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1/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2// Name: help.h
e54c96f1 3// Purpose: interface of wxHelpController
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4// Author: wxWidgets team
5// RCS-ID: $Id$
526954c5 6// Licence: wxWindows licence
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7/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
8
9/**
10 @class wxHelpController
7c913512 11
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12 This is a family of classes by which applications may invoke a help viewer
13 to provide on-line help.
7c913512 14
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15 A help controller allows an application to display help, at the contents
16 or at a particular topic, and shut the help program down on termination.
17 This avoids proliferation of many instances of the help viewer whenever the
18 user requests a different topic via the application's menus or buttons.
7c913512 19
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20 Typically, an application will create a help controller instance when it starts,
21 and immediately call wxHelpController::Initialize to associate a filename with it.
22 The help viewer will only get run, however, just before the first call to
23 display something.
7c913512 24
23324ae1 25 Most help controller classes actually derive from wxHelpControllerBase and have
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26 names of the form wxXXXHelpController or wxHelpControllerXXX.
27 An appropriate class is aliased to the name wxHelpController for each platform, as
23324ae1 28 follows:
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29 - On desktop Windows, wxCHMHelpController is used (MS HTML Help).
30 - On Windows CE, wxWinceHelpController is used.
31 - On all other platforms, wxHtmlHelpController is used if wxHTML is compiled
32 into wxWidgets; otherwise wxExtHelpController is used (for invoking an
33 external browser).
7c913512 34
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35 The remaining help controller classes need to be named explicitly by an
36 application that wishes to make use of them.
7c913512 37
704171f2 38 The following help controller classes are defined:
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39 - wxWinHelpController, for controlling Windows Help.
40 - wxCHMHelpController, for controlling MS HTML Help. To use this, you need to
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41 set wxUSE_MS_HTML_HELP to 1 in setup.h and have the htmlhelp.h header from
42 Microsoft's HTML Help kit. (You don't need the VC++-specific htmlhelp.lib
9cc56d1f 43 because wxWidgets loads necessary DLL at runtime and so it works with all
bb24d708 44 compilers.)
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45 - wxBestHelpController, for controlling MS HTML Help or, if Microsoft's runtime
46 is not available, wxHtmlHelpController. You need to provide @b both CHM and
704171f2 47 HTB versions of the help file. For wxMSW only.
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48 - wxExtHelpController, for controlling external browsers under Unix.
49 The default browser is Netscape Navigator. The 'help' sample shows its use.
50 - wxWinceHelpController, for controlling a simple @c .htm help controller for
51 Windows CE applications.
704171f2 52 - wxHtmlHelpController, a sophisticated help controller using wxHTML, in a
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53 similar style to the Microsoft HTML Help viewer and using some of the same
54 files. Although it has an API compatible with other help controllers, it has
55 more advanced features, so it is recommended that you use the specific API
56 for this class instead. Note that if you use .zip or .htb formats for your
57 books, you must add this line to your application initialization:
58 @code wxFileSystem::AddHandler(new wxArchiveFSHandler); @endcode
59 or nothing will be shown in your help window.
7c913512 60
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61 @library{wxbase}
62 @category{help}
7c913512 63
9cc56d1f 64 @see wxHtmlHelpController, @ref overview_html
23324ae1 65*/
9cc56d1f 66class wxHelpController : public wxHelpControllerBase
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67{
68public:
69 /**
70 Constructs a help instance object, but does not invoke the help viewer.
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71
72 If you provide a window, it will be used by some help controller classes, such as
23324ae1 73 wxCHMHelpController, wxWinHelpController and wxHtmlHelpController, as the
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74 parent for the help window instead of the value of wxApp::GetTopWindow.
75
76 You can also change the parent window later with SetParentWindow().
23324ae1 77 */
4cc4bfaf 78 wxHelpController(wxWindow* parentWindow = NULL);
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79
80 /**
81 Destroys the help instance, closing down the viewer if it is running.
82 */
83 ~wxHelpController();
84
85 /**
86 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the file at the given
87 block number.
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88
89 - @e WinHelp: Refers to the context number.
90 - @e MS HTML Help: Refers to the context number.
91 - @e External HTML help: the same as for DisplaySection().
92 - @e wxHtmlHelpController: @e sectionNo is an identifier as specified in
93 the @c .hhc file. See @ref overview_html_helpformats.
94
95 @deprecated
96 This function is for backward compatibility only, and applications
97 should use DisplaySection() instead.
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98 */
99 virtual bool DisplayBlock(long blockNo);
100
101 /**
9cc56d1f 102 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the contents.
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103 */
104 virtual bool DisplayContents();
105
106 /**
107 Displays the section as a popup window using a context id.
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108 Returns @false if unsuccessful or not implemented.
109 */
110 virtual bool DisplayContextPopup(int contextId);
111
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112 /**
113 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the given section.
3c4f71cc 114
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115 The interpretation of section differs between help viewers.
116 For most viewers, this call is equivalent to KeywordSearch.
117 For MS HTML Help, wxHTML help and external HTML help, if section has a
118 .htm or .html extension, that HTML file will be displayed; otherwise a
119 keyword search is done.
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120 */
121 virtual bool DisplaySection(const wxString& section);
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122
123 /**
124 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the given section.
125
126 - @e WinHelp, MS HTML Help @a sectionNo is a context id.
