RoboHelp 8 - Context Sensitive Help with AIR

[Timothy_Haagenson]

Hey everyone.  I've recently taken over the help files for my company and they have asked me to convert one of our help files over to an AIR application that is context sensitive.  I have already converted our web help to be context sensitive with much success.  However, I haven't been able to find much documentation on how to use CSH for an AIR application.  Is it done with command line strings when the exe is opened or some other way? Is it not possible?  Any help is appreciated.

Thank you,

-Tim

[Timothy_Haagenson]

I've been working on this for the last couple hours to see if I could come up with anything.  Looking through the help files lead me to the C++ API documentation available in the help files that says there is an AIR Call available for C++ applications.  However, I am developing my application in a different programming language than what Adobe supports with documentation.  As such, I decided to dive into the C++ function and see if I could strip out some of the implementation to be used in other programming languages.  Here is what I found:

The AIR executable will accept the following command line parameters:

-csh

This is the beginning of your command line and required to call context sensitive help.  Place a single space after this line (and between subsequent commands) and continue with the other commands

helpid "parameter"

(Optional) ID of help content to be viewed in Viewer. It is specified in .helpcfg file. (taken from Adobe help contents)

window "parameter"

(Optional) This is the name of the window you want to call in your help file and is optional.

Only one of the 3 following may be selected.  If you use more than one, topicurl has preference, then mapid, then mapnumber.  The lower priority is ignored when more than one is used.

topicurl "parameter"

(Optional) Url of the topic, note that the default location is Data\topic.htm for you to use this functionality

mapid "parameter"

(Optional) Context-sensitive map ID. If specified it takes priority and ulMapNum is ignored. (taken from Adobe help contents)

mapnumber parameter

Context sensitive map number specified in map file.  It should be noted that this is the only parameter that is not encased in quotation marks.

I hope this can help others as I spent the last week trying to find this information.

Tim

[Timothy_Haagenson]

Also, here is an example shortcut window if it was placed in a shortcut for testing.

"C:\Sandbox\AIR\TestApplication.exe" -csh window "MyWindow" topicurl "Data\MyTopic.htm"

"C:\Sandbox\AIR\TestApplication.exe" -csh window "MyWindow" mapnumber 3

[Peter Grainge]

Timothy

I have completed some articles on AIR help. This thread was of great help so thank you. I have included the information you provided with credit to yourself and a link to this thread.

The articles can be found at http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/air/air.htm

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips