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