docs/latex/wx/helpinst.tex

   1 \section{\class{wxHelpController}}\label{wxhelpcontroller}
   2
   3 This is a family of classes by which
   4 applications may invoke a help viewer to provide on-line help.
   5
   6 A help controller allows an application to display help, at the contents
   7 or at a particular topic, and shut the help program down on termination.
   8 This avoids proliferation of many instances of the help viewer whenever the
   9 user requests a different topic via the application's menus or buttons.
  10
  11 Typically, an application will create a help controller instance
  12 when it starts, and immediately call {\bf Initialize}\rtfsp
  13 to associate a filename with it. The help viewer will only get run, however,
  14 just before the first call to display something.
  15
  16 Although all help controller classes actually derive from wxHelpControllerBase and have
  17 names of the form wxXXXHelpController, the
  18 appropriate class is aliased to the name wxHelpController for each platform.
  19
  20 There are currently the following help controller classes defined:
  21
  22 \begin{itemize}\itemsep=0pt
  23 \item wxWinHelpController, for controlling Windows Help.
  24 \item wxExtHelpController, for controlling external browsers under Unix.
  25 The default browser is Netscape Navigator.
  26 \item wxHelpControllerHtml, using wxHTML to display help
  27 \item wxXLPHelpController, for controlling wxHelp (from wxWindows 1).
  28 \end{itemize}
  29
  30 \wxheading{Derived from}
  31
  32 wxHelpControllerBase\\
  33 \helpref{wxObject}{wxobject}
  34
  35 \wxheading{Include files}
  36
  37 <wx/help.h> (wxWindows chooses the appropriate help controller class)\\
  38 <wx/helpbase.h> (wxHelpControllerBase class)\\
  39 <wx/helpwin.h> (Windows Help controller)\\
  40 <wx/generic/helpext.h> (external HTML browser controller)
  41 <wx/generic/helpwxht.h> (wxHTML based help controller)
  42 <wx/generic/helpxlp.h> (wxHelp controller)
  43
  44 \latexignore{\rtfignore{\wxheading{Members}}}
  45
  46 \membersection{wxHelpController::wxHelpController}
  47
  48 \func{}{wxHelpController}{\void}
  49
  50 Constructs a help instance object, but does not invoke the help viewer.
  51
  52 \membersection{wxHelpController::\destruct{wxHelpController}}
  53
  54 \func{}{\destruct{wxHelpController}}{\void}
  55
  56 Destroys the help instance, closing down the viewer if it is running.
  57
  58 \membersection{wxHelpController::Initialize}\label{wxhelpcontrollerinitialize}
  59
  60 \func{virtual void}{Initialize}{\param{const wxString\& }{file}}
  61
  62 \func{virtual void}{Initialize}{\param{const wxString\& }{file}, \param{int}{ server}}
  63
  64 Initializes the help instance with a help filename, and optionally a server (socket)
  65 number if using wxHelp. Does not invoke the help viewer.
  66 This must be called directly after the help instance object is created and before
  67 any attempts to communicate with the viewer.
  68
  69 You may omit the file extension and a suitable one will be chosen.
  70
  71 \membersection{wxHelpController::DisplayBlock}\label{wxhelpcontrollerdisplayblock}
  72
  73 \func{virtual bool}{DisplayBlock}{\param{long}{ blockNo}}
  74
  75 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the file at the given block number.
  76
  77 {\it wxHelp:} this is the wxHelp block number.
  78
  79 {\it WinHelp:} Refers to the context number.
  80
  81 {\it External HTML help:} the same as for \helpref{wxHelpController::DisplaySection}{wxhelpcontrollerdisplaysection}.
  82
  83 \membersection{wxHelpController::DisplayContents}\label{wxhelpcontrollerdisplaycontents}
  84
  85 \func{virtual bool}{DisplayContents}{\void}
  86
  87 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the
  88 contents.
  89
  90 \membersection{wxHelpController::DisplaySection}\label{wxhelpcontrollerdisplaysection}
  91
  92 \func{virtual bool}{DisplaySection}{\param{int}{ sectionNo}}
  93
  94 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and displays the given section.
  95
  96 {\it wxHelp:} Sections are numbered starting from 1. Section numbers may be viewed by running wxHelp in edit mode.
  97
  98 {\it WinHelp:} {\it sectionNo} is a context id.
