]> git.saurik.com Git - wxWidgets.git/blob - interface/wx/help.h
added the possibility to rescale the image during loading, especially useful with...
[wxWidgets.git] / interface / wx / help.h
1 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2 // Name: help.h
3 // Purpose: interface of wxHelpController
4 // Author: wxWidgets team
5 // RCS-ID: $Id$
6 // Licence: wxWindows license
7 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
8
9 /**
10 @class wxHelpController
11
12 This is a family of classes by which applications may invoke a help viewer
13 to provide on-line help.
14
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.
19
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.
24
25 Most help controller classes actually derive from wxHelpControllerBase and have
26 names of the form wxXXXHelpController or wxHelpControllerXXX.
27 An appropriate class is aliased to the name wxHelpController for each platform, as
28 follows:
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).
34
35 The remaining help controller classes need to be named explicitly by an
36 application that wishes to make use of them.
37
38 There are currently the following help controller classes defined:
39 - wxWinHelpController, for controlling Windows Help.
40 - wxCHMHelpController, for controlling MS HTML Help. To use this, you need to
41 set wxUSE_MS_HTML_HELP to 1 in setup.h and have htmlhelp.h header from
42 Microsoft's HTML Help kit (you don't need VC++ specific htmlhelp.lib
43 because wxWidgets loads necessary DLL at runtime and so it works with all
44 compilers).
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
47 HTB versions of the help file. For 32bit Windows only.
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.
52 - wxHtmlHelpController, a sophisticated help controller using wxHTML(), in a
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.
60
61 @library{wxbase}
62 @category{help}
63
64 @see wxHtmlHelpController, @ref overview_html
65 */
66 class wxHelpController : public wxHelpControllerBase
67 {
68 public:
69 /**
70 Constructs a help instance object, but does not invoke the help viewer.
71
72 If you provide a window, it will be used by some help controller classes, such as
73 wxCHMHelpController, wxWinHelpController and wxHtmlHelpController, as the
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().
77 */
78 wxHelpController(wxWindow* parentWindow = NULL);
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.
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.
98 */
99 virtual bool DisplayBlock(long blockNo);
100
101 /**
102 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the contents.
103 */
104 virtual bool DisplayContents();
105
106 /**
107 Displays the section as a popup window using a context id.
108 Returns @false if unsuccessful or not implemented.
109 */
110 virtual bool DisplayContextPopup(int contextId);
111
112 /**
113 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the given section.
114
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.
120 */
121 virtual bool DisplaySection(const wxString& section);
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 */
134 virtual bool DisplaySection(int sectionNo);
135
136 /**
137 Displays the text in a popup window, if possible.
138
139 Returns @false if unsuccessful or not implemented.
140 */
141 virtual bool DisplayTextPopup(const wxString& text,
142 const wxPoint& pos);
143
144 /**
145 wxHtmlHelpController returns the frame, size and position.
146 For all other help controllers, this function does nothing and just
147 returns @NULL.
148 */
149 virtual wxFrame* GetFrameParameters(const wxSize* size = NULL,
150 const wxPoint* pos = NULL,
151 bool* newFrameEachTime = NULL);
152
153 /**
154 Returns the window to be used as the parent for the help window.
155 This window is used by wxCHMHelpController, wxWinHelpController and
156 wxHtmlHelpController.
157 */
158 virtual wxWindow* GetParentWindow() const;
159
160 //@{
161 /**
162 Initializes the help instance with a help filename, and optionally a server
163 socket number if using wxHelp (now obsolete). Does not invoke the help viewer.
164 This must be called directly after the help instance object is created and
165 before any attempts to communicate with the viewer.
166
167 You may omit the file extension and a suitable one will be chosen.
168 For wxHtmlHelpController, the extensions zip, htb and hhp will be appended
169 while searching for a suitable file. For WinHelp, the hlp extension is appended.
170 */
171 virtual bool Initialize(const wxString& file);
172 virtual bool Initialize(const wxString& file, int server);
173 //@}
174
175 /**
176 If the help viewer is not running, runs it, and searches for sections matching
177 the given keyword. If one match is found, the file is displayed at this section.
178 The optional parameter allows the search the index (wxHELP_SEARCH_INDEX)
179 but this currently only supported by the wxHtmlHelpController.
180
181 - @e WinHelp, MS HTML Help:
182 If more than one match is found, the first topic is displayed.
183 - @e External HTML help, simple wxHTML help:
184 If more than one match is found, a choice of topics is displayed.
185 - @e wxHtmlHelpController: see wxHtmlHelpController::KeywordSearch.
186 */
187 virtual bool KeywordSearch(const wxString& keyWord,
188 wxHelpSearchMode mode = wxHELP_SEARCH_ALL);
189
190 /**
191 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and loads the given file.
192 If the filename is not supplied or is empty, the file specified in
193 Initialize() is used.
194
195 If the viewer is already displaying the specified file, it will not be
196 reloaded. This member function may be used before each display call in
197 case the user has opened another file.
198
199 wxHtmlHelpController ignores this call.
200 */
201 virtual bool LoadFile(const wxString& file = "");
202
203 /**
204 Overridable member called when this application's viewer is quit by the user.
205 This does not work for all help controllers.
206 */
207 virtual bool OnQuit();
208
209 /**
210 If the viewer is running, quits it by disconnecting.
211 For Windows Help, the viewer will only close if no other application is using it.
212 */
213 virtual bool Quit();
214
215 /**
216 For wxHtmlHelpController, the title is set (again with %s indicating the
217 page title) and also the size and position of the frame if the frame is
218 already open. @a newFrameEachTime is ignored.
219
220 For all other help controllers this function has no effect.
221 */
222 virtual void SetFrameParameters(const wxString& title,
223 const wxSize& size,
224 const wxPoint& pos = wxDefaultPosition,
225 bool newFrameEachTime = false);
226
227 /**
228 Sets the window to be used as the parent for the help window. This is used
229 by wxCHMHelpController, wxWinHelpController and wxHtmlHelpController.
230 */
231 virtual void SetParentWindow(wxWindow* parentWindow);
232
233 /**
234 Sets detailed viewer information.
235 So far this is only relevant to wxExtHelpController.
236 Some examples of usage:
237
238 @code
239 m_help.SetViewer("kdehelp");
240 m_help.SetViewer("gnome-help-browser");
241 m_help.SetViewer("netscape", wxHELP_NETSCAPE);
242 @endcode
243
244 @param viewer
245 This defaults to "netscape" for wxExtHelpController.
246 @param flags
247 This defaults to wxHELP_NETSCAPE for wxExtHelpController, indicating
248 that the viewer is a variant of Netscape Navigator.
249
250 @todo modernize this function with ::wxLaunchDefaultBrowser
251 */
252 virtual void SetViewer(const wxString& viewer, long flags);
253 };
254