Authoring JavaHelp for Viskit

This summary describes how developers can integrate help pages in the Viskit JavaHelp system. Both HTML and XML files may be modified.

How to make Viskit JavaHelp modifications

Add html, css, images, etc. in subdirectory viskit/javahelp/Pages.
Table of contents configuration file refers topic titles to tokens vHelpTOC.xml
Corresponding filenames for each token are defined in the JavaHelp map vHelpMap.jhm
Must rebuild Viskit to see any changes in HTML pages or table of contents.
Tested changes can be checked into CVS.

The javahelp/ directory contains the following:

vHelpSet.hs -- This is the "master" file that initializes the javahelp system. To simply add content, it does not need to be edited unless further indexing functionality is added.
vHelpMap.jhm -- A map file which defines tokens to be used in other parts of the help system. Look at vHelpTOC.xml, for instance, to see how it is used. Add more entries as appropriate.
vHelpTOC.xml -- The master TOC tree is defined in this file. As more content is added, there should be more topics and subtopics added here.
javahelp/Pages/ -- All html and image content goes in this directory.
vHelpIndex.xml -- This file is currently unused. If an index is built for the Viskit help system, it will go here.

The jhall.jar is Sun code which implements the JavaHelp system, as well as containing the search-indexing utility.

JavaHelp support in Viskit is contained in these project areas:

viskit/javahelp/ subdirectory in the CVS archive, and the deployment (build) directory
jhall.jar library in the CVS archive, and the deployment (build) directory
Java source files, especially viskit.Help.java, which has the menu bar action handlers, which launch the help window.
A target in build.xml, which builds the search database from the html files and copies the javahelp CVS directory to the javahelp build directory.
If/when context-sensitive help is implemented within Viskit source, other .java files in the project