interface/help.h

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