What's This? Help Design

The iFIX WorkSpace supports What's This? Help in two different types of compiled formats: Winhelp (*.hlp) and HTML Help (*.chm). A Winhelp .hlp file consists of the following source files: a project file, a topic file, and a map file. An HTML Help .chm file consists of the following source files: a project file, a topic file, a map file, and, an alias file.

The Help project file contains the Help file's project options, such as the source files to include and compile, the name of the Help file, and so forth. The topic file contains the content that you want to display in the pop-up window when you invoke What's This? Help. The map file is a header file that creates an association between the object that you want to provide Help for and the topic within the Help file. In HTML Help, the alias file works in tandem with the map file to associate the object name with a specific HTML file name (you can map one or more objects to the same file name). In Winhelp, the alias file is an optional tool to help you map the same topic content to multiple objects.

What's This? Help files are not difficult to create, since you only have to specify a couple of Help project options in order to build a useful context-sensitive Help file. The following table provides an overview of the minimum file types you need to create a What's This? Help project for use with iFIX.

 

See Also