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