interface/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     @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     @see wxHtmlHelpController, wxHTML()
  76 */
  77 class wxHelpController : public wxObject
  78 {
  79 public:
  80     /**
  81         Constructs a help instance object, but does not invoke the help viewer.
  82         If you provide a window, it will be used by some help controller classes, such
  83         as
  84         wxCHMHelpController, wxWinHelpController and wxHtmlHelpController, as the
  85         parent for the help window instead of the value of wxApp::GetTopWindow. You can
  86         also change the parent window later with
  87         SetParentWindow().
  88     */
  89     wxHelpController(wxWindow* parentWindow = NULL);
  90
  91     /**
  92         Destroys the help instance, closing down the viewer if it is running.
  93     */
  94     ~wxHelpController();
  95
  96     /**
  97         If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the file at the given
  98         block number.
  99         @e WinHelp: Refers to the context number.
 100         @e MS HTML Help: Refers to the context number.
 101         @e External HTML help: the same as for DisplaySection().
 102         @e wxHtmlHelpController: @e sectionNo is an identifier as specified in the @c
 103         .hhc file. See @ref overview_helpformat "Help files format".
 104         This function is for backward compatibility only, and applications should use
 105         @ref displaysection() wxHelpController instead.
 106     */
 107     virtual bool DisplayBlock(long blockNo);
 108
 109     /**
 110         If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the
 111         contents.
 112     */
 113     virtual bool DisplayContents();
 114
 115     /**
 116         Displays the section as a popup window using a context id.
 117         Returns @false if unsuccessful or not implemented.
 118     */
 119     virtual bool DisplayContextPopup(int contextId);
 120
 121     //@{
 122     /**
 123         If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the given section.
 124         @e WinHelp, MS HTML Help @a sectionNo is a context id.
 125         @e External HTML help: wxExtHelpController implements @a sectionNo as an id in
 126         a map file, which is of the form:
 127
 128         @e wxHtmlHelpController: @a sectionNo is an identifier as specified in the @c
 129         .hhc file. See @ref overview_helpformat "Help files format".
 130         See also the help sample for notes on how to specify section numbers for
 131         various help file formats.
 132     */
 133     virtual bool DisplaySection(const wxString& section);
 134     virtual bool DisplaySection(int sectionNo);
 135     //@}
 136
 137     /**
 138         Displays the text in a popup window, if possible.
 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
 147         and just returns @NULL.
 148
 149         @param viewer
 150             This defaults to "netscape" for wxExtHelpController.
 151         @param flags
 152             This defaults to wxHELP_NETSCAPE for wxExtHelpController, indicating
 153             that the viewer is a variant of Netscape Navigator.
 154     */
 155     virtual wxFrame* GetFrameParameters(const wxSize* size = NULL,
 156                                         const wxPoint* pos = NULL,
 157                                         bool* newFrameEachTime = NULL);
 158
 159     /**
 160         Returns the window to be used as the parent for the help window. This window is
 161         used
 162         by wxCHMHelpController, wxWinHelpController and wxHtmlHelpController.
 163     */
 164     virtual wxWindow* GetParentWindow() const;
 165
 166     //@{
 167     /**
 168         Initializes the help instance with a help filename, and optionally a server
 169         socket
 170         number if using wxHelp (now obsolete). Does not invoke the help viewer.
 171         This must be called directly after the help instance object is created and
 172         before
 173         any attempts to communicate with the viewer.
 174         You may omit the file extension and a suitable one will be chosen. For
 175         wxHtmlHelpController, the extensions zip, htb and hhp will be appended while
 176         searching for
 177         a suitable file. For WinHelp, the hlp extension is appended.
 178     */
 179     virtual bool Initialize(const wxString& file);
 180     virtual bool Initialize(const wxString& file, int server);
 181     //@}
 182
 183     /**
 184         If the help viewer is not running, runs it, and searches for sections matching
 185         the given keyword. If one match is found, the file is displayed at this
 186         section. The optional parameter allows the search the index
 187         (wxHELP_SEARCH_INDEX) but this currently only supported by the
 188         wxHtmlHelpController.
 189         @e WinHelp, MS HTML Help: If more than one match is found,
 190         the first topic is displayed.
 191         @e External HTML help, simple wxHTML help: If more than one match is found,
 192         a choice of topics is displayed.
 193         @e wxHtmlHelpController: see wxHtmlHelpController::KeywordSearch.
 194     */
 195     virtual bool KeywordSearch(const wxString& keyWord,
 196                                wxHelpSearchMode mode = wxHELP_SEARCH_ALL);
 197
 198     /**
 199         If the help viewer is not running, runs it and loads the given file.
 200         If the filename is not supplied or is
 201         empty, the file specified in @b Initialize is used. If the viewer is
 202         already displaying the specified file, it will not be reloaded. This
 203         member function may be used before each display call in case the user
 204         has opened another file.
 205         wxHtmlHelpController ignores this call.
 206     */
 207     virtual bool LoadFile(const wxString& file = "");
 208
 209     /**
 210         Overridable member called when this application's viewer is quit by the user.
 211         This does not work for all help controllers.
 212     */
 213     virtual bool OnQuit();
 214
 215     /**
 216         If the viewer is running, quits it by disconnecting.
 217         For Windows Help, the viewer will only close if no other application is using
 218         it.
 219     */
 220     virtual bool Quit();
 221
 222     /**
 223         For wxHtmlHelpController, the title is set (again with %s indicating the
 224         page title) and also the size and position of the frame if the frame is already
 225         open. @a newFrameEachTime is ignored.
 226         For all other help controllers this function has no effect.
 227     */
 228     virtual void SetFrameParameters(const wxString& title,
 229                                     const wxSize& size,
 230                                     const wxPoint& pos = wxDefaultPosition,
 231                                     bool newFrameEachTime = false);
 232
 233     /**
 234         Sets the window to be used as the parent for the help window. This is used
 235         by wxCHMHelpController, wxWinHelpController and wxHtmlHelpController.
 236     */
 237     virtual void SetParentWindow(wxWindow* parentWindow);
 238
 239     /**
 240         Sets detailed viewer information. So far this is only relevant to
 241         wxExtHelpController.
 242         Some examples of usage:
 243     */
 244     virtual void SetViewer(const wxString& viewer, long flags);
 245 };
 246