Re: [platform-help-dev] Questions: Help Editor? Running Help from CD-ROM

[Konrad Kolosowski <konradk@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mark,

I continued with  internet style
responses.

Konrad Kolosowski



platform-help-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 03/13/2005
11:54:05 PM:

> Thanks Lee Anne,
> 
> I've included my comments inline...
> 
> Lee Anne Kowalski wrote:
> 
> >
> > Hi Mark! Thanks for posting on this topic.
> >
> > > 1.) Is anyone working on an "Editor" for building
and navigating the
> > > Help Toc file hierarchy?...Is this something in the works
already, 
> > or are there individuals
> > > interest in working on such a feature?
Thanks for opening this topic. A number of people
expressed interest in help tooling, but nothing materialized to date on
eclipse.org.

> >
> > The Eclipse programmers would have to comment on whether there
is 
> > something "in the works already" within the Eclipse
Foundation itself. 
> > I have not seen anything in the formal Eclipse plans for 3.1
posted at 
> > eclipse.org that indicates that there is something like this.
It is not in 3.1 Eclipse plans, it fell off the page.

> >
> > Based on feedback I've heard was expressed at EclipseCon2005,
there 
> > are individuals using Eclipse that would be interested in such
a feature.
> 
> I'm sure it would help simplify the the creation of help content.
I 
> would suggest that it be based off of the WTP project, utilizing the
> Extensible Navigator Framework and HTML Editor.
Creating help contributions can be separated into
a) creating navigation (TOC structures, extensions
in plugin.xml)
b) creating and editing topic contents
I think a) is more prompting, and useful to more then
just WTP project users.  It is not web centric part of help.  Someone
creating and RCP application, that can be accomplished using Eclipse Platform
with PDE, should be able to take advantage of tool for creating help.  If
there something that Extensible Navigator provides that cannot be accomplished
using support in the Platform.  For the tool to be best if it works
out the box for everybody.  Once the tool is working, I see included
where it fist best - into PDE-UI component of the Platform project.
b) Currently help content is HTML based, mainly to
allow developers to use any HTML editor for producing content.  If
there were good tools, help could evolve to support XML content.  That
would allow for more functionality like: merging one topic from multiple
XML files or fragments, including additional metadata, dynamic generation
of cross topic links.  It would have huge benefits to functionality,
not just authoring but tooling is a must for this step.  I think the
HTML editing tooling is lower priority, as authors can use external editors,
but if XML becomes supported, the tools would again would do better job
if part of SDK build.

> 
> > >2.) Also, Can I run the entire Standalone Help system off
a CD-ROM? I'm
> > >interested in seeing if this is possible. Conceivable limitations
would
> > >be eclipse and tomcat attempting to write log files...
> >
> > Yes, this is possible. Eclipse on the CD would have to have access
to 
> > a JVM ( the machine's operating system or on the CD and the startup
> > command point to the one on the CD).
> >
> > Write-access does have to be allowed tosome temporary directory,
> > because Tomcat and the search indexing functions do require being
able 
> > to write files. You can set a specific location using the -data
> > parameter on the startup command and something like:
> > -data %temp%\standalone
> >
> > The -data parameter is described here: 
> > http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/~checkout~/org.eclipse.
> platform.doc.user/tasks/running_eclipse.htm 
> >
> 
> Thank you Lee Anne, this was very helpful, within a very short time
I 
> had a the required plugins in place and was able to launch Help from
an 
> autorun.ini of the cdrom, great!
> 
> I guess my next questions are:
> 
> How to make sure it shuts down after the user ejects the cdrom or
closes 
> the Help Perspective?
> 
> As a solution I thought, Why not have a Help "Product" or
"Application" 
> extension in the plugin that would allow for the launch of Standalone
> help from the eclipse.exe, then it would shutdown when the Application
> was exited? Developers wanting to "test" their help content
could just 
> setup just another platform run configuration that launched only the
> Standalone Help "Application".
There is a stand-alone help, and it uses an applications
extension point, but for robustness users are not calling the eclipse.exe
and the application directly.  To control life cycle, and support
multiple command line calls to display topics, the main entry point is
the org.eclipse.help.standalone.Help class that acts as a controller, launching,
and then communication with the running help system to display URL or shut
down.
Help displays in the browser, and on not Windows platforms
the implementation of the SWT browser widget cannot be assumed, and often
the external browsers are used.  That results in difficulty ensuring
that closing the help browser would result in stand-alone help shutting
down https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=57331.  I think
the issue mainly affects the end product, not development.  The tooling
for creating help should visualize the resulting help navigation and content
and thus eliminate the need to launch help on every other change to verify
result.  

> 
> -Mark Diggory
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