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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>
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.
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?
updated version to 1.99
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.
Changed target to 1.99 RC 1.
Changed Severity to normal.
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.