127 - @e External HTML help: wxExtHelpController implements @a sectionNo as
128 an id in a map file, which is of the form:
129 - @e wxHtmlHelpController: @a sectionNo is an identifier as specified in
130 the @c .hhc file. See @ref overview_html_helpformats.
131 See also the help sample for notes on how to specify section numbers for
132 various help file formats.
133 */
7c913512 134 virtual bool DisplaySection(int sectionNo);
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135
136 /**
137 Displays the text in a popup window, if possible.
9cc56d1f 138
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139 Returns @false if unsuccessful or not implemented.
140 */
141 virtual bool DisplayTextPopup(const wxString& text,
142 const wxPoint& pos);
143
144 /**
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145 For wxHtmlHelpController, returns the latest frame size and position
146 settings and whether a new frame is drawn with each invocation.
147 For all other help controllers, this function does nothing and just returns @NULL.
148
149 @param size
150 The most recent frame size.
151 @param pos
152 The most recent frame position.
153 @param newFrameEachTime
154 @true if a new frame is drawn with each invocation.
23324ae1 155 */
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156 virtual wxFrame* GetFrameParameters(wxSize* size = NULL,
157 wxPoint* pos = NULL,
4cc4bfaf 158 bool* newFrameEachTime = NULL);
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159
160 /**
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161 Returns the window to be used as the parent for the help window.
162 This window is used by wxCHMHelpController, wxWinHelpController and
163 wxHtmlHelpController.
23324ae1 164 */
328f5751 165 virtual wxWindow* GetParentWindow() const;
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166
167 //@{
168 /**
169 Initializes the help instance with a help filename, and optionally a server
9cc56d1f 170 socket number if using wxHelp (now obsolete). Does not invoke the help viewer.
23324ae1 171 This must be called directly after the help instance object is created and
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172 before any attempts to communicate with the viewer.
173
174 You may omit the file extension and a suitable one will be chosen.
175 For wxHtmlHelpController, the extensions zip, htb and hhp will be appended
176 while searching for a suitable file. For WinHelp, the hlp extension is appended.
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177 */
178 virtual bool Initialize(const wxString& file);
7c913512 179 virtual bool Initialize(const wxString& file, int server);
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180 //@}
181
182 /**
183 If the help viewer is not running, runs it, and searches for sections matching
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184 the given keyword. If one match is found, the file is displayed at this section.
185 The optional parameter allows the search the index (wxHELP_SEARCH_INDEX)
186 but this currently only supported by the wxHtmlHelpController.
187
188 - @e WinHelp, MS HTML Help:
189 If more than one match is found, the first topic is displayed.
190 - @e External HTML help, simple wxHTML help:
191 If more than one match is found, a choice of topics is displayed.
192 - @e wxHtmlHelpController: see wxHtmlHelpController::KeywordSearch.
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193 */
194 virtual bool KeywordSearch(const wxString& keyWord,
195 wxHelpSearchMode mode = wxHELP_SEARCH_ALL);
196
197 /**
198 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and loads the given file.
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199 If the filename is not supplied or is empty, the file specified in
200 Initialize() is used.
201
202 If the viewer is already displaying the specified file, it will not be
203 reloaded. This member function may be used before each display call in
204 case the user has opened another file.
205
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206 wxHtmlHelpController ignores this call.
207 */
336aecf1 208 virtual bool LoadFile(const wxString& file = wxEmptyString);
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209
210 /**
d13b34d3 211 Overridable member called when this application's viewer is quit by the user.
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212 This does not work for all help controllers.
213 */
5c54f4e9 214 virtual void OnQuit();
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215
216 /**
217 If the viewer is running, quits it by disconnecting.
9cc56d1f 218 For Windows Help, the viewer will only close if no other application is using it.
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219 */
220 virtual bool Quit();
221
222 /**
bb24d708 223 For wxHtmlHelpController, the title is set (with %s indicating the
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224 page title) and also the size and position of the frame if the frame is
225 already open. @a newFrameEachTime is ignored.
226
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227 For all other help controllers this function has no effect.
228 */
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229 virtual void SetFrameParameters(const wxString& title,
230 const wxSize& size,
231 const wxPoint& pos = wxDefaultPosition,
232 bool newFrameEachTime = false);
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233
234 /**
235 Sets the window to be used as the parent for the help window. This is used
236 by wxCHMHelpController, wxWinHelpController and wxHtmlHelpController.
237 */
238 virtual void SetParentWindow(wxWindow* parentWindow);
239
240 /**
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241 Sets detailed viewer information.
242 So far this is only relevant to wxExtHelpController.
23324ae1 243 Some examples of usage:
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244
245 @code
246 m_help.SetViewer("kdehelp");
247 m_help.SetViewer("gnome-help-browser");
248 m_help.SetViewer("netscape", wxHELP_NETSCAPE);
249 @endcode
250
251 @param viewer
252 This defaults to "netscape" for wxExtHelpController.
253 @param flags
254 This defaults to wxHELP_NETSCAPE for wxExtHelpController, indicating
255 that the viewer is a variant of Netscape Navigator.
256
257 @todo modernize this function with ::wxLaunchDefaultBrowser
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258 */
259 virtual void SetViewer(const wxString& viewer, long flags);
260};
e54c96f1 261