HyperText Markup Language (HTML) Online Help

Web-based HyperText Markup Language (HTML) Online Help

When help is invoked directly for Web‑based online help via the Window class showHelp method or via the user pressing the help key (F1), a URL is created and the default browser is invoked to display the URL.

When help is requested, if the Application class helpFile property specifies Web HTML help, detected by the value of the helpFile property starting with a recognized URL scheme (that is, http:// or https://), JADE attempts to construct a URL to pass to the default Web browser.

Set the value of the Application class helpFile property to a base URL, as shown in the following code fragment examples.

app.helpFile := "http://www.example.com/prodhelp";

app.helpFile := "http://www.example.com/prodhelp/" & app.version.String & "/";

If the value of the Window class helpKeyword property starts with a recognized URL scheme, the URL is used; otherwise the value of the helpKeyword property is appended to the value of the helpFile property to become the URL to use, as shown in the following code fragment example.

mybtn.helpKeyword := "Form1/button1.htm";
mybtn.showHelp;

The [JadeHelp] section of the JADE initialization file can contain the following parameters, to enable you to configure the online help that you require for your JADE system. (For details about the other JADE initialization file parameters that enable you to configure your JADE help files, see "JADE Help Section [JadeHelp]", in your JADE Initialization File Reference.)

HelpSchemes , which has the default value of http://,https://, enables you to specify other recognized URL schemes; for example, adding file:// (that is, http://,https://,file://) enables you to load HTML help pages from your local disk.
HtmlHelpIndexUrl , which has the default value of null, or blank. If this parameter is present, it must be a complete URL. If present and the Index command in the Help menu has been selected, help context, or help finder has been requested, this value will be used; for example:
```
HtmlHelpIndexUrl = http://www.example.com/prodhelp/index.htm
```
HtmlHelpContentsUrl , which has the default value of null, or blank. If this parameter is present, it must be a complete URL. If present, help has been requested, and no helpKeyword property value can be found, this value will be used; for example:
```
HtmlHelpContentsUrl = http://www.example.com/prodhelp/contents.htm
```
When handling automatic Help menu items, if a helpContextId or helpKeyword property is specified on the Help menu Index automatic menu item, the destination of the help is based on the value of the helpContextId or helpKeyword property. In addition, the click event method is not executed.

If you do not use the Application class helpFile property to dynamically set the help file at run time, no help file is opened when help is requested, regardless of the value specified in the Window class helpKeyword property.