JHelpAction

A support class for JavaHelp™

JHelpAction is an exceptionally easy to use class for integrating JavaHelp™ Sets in your application

General Remark | Download | Version | Changes | Usage | License

General Remark

JHelpAction lets you create your helpset via a SwingWorker thread in the background, such that it is immediately accessible when you invoke your helpsystem. It is an AbstractAction with static factory methods for simply showing help, showing help for IDs, context sensitive help tracking and focus based help invokation. Use it in your application via the static methods or via instances that can be directly added to menus or buttons, see the documentation.

Download

jhelpaction-1.1.zip (28 K), includes javadoc and src

Version

The current version is 1.1. It was created 10/08/2003.

Changes

Compared to the previous version, there are the following changes:

  • now working with WebStart, thanks to Sven Killig
  • getHelpBroker throws an exception if helpset creation failed, thanks to a remark by Stefan Segger
  • SwingWorker moved to com.jstatcom.component and a jar is provided

Usage

The package directory should be added to your classpath. It runs with JRE 1.2.x and upwards. The javadoc is pretty self-explaining. You do not need to think about how to initialize the helpset anymore, just use

JHelpAction.startHelpWorker("helpset/MyHelp.hs")

and you are done. Various methods and static factories let you do the most common tasks, like

  • JHelpAction.showHelp()
  • JHelpAction.showHelp(String helpID)
  • JHelpAction.showHelpFromFocus()
  • JHelpAction.trackFieldHelp()
or create special abstract actions for these tasks with
  • JHelpAction.getShowHelpInstance(String name)
  • JHelpAction.getShowIDInstance(String name, String helpID)
  • JHelpAction.getTrackInstance(String name)
  • JHelpAction.getFocusInstance(String name)
The help broker is static and only one helpset can be loaded at a time. I think this is the most meaningful setup for an application. The helpset is created only once and the instance is shared.

License

The GNU Lesser General Public License applies.