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Adding online help

Dumping the widget sums

To obtain the widget sums for your manager:

  1. Log in as root and set the environment variable VTCL_HELPTRACE:

    VTCL_HELPTRACE=TRUE; export VTCL_HELPTRACE

    If your DISPLAY is not set, set it as well.


    NOTE: You cannot dump widget in character mode; you must run a graphical session.

  2. Check to see if the SCO Visual Tcl server (xm_vtcld) is running:

    ps -ae | grep xm

    If it is running, use the process ID (PID) reported by ps for the kill command:

    kill -9 PID

  3. Start your manager.

  4. Press <Ctrl><F1>. This brings up the Help Sums browser shown in ``Help sum browser''. This tool allows you to traverse the widget tree. The browser displays:

    Class
    name of the manager script

    Parent
    name of parent widget

    Children
    widgets of the current window

    Help sum browser

  5. Obtain the top-level sum for the manager. This will be attached to the default help for your manager. Click on the Up The Tree button until it becomes dimmed (stippled). Record the widget sum displayed as the top-level help. Use cut-and-paste to copy a sum from the text field (not from the displayed list) to a file.


    NOTE: Always obtain the highest-level widget possible. This ensures that your help will cover every element on the window. If you link too low, there is a chance that a window element will have no help. If the user clicks on the Help button and you hooked too low into the tree, DocView will simply default to the top-level help for the manager.

  6. Use the buttons to move up and down the tree. Unless you want to attach help to a specific window element (such as a button or field), you should provide help for each window. Widget names ending in popup are the top-level sums for windows, as in this example that corresponds to the Customize Toolbar window:
       outer_custom_popup	: A394055104
    
    This sum was obtained by walking up the widget tree several levels until main appeared in the ``Parent'' heading.

  7. To attach help to an individual window element, use the cursor to point to it before pressing <Ctrl><F1> again.

  8. If you have trouble figuring out which widget name corresponds to what window element, pressing <F1> will send the individual widget to the standard output -- scoterm(XC) window.

Next topic: Template widget sums for main window: appGUI (partial list)
Previous topic: Creating context-sensitive help

© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003