  99
 100 {\it External HTML help/wxHTML based help:} wxExtHelpController and wxHelpControllerHtml implement {\it sectionNo} as an id in a map file, which is of the form:
 101
 102 \begin{verbatim}
 103 0  wx.html             ; Index
 104 1  wx34.html#classref  ; Class reference
 105 2  wx204.html          ; Function reference
 106 \end{verbatim}
 107
 108 \membersection{wxHelpController::KeywordSearch}\label{wxhelpcontrollerkeywordsearch}
 109
 110 \func{virtual bool}{KeywordSearch}{\param{const wxString\& }{keyWord}}
 111
 112 If the help viewer is not running, runs it, and searches for sections matching the given keyword. If one
 113 match is found, the file is displayed at this section.
 114
 115 {\it wxHelp:} If more than one
 116 match is found, the Search dialog is displayed with the matches.
 117
 118 {\it WinHelp:} If more than one match is found,
 119 the first topic is displayed.
 120
 121 {\it External HTML help:} If more than one match is found,
 122 a choice of topics is displayed.
 123
 124 \membersection{wxHelpController::LoadFile}\label{wxhelpcontrollerloadfile}
 125
 126 \func{virtual bool}{LoadFile}{\param{const wxString\& }{file = ""}}
 127
 128 If the help viewer is not running, runs it and loads the given file.
 129 If the filename is not supplied or is
 130 NULL, the file specified in {\bf Initialize} is used. If the viewer is
 131 already displaying the specified file, it will not be reloaded. This
 132 member function may be used before each display call in case the user
 133 has opened another file.
 134
 135 \membersection{wxHelpController::SetViewer}\label{wxhelpcontrollersetviewer}
 136
 137 \func{virtual void}{SetViewer}{\param{const wxString\& }{viewer}, \param{long}{ flags}}
 138
 139 Sets detailed viewer information. So far this is only relevant to wxExtHelpController.
 140
 141 \membersection{wxHelpController::SetFrameParameters}\label{wxhelpcontrollersetframeparameters}
 142 \func{virtual void}{SetFrameParameters}
 143 {\param{const wxString \& }{title},
 144  \param{const wxSize \& }{size}, \param{const wxPoint \& }{pos = wxDefaultPosition},
 145  \param{bool }{newFrameEachTime = FALSE}}
 146
 147 For the wxHelpControllerHtml, this allows the application to set the
 148 default frame title, size and position for the frame. If the title
 149 contains \%s, this will be replaced with the page title. If the
 150 parammeter newFrameEachTime is set, the controller will open a new
 151 help frame each time it is called. For all other help controllers this
 152 function has no effect.
 153
 154 \membersection{wxHelpController::GetFrameParameters}\label{wxhelpcontrollergetframeparameters}
 155 \func{virtual wxFrame *}{GetFrameParameters}
 156 {\param{const wxSize * }{size = NULL}, \param{const wxPoint * }{pos = NULL},
 157  \param{bool *}{newFrameEachTime = NULL}}
 158 This reads the current settings for the help frame in the case of the
 159 wxHelpControllerHtml, setting the frame size, position and
 160 the newFrameEachTime parameters to the last values used. It also
 161 returns the pointer to the last opened help frame. This can be used
 162 for example, to automatically close the help frame on program
 163 shutdown. For all other help controllers, this function does nothing
 164 and just returns NULL.
 165
 166 \wxheading{Parameters}
 167
 168 \docparam{viewer}{This defaults to "netscape" for wxExtHelpController.}
 169
 170 \docparam{flags}{This defaults to wxHELP\_NETSCAPE for wxExtHelpController, indicating
 171 that the viewer is a variant of Netscape Navigator.}
 172
 173 \membersection{wxHelpController::OnQuit}\label{wxhelpcontrolleronquit}
 174
 175 \func{virtual bool}{OnQuit}{\void}
 176
 177 Overridable member called when this application's viewer is quit by the user.
 178
 179 This does not work for all help controllers.
 180
 181 \membersection{wxHelpController::Quit}\label{wxhelpcontrollerquit}
 182
 183 \func{virtual bool}{Quit}{\void}
 184
 185 If the viewer is running, quits it by disconnecting.
 186
 187 For Windows Help, the viewer will only close if no other application is using it.
 188