Help for VB.Net App?

David Brower

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Feb 17, 2004, 8:56:39 AM2/17/04

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Hi Folks,

I apologise for my lack of knowledge in this area. I have spent two
days trying to find the best way to add help functionality to our
VB.Net project. I am confused about the best way to do this. I have
played around with a Help Project in Visual Studio 2003 but there
doesn't seem to be any documentation in MSDN on this project type.
There also seems to be something called HTML Help 1.4 but I can only
find minimal information on how to integrate this with a VB.Net
application.

I'd be extremely grateful if someone could give me few pointers how to
start.

Thank you!
David

Ulrich Kulle

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Feb 17, 2004, 2:19:38 PM2/17/04

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Hello David,

the best way for the start could be an example. See my homepage at:
http://www.help-info.de/en/Visual_Basic_net/visual_basic_net.htm
There is a download link for an example.

HTMLHelp 1. x is the current help system since Windows 98. I recommend you
furthermore to use this help system. You are supported by Visual Studio.net and
many other tools if you develop help systems by HTMLHelp. It's the *.CHM file
format.. You can use a free tool Microsoft "HTML Help Workshop" to compile CHM
files.

For further information about HTML Help see:
http://www.mshelpwiki.com/index.php?page=HTMLHelp

Have a look at "HTML Help Articles"

Best regards
Ulrich Kulle
***************************************
http://www.help-info.de
***************************************

David Brower

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Mar 10, 2004, 11:58:27 AM3/10/04

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Hi Ulrich,
Thank you so much for your help. I had a look at your website and I
can say without hyperbole that it's exactly what I needed. Thanks
again.
Mit freundlichen Gruessen,
David

Ulrich Kulle

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Mar 10, 2004, 2:42:54 PM3/10/04

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Thanks David,

I hope to help some users with these website.

Take care and best regards
Ulrich Kulle
*****************************
http://www.help-info.de
http://www.help-info.de/en/Visual_Basic_net/visual_basic_net.htm
*****************************

Harry Simpson

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Mar 15, 2004, 10:18:31 AM3/15/04

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Ulrich,

How does an ASPNET web application implement a help system??
USing VS2003

Thanks
Harry

"Ulrich Kulle" <infoREMOV...@help-info.de> wrote in message
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Ulrich Kulle

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Mar 16, 2004, 2:43:36 PM3/16/04

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Hello Harry,

> How does an ASPNET web application implement a help system??
> USing VS2003

I have unfortunately no experience with ASP.net. I work with Windows XP Home
without "local host" and can offer no examples thus.

You should try whether "ErrorProvider, ToolTip and HelpProvider" (see VB.net
examples) also runs under ASP.net in your VS2003 IDE.

One can call then perhaps individual HTML files on a server as assistance
file. I showed this also in the example under VB.net.

HTML Help 1.x (CHM format - recommended up to the appearance of
Longhorn.Help) does not have the capability of delivering compressed help
over http.

Next generation of Windows Help aka "Longhorn.Help" (2006(?)) is XML based.
So it would be a good idea to have content in a database or XML. XML + XSLT
=> HTML (in future MAML).

Some HAT's $$$$ (Help Authoring Tools) support ASP.net
See: http://tinyurl.com/2me9r

Read more about single-sourcing:
http://www.rascalsoftware.com/presentations/ssxml.pdf

Best regards

Ulrich Kulle
*****************************
http://www.help-info.de

info##@help-info.de
Remove ##
*****************************

Jaydeep

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Apr 10, 2004, 7:39:27 AM4/10/04

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Hello everybody,
How does the Html Help 2 project file can be integrated with VB.Net windows
application.

--
Jaydeep Vaze
Solversa Technologies

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Ulrich Kulle

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Apr 10, 2004, 10:55:56 AM4/10/04

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Hello Jaydeep,

> Hello everybody,
> How does the Html Help 2 project file can be integrated with VB.Net
windows
> application.

Visual Studio .NET provides an unprecedented opportunity for component
vendors, enterprise organizations, and authors to integrate their content
with the Help content in Visual Studio .NET!!!

The Microsoft Visual Studio Help Integration Kit (VSHIK) is a set of
documentation and tools for software developers and Help authors who wish to
extend the Help content in Visual Studio .NET. This kit allows component
vendors, book authors, and others to provide documentation for components,
add-ins, form elements, and libraries, or to extend or enhance the Help for
Visual Studio .NET itself.

A project file HxC (your question above ..) normally is compiled into .HxS.
The viewer is calling a registered HxS file.

If you need to distribute a H2Viewer please see:
http://helpware.net/mshelp2/h2viewer.htm or
http://helpware.net/mshelp2/h20.htm or
http://mvps.org/htmlhelpcenter/mshelp2/h2view.html

Help 2 is the help for Visual Studio.NET now and was original planned for
the next generation of the Microsoft's online help system. The Microsoft®
Help team has decided not to release Microsoft Help 2 as a general Help
platform!

So HTMLHelp 1. x is the current help system since Windows 98. I recommend
you furthermore to use this help system until Longhorn.Help 2005/2006.

I will try to give you some input on how to build help systems in .NET and I
will list some links at the link below. Building Help Systems under the .NET
Framework and VS.NET is different then building help system with old (but
good) Visual Studio 6.0.

http://www.help-info.de/en/Visual_Basic_net/visual_basic_net.htm

HTH