context-sensitive help when programming in C#

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nsemple
Propeller Head
Posts: 86
Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2006 9:24 am

context-sensitive help when programming in C#

Post by nsemple »

What is the mechanism used to hook up context-sensitive Help in C# (sharp) applications?

What do we provide to developers and what do developers need to do to take advantage of the Dynamic Help and Run-Time Merge Help in C# applications?

When programming in C # (sharp), our developers do not use header files. Based on a Madcap article, where they state that you can use traditional mechanisms (header file and alias file) to hook context-sensitive Help, how would this work in a C# application, if they don't use header files?

We can't find enough information on this in the Flare Help.
akhoff
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Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jan 31, 2008 1:46 pm

Re: context-sensitive help when programming in C#

Post by akhoff »

My developers tell me that the code to hook the context sensitive help is as follows:

MadCap.HelpViewerClient.HelpViewerClient helpViewer = new MadCap.HelpViewerClient.HelpViewerClient();
//location of the .mchelp file
helpViewer.Load(@"C:\sv\debug\DotNet Help Build\Manual.mchelp");
//the ID of the topic
helpViewer.ShowTopic("211");

We haven't gone any further with this topic. We have decided to use HTML Help instead, so this is the extent of my knowledge. I hope this helps.
RamonS
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Location: The Electric City

Re: context-sensitive help when programming in C#

Post by RamonS »

You may want to download the DotNetHelp SDK from the MadCap web site. I looked at it once during a crazy attempt to program in .NET and if I recall correctly, it has code samples in it.
flashback
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Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:15 pm

Re: context-sensitive help when programming in C#

Post by flashback »

To augment nsemple's question, not being programmers ourselves and not having development resources at this time to look at the code examples, we need more information on how to build Help using dynamic Help and run-time merge for a C# application, and what we need to do to make this work. Is it as simple as installing the APIHelp Client or Embedded API Help Client, and then using the code examples to map topics to areas in the product? Is there special code required to implement run-time merge, whereby specific topics connected to a particular product feature are included only when that feature is installed?

Looking forward to hearing from anyone who can share their knowledge in this area.
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