAD>
	<BODY>
		<H1>Help Page</H1>
		<TABLE ALIGN="center">
			<TR>
				<TD>
					<IMG SRC="http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca/gdp/hmi/common/images/ml/ES.gif"
WIDTH="34" HEIGHT="35" ALT="help page" TITLE="help page" BORDER="0"/>
				</TD>
			</TR>
			<TR>
				<TD>
					This is the help page for this app
				</TD>
			</TR>
			<TR>
				<TD>
					<UL>
						<LI><A HREF="#zoomin">Zoom In</A></LI>

						<LI><A HREF="#query">Query</A></LI>
					</UL>
				</TD>
			</TR>
		</TABLE>
		<TABLE ALIGN="center">
			<TR>
				<TD COLSPAN="2">
					<A NAME="zoomin"></A>
					<H3>Zoom In</H3>
				</TD>
			</TR>
			<TR>
				<TD>
					<IMG
SRC="http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca/cs/ml/applets/ResultsViewer/buttons/zoomin2E.gif"
WIDTH="24" HEIGHT="24" ALT="Zoom-in to region specified" TITLE="Zoom-in to
region specified"/>
				</TD>
				<TD>
					<P>click the zoomin button then draw or click to zoom in on the map</P>
					<A HREF="#top">Go to Top of Page</A>
					<HR/>
				</TD>
			</TR>
		<TR>
				<TD COLSPAN="2">
					<A NAME="query"></A>
					<H3>Query</H3>
				</TD>
			</TR>
			<TR>
				<TD>
					<IMG
SRC="http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca/cs/ml/applets/ResultsViewer/buttons/toggleLabelsE.gif"
WIDTH="24" HEIGHT="24" ALT="query image" TITLE="query image"/>

				</TD>
				<TD>
					<P>click the zoomin button then draw or click to zoom in on the map</P>
					<A HREF="#top">Go to Top of Page</A>
					<HR/>
				</TD>
			</TR>
		</TABLE>
	</BODY>
</HTML>
------- Comment #1 From 2004-04-07 12:31:52 -------
I don't see any integration with the widget documentation.  There are (going to
be) XML documents for each widget that provide this type of information (and
lots more) that should be integrated with this type of help system.
------- Comment #2 From 2004-04-07 12:44:17 -------
Oh, ok, in that case, let's stick with what's done.  So, if there are XML docs
doing this already, will this be processed by HelpWidget.widget.php?

I guess what I'm asking may be already be done here, hence no need for this
bugzilla request?
------- Comment #3 From 2004-04-08 08:40:04 -------
updated version to 1.99
------- Comment #4 From 2004-04-13 09:22:13 -------
AFAIK, the help widget will pick out the appropriate help text from the xml
files.  Your idea makes me think more of a generic help interface than the
actual content.  I'm thinking that it might be cool to have the ability to
launch a help menu in a context-sensitive way so that it can take you to the
specific help item.  
------- Comment #5 From 2004-07-08 11:07:01 -------
Changed target to 1.99 RC 1.
------- Comment #6 From 2004-08-10 20:27:23 -------
Changed Severity to normal.
------- Comment #7 From 2004-11-03 14:19:14 -------
I think the current help system is now complete using the EmbeddedHelp widget
(renamed from HelpWidget).  However, I'm going to keep this open as a FUTURE
target because I want to track this idea for the next version.