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Re: [platform-help-dev] standalone help from multiple hosts
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Hi, Dorian:
We're saying pretty much the same thing, in that
a new instance of the help viewer requires a new
containing browser window.
Where we seem to differ is on how much the
application can assume about the browser window
that contains the help viewer. My concern is that
the user can replace the help viewer with a
completely unrelated page or close the browser
window altogether.
JavaScript has some mechanisms for dealing with
that (having the application capture a reference
to the window and checking window.closed and
window.location or having an onunload handler in
the help viewer notify the application via
window.opener), but those techniques seem fragile.
For instance, if the user has loaded a page from
another domain into the help viewer window, checking
window.location will likely be a security violation.
Similarly, if the application loads from a different
domain than the help system, the help system
won't be able to use window.opener to call into
the application. Finally, the JavaScript
mechanisms won't be available to other clients
such as a Java applet client.
My thought is that it's probably best for a web
application to send help request URLs to the
browser without knowing whether the help viewer
is open or not. That means leaving it up to the
content pages to open the framework if necessary.
Anyway, thanks for clarifying,
Erik Hennum
Dorian
Birsan/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA To: platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent by: cc:
platform-help-dev-admin@ Subject: Re: [platform-help-dev] standalone help from multiple hosts
eclipse.org
03/18/2002 08:54 AM
Please respond to
platform-help-dev
Hi Erik,
I am bit confused about your use of "Launch a new instance of the help
viewer":
Maybe we are saying the same thing, but my understanding is that the help
viewer is the browser, and that its content comes from a server.
So, the web application can choose to open as many browser windows as
possible or resuse existing ones, but their content would be controlled
with some URL's that allow some control over what goes inside (what tab to
show, what to display in the main content area, etc.). If that's what you
meant, then yes, we plan to provide the URL's to give you some control over
what's shown in help.
-dorian
Erik
Hennum/Oakland/IBM@IBMUS To:
platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent by: cc:
platform-help-dev-admin@e Subject: Re:
[platform-help-dev] standalone help from multiple hosts
clipse.org
03/18/2002 11:27 AM
Please respond to
platform-help-dev
Hi, Dorian:
Yes, I'm talking about a scenario in which a web-based application
uses an infocenter Eclipse as its help system.
For an application to use an infocenter Eclipse as a help system,
the infocenter Eclipse would have to support URLs (probably
targetted to frame names) that can
o Launch a new instance of the help viewer with a specific
content page
o Display a specific content page in an existing instance
of the help viewer
As I understand the current version 2 plans, that should be possible
(though I eagerly await the driver to confirm).
I suspect that supporting the multiple host scenario below would
require the ability for the Eclipse server for an infocenter Eclipse
to access a documentation plugin on a remote host. Thanks for
clarifying that Eclipse isn't contemplating this scenario.
Regards,
Erik Hennum
Dorian
Birsan/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA To:
platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent by: cc:
platform-help-dev-admin@ Subject: Re:
[platform-help-dev] standalone help from multiple hosts
eclipse.org
03/17/2002 07:27 AM
Please respond to
platform-help-dev
Erik,
We hope to have a driver and related docs for the standalone available
sometimes this week.
When you say "standalone" do you mean the server-based info-center help or
the application bundled help? It looks like you are really talking about a
combination of them that is closerr to the info-center scenario.
By our terminology, the standalone help is a java jar package that someone
can call in its java application to display help, more like Java Help. So,
a client Java application would call some API, like
org.eclipse.help.standalone.Help.displayHelp() to launch the help view or
org.eclipse.help.standalone.Help.displayContext(contextID) to display
context sensitive help. The context sensitive help may be implemented as a
simply launching the help view with the Links tabs opened, and with all the
related links available there.
The info-center help is a server-based help that is accessed by a client
browser, by specifying some URL. Clients are IE5+, Mozilla and NS4 (this
one would likely have a not-so-nice-interface). The server support is JSP
1.2 and Servlet 2.3 (although I think it would work with JSP 1.1 and
Servlet 2.2).
Notice that there is no help client running, it is just the the system
browser loading a remote URL that happens to be the page for an
eclipse-based help.
Having said that, it looks like your questions are related to some
combination of standalone and infocenter and it is not a scenario that we
currently support.
Can you implement your solution using just the info-center scenario by
launching your own browsers?
Erik
Hennum/Oakland/IBM@IBMUS To:
platform-help-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent by: cc:
platform-help-dev-admin@e Subject:
[platform-help-dev] standalone help from multiple hosts
clipse.org
03/15/2002 11:48 PM
Please respond to
platform-help-dev
Hi, Ecliptians:
How would we use standalone Eclipse help to provide help for two
applications that
download from different hosts and are open at the same time during a
browser session?
A. Install a separate copy of Eclipse help on each host.
The concern about this approach would be whether two instances of
Eclipse
could run at the same time without collision. If both use the same
window names
for their frames, couldn't URLs be directed to the wrong framework?
B. Install a single copy of Eclipse and both documentation plugins on a
single host.
The concern about this approach is about the maintenance burden caused
by separating
the help from the application. As applications are added and removed
from remote hosts,
that would require adding and removing documentation plugins from the
central host. Also,
applications would have to know the URL for the central host.
Other ideas? I noticed that the Eclipse can support content pages on a
remote host
(except for fulltext search, but it seems clear that Lucene could support
remote indexing
since it does no IO directly).
By the way, what platforms does standalone Eclipse support? Any client
with Internet Explorer 4+
or Netscape 4+? Any web server that supports Servlet2.2 and JSP1.1?
Thanks in advance,
Erik Hennum
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