Automatically select a content category

[Yaroslaf4ik]

Dear community,

Is it possible to select a content category depending on the parameter in the URL.

For example.

I have categories (different content) for resellers and distributors.

Depending on the page where user clicks "help" a content for either reseller or distributor should be shown.

http://domain.com/help.html?referer_page=/reseller.html  => show reseller's content category

http://domain.com/help.html?referer_page=/distributor.html  => show distributor's content category

Link format can be changed if necessary.

Is this possible to configure? May be in Rh 10?

[Yaroslaf4ik]

I have found a work around:

Due to specific folder structure of a generated content

container - reseller/

             | - distributor/

I can just adjust the path in the link and open the index HTML files in different folders.

But still, can I pass any parameters to Robohelp?

[RoboColum_n_]

If the location where the user clicks help is different depending on whether they are a reseller or distributor, then you should be able to do this with context sensitive help. I haven't tested this but if you add a mapid to the topics in the two categories and then specify this in the call you can do as you describe. If however the dialog is the same, mapids would not work.

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

The Context Senstive API supports selecting the content category. You can use the default RoboHelp API or if you want to use URL’s, see my article: http://www.wvanweelden.eu/articles/part/regular-start-page

Greet,

Willam

[Yaroslaf4ik]

Willam, RoboColum, Thank you for refering me to the right direction. I've 3 options for myself. BTW, are there any possibilities or plans to pass information fo the selected object to a help script? What I mean is this:

Mouse hover sets the Help topic to display when the control has been hovered over.

Or when I want to see help on field "A" I select it with a mouse and click help. Help opens on the description of the "A" field. Is there something like this in Robohelp?

Thanx!

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

- For the hover, there is no default method. I imagine your developers create a hovering element and call the help in that element. I think there are two choices: using an iFrame or publishing the help to simple HTML and calling the content directly from the .htm using AJAX.

- The second thing can be done with RoboHelp. John Daigle shows how in this tutorial: http://www.adobe.com/devnet-archive/robohelp/articles/context_help.html

Greet,

Willam

[Yaroslaf4ik]

Willam, I am still not sure that I understand this perfectly.

According to your article I can only specify different content category (actually a folder) like this

http://localhost/newproject.htm#mydir/mytopic.htm

But there is no way to select between content categories using java functions (e.g. RH_ShowHelp) specifying link to the main index.htm file (and not to *_sc.htm files for certain topics in subdirectories)?

Just to make it clear - I have 3 similar categories. And topics in these categories have same topic IDs and map IDs, because they have one source. So, seems I can't select by topicID without changing the link to a certain subcategory.

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Ok,

I've been confusing Browser Based AIR help and WebHelp. Sorry for the confusion.

For WebHelp, you cannot set the content category while targeting the SSL main file. (You can for BB AIR.) For WebHelp, you need to call the start file of the content category.

For example: You have category A and B. To call category A:

http://localhost/helpsystem/A/index.htm

You can parse the start file of the category in RH_ShowHelp. It's just that you can't call the sniffer file in your output's root. You need to target the output of the content category itself.

Again, sorry for the confusion. I feel really dumb now...

Greet,

Willam

[Yaroslaf4ik]

Dear Willam,

Don't excuse. Your answers help me a lot anyway.

Thank you!