• Help File Format

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This document is intended to help developers create/edit an application's help file.

++ Help File Location

The help file is located in an application's locale directory at this location:

Where xx_XX is the locale (country and language code), e.g. en_GB or es_ES.

The master help file is in English and is located at:

Any help entry additions MUST be made in the master English help file. These changes will be propagated to the translated help files through the translation build process.

++ Help File Translation

See Doc/Dev/Translation.

++ Help File Format

The help file has the following format:

Help structure tags are as follows:

||~ Tag ||~ Description ||
|| help || Defines the help data. All other tags must live under this tag. ||
|| entry || Defines a help entry. The 'id' attribute is a unique (by application) identifier to this entry. Entries living directly under are shown in all views. ||
|| title || The title of the entry. Displayed in the help topics tree to allow a user to quickly browse for the entry. ||
|| view || Defines entries only shown in this view. Children are elements. The 'id' attribute identifies the view in which to show these entries (currently: {{basic}} and {{dynamic}}). ||

Each tag can have one or more of the following:

||~ Tag ||~ Description ||
|| para || A paragraph block. ||
|| raw || A raw block. Content will be displayed in fixed format. ||
|| tip || Tip block. Used to identify the containing text as tip (i.e. useful instructions; UI shortcuts) content. ||
|| warn || Warning block. Used to identify the containing text as warning (i.e. potential issues; dangerous behavior) content. ||

Each block can be formatted with the following tags:

||~ Tag ||~ Description ||
|| b || Strong formatting of text. This tag can contain additional formatting tags in its content. ||
|| css || Outputs containing data in a CSS class. The 'class' atrribute contains the CSS class name. This tag can contain additional formatting tags in its content. ||
|| eref || Create URL link. The 'url' attribute contains the URL to link to. ||
|| i || Emphasis formatting of text. This tag can contain additional formatting tags in its content. ||
|| pre || Preformatted formatting of text. This tag can contain additional formatting tags in its content. ||
|| ref || Reference to another Help entry. The 'module' attribute should be the application id. The 'topic' attribute should be the id attribute of the entry to link to. ||
|| text || Raw text contained in this node (sub-tags are ignored). ||