can someone point to some examples and/or tutorial for how to use wxHtmlHelpController and how to create the associated html files? i've searched everywhere without any success.
thanks,
bryan
Bryan wrote:
can someone point to some examples and/or tutorial for how to use
wxHtmlHelpController and how to create the associated html files? i've
searched everywhere without any success.
Have you tried using helpview.py from Robin. It comes along with
the wxPython installation and is in the path:
Python24\Lib\site-packages\wx-2.6\wx\tools
Here is its docstring:
helpviewer.py -- Displays HTML Help in a wxHtmlHelpController window.
Usage:
helpviewer [--cache=path] helpfile [helpfile(s)...]
Where helpfile is the path to either a .hhp file or a .zip file
which contians a .hhp file. The .hhp files are the same as those
used by Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop for creating CHM files.
Maybe that is something for you?
To create the html files you can do that either by hand or use a
authoring tool. There are two tools available. One is the Microsoft HTML
Help Workshop the other is HelpBlocks from Anthemion Software.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Guenter
Günter Dannoritzer wrote:
Bryan wrote:
can someone point to some examples and/or tutorial for how to use
wxHtmlHelpController and how to create the associated html files? i've
searched everywhere without any success.Have you tried using helpview.py from Robin. It comes along with
the wxPython installation and is in the path:Python24\Lib\site-packages\wx-2.6\wx\tools
Here is its docstring:
helpviewer.py -- Displays HTML Help in a wxHtmlHelpController window.
Usage:
helpviewer [--cache=path] helpfile [helpfile(s)...]Where helpfile is the path to either a .hhp file or a .zip file
which contians a .hhp file. The .hhp files are the same as those
used by Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop for creating CHM files.Maybe that is something for you?
To create the html files you can do that either by hand or use a
authoring tool. There are two tools available. One is the Microsoft HTML
Help Workshop the other is HelpBlocks from Anthemion Software.Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Guenter
thanks guenter,
helpviewer was exactly what i was looking for. today, at work i zipped up a very big help file book, and i was able to run and view it with helpviewer on windows xp, kubuntu with the kde plastik look&feel, and mac osx and it worked perfectly on all three systems. unfortunately, the toolbar icons on the windows version looks really bad compared to kubuntu and mac which looks polished and professional. also, on windows, the viewer didn't come up in the xp theme, but in kubuntu and mac it did. that's really too bad 
i do have a question to ask. i would really like to be able to do a search and get the results of the search without having the gui popup. what i would like to play around with is to have some dynamic help in a pane that is constantly changing depending on what object (which is also dynamic) has focus in the application. then do a search and put the results in an embedded help context pane with links. when one of these help links is clicked, the help UI would then launch as normal and view the help. so, is it possible to get the search results?
thanks,
bryan
Bryan wrote:
i do have a question to ask. i would really like to be able to do a
search and get the results of the search without having the gui popup.
what i would like to play around with is to have some dynamic help in a
pane that is constantly changing depending on what object (which is also
dynamic) has focus in the application. then do a search and put the
results in an embedded help context pane with links. when one of these
help links is clicked, the help UI would then launch as normal and view
the help. so, is it possible to get the search results?
I haven't done much with help, but a context sensitive help sounds like
what might get you further. As this will allow you do jump to subjects
from specific widgets, you might be able to adopt it to make it dynamic.
Cheers,
Guenter
Bryan wrote:
helpviewer was exactly what i was looking for. today, at work i zipped up a very big help file book, and i was able to run and view it with helpviewer on windows xp, kubuntu with the kde plastik look&feel, and mac osx and it worked perfectly on all three systems. unfortunately, the toolbar icons on the windows version looks really bad compared to kubuntu and mac which looks polished and professional. also, on windows, the viewer didn't come up in the xp theme,
It should if the Python that is launching it has the .manifest files.
but in kubuntu and mac it did. that's really too bad
i do have a question to ask. i would really like to be able to do a search and get the results of the search without having the gui popup. what i would like to play around with is to have some dynamic help in a pane that is constantly changing depending on what object (which is also dynamic) has focus in the application. then do a search and put the results in an embedded help context pane with links. when one of these help links is clicked, the help UI would then launch as normal and view the help. so, is it possible to get the search results?
I don't think you can get search results from the controller, but you can kick off a search in the HtmlHelpFrame.
I think I would approach what you want to do like this:
* Associate a bit of html with every widget in your app that contains a bit of context sensitive help and links to the real help in the help book, and display that html in a class derived from wx.html.HtmlWindow for your help pane.
* In that help pane class override the HtmlWindow's OnLinkClicked method and in that method call the help controller's Display method to cause the HtmlHelpFrame to be displayed and opened to the page of the help you request.
* If you want to get tricky you can probably make the context sensitive snippets of help shown in the help pane be located in the help books too, but that isn't necessary.
···
--
Robin Dunn
Software Craftsman
http://wxPython.org Java give you jitters? Relax with wxPython!