Exporting a header file as .def

[davidgolden99]

I'm documenting an application built in FoxPro. Is it possible to export the header file as a .def?

[RamonS]

Not as far as I know, but what is the format of a .def file for FoxPro. I'd think that renaming the extension and making a few find & replace modification might to the trick. Can you post a sample format?

[davidgolden99]

This is a sample of the legacy format from help.def:

&& File Menu
#DEFINE _H_KFlExprtData 211010000 && Export Data dialog
#DEFINE _H_KFlBatLink 211020000 && Batch-Link dialog
#DEFINE _H_KFlChUser 111030000 && Change User dialog
#DEFINE _H_KFlCalc 111040000 && Calculator
#DEFINE _H_KFlCalendr 111050000 && Calendar

This is how it looks in Flare. The comment describing the topic & code has been lost, as well as the ordering & grouping of the topics. The _H_ prefix was stripped. The ID numbers were converted to hex. (Should I be frightened that the developer was able to read the hex codes and tell me the decimal equivalents?)

#define KFlExprtData 0xc93c1d0
#define Setup_menu_options 0x310f
#define Quantity 0x3e96
#define Shipping_Screen_Builder_window 0x2718

It looks like the formatting from the help.def file was actually lost when it was converted by RoboHelp X5 a couple of years ago. I'm picking up the pieces of this legacy help and trying to restore context-sensitive help. The legacy file is actually in .HPJ format and can't be imported directly into Flare as far as I can tell.

[RamonS]

Do you still have RH around? You could use RH to convert the help file to a CHM project and then use that to import it into Flare. You will get something, but I have no clue if that result will have any resemblance with the original, but it should be worth a try.
That will not get you around the .def file issues. I hoped for the FoxPro .def format to be a bit more supportive of this endeavour, but I guess not. What seems to be hex in the Flare file is apparently decimal in the FoxPro file (maybe there is an option in Flare - don't have Flare handy right now) and there are also none of the strings at the end with the && prefix. It would be interesting to know which significance those strings have and if they are really necessary. Same for the && File Menu line, where I assume that there are several more such lines in the FoxPro .def file. If not, there may be some hope and the developers may come up with a quick'n'dirty converter program that could also be run as part of an automated build, because then there is only a string replacement and a hex to decimal conversion necessary.
Other than that I don't have any better idea than to have you ask FoxPro .def files to be generated by Flare as an enhancement request. Given the popularity of FoxPro I wouldn't put my hopes too high, but here is the link for the wish list submission:
https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[davidgolden99]

I found a coouple of things. The help.def file I was provided needs to be edited so that
a. #define must be lower case
b. comments are indicated by // rather than &&
c. it has an .hh suffix

When I export the help file back to the developer I may have to convert the comment indicators to &&. I should be able to saved it with a.def suffix for him to use with the FoxPro application.