Creating Help for Microsoft Help for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Applications Part 1
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Creating Help for Microsoft Help for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Applications part 1: Overview of what is involved Published by Sylvester Alelele. October 1, 2010 Page | 1 Creating Help for Microsoft Help for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Applications part 1: Overview of what is involved Summary: Online help appears to be one of the most easily overlooked things by Visual FoxPro (VFP) developers when applications are being created yet, it is one of the critical elements required to give an application that extra professional touch and finesse that has come to be expected from modern windows based applications. How can you as a VFP Developer integrate help into your application? What is involved? This article explores options available for integrating online help into VFP applications. Introduction: As any professional software developer knows, no application is complete without providing efficient assistance to users of the application to enable users complete tasks quickly. One way to do this is to package an online help file that users can access at any time as they work. Having an online help file can make the difference even in terms of the number of support calls you will have to make to your clients. However, experience shows that this is the one area most often ignored by many VFP 9 developers. One reason for this state of affairs may be because VFP 9 developers are usually small one (1) to three (3) man shops where there is little time left after developing and debugging an application to start worrying about creating a help file. Another reason may be because VFP 9 Developers must rely on external tools (Winhelp, HTML Help Workshop, etc) to author and integrate help files. If you have installed VFP 9, you will quickly find that these tools are not packaged with the product. Yet again another reason for this state of affairs may be the fact that information on building and integrating Help Files for Visual FoxPro applications is very scanty on the VFP 9 online help. This, the first article in the series of articles on building and integrating Help Files will discuss the options that are available to you the Visual FoxPro programmer to enable you easily integrate help files into your applications. Options for Integrating Help Files In older versions of Visual FoxPro, programmers created and integrated dbf-style help. Then later, Microsoft introduced Winhelp and started encouraging VFP developers to create Winhelp files instead.
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Describes how to create and build online help for a Visual FoxPro Application
Transcript of Creating Help for Microsoft Help for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Applications Part 1
Creating Help for Microsoft Help for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Applications part 1: Overview of what is involved
Published by Sylvester Alelele. October 1, 2010
Page | 1
Creating Help for Microsoft Help for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Applications part 1: Overview of what is involved
Summary:
Online help appears to be one of the most easily overlooked things by Visual FoxPro (VFP) developers when applications are being created yet, it is one of the critical elements required to give an application that extra professional touch and finesse that has come to be expected from modern windows based applications. How can you as a VFP Developer integrate help into your application? What is involved? This article explores options available for integrating online help into VFP applications.
Introduction:
As any professional software developer knows, no application is complete without providing efficient assistance to users of the application to enable users complete tasks quickly. One way to do this is to package an online help file that users can access at any time as they work. Having an online help file can make the difference even in terms of the number of support calls you will have to make to your clients. However, experience shows that this is the one area most often ignored by many VFP 9 developers.
One reason for this state of affairs may be because VFP 9 developers are usually small one (1) to three (3) man shops where there is little time left after developing and debugging an application to start worrying about creating a help file. Another reason may be because VFP 9 Developers must rely on external tools (Winhelp, HTML Help Workshop, etc) to author and integrate help files. If you have installed VFP 9, you will quickly find that these tools are not packaged with the product. Yet again another reason for this state of affairs may be the fact that information on building and integrating Help Files for Visual FoxPro applications is very scanty on the VFP 9 online help.
This, the first article in the series of articles on building and integrating Help Files will discuss the options that are available to you the Visual FoxPro programmer to enable you easily integrate help files into your applications.
Options for Integrating Help Files
In older versions of Visual FoxPro, programmers created and integrated dbf-style help. Then later, Microsoft introduced Winhelp and started encouraging VFP developers to create Winhelp files instead.
Creating Help for Microsoft Help for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Applications part 1: Overview of what is involved
Published by Sylvester Alelele. October 1, 2010
Page | 2
This too was nice since Winhelp provided a graphically richer and more appealing help system than was available with dbf style help. The latest generation of the Microsoft Help system is the HTML Help workshop.
Several obstacles face the VFP Programmer in being able to create good help files. To begin with, when you install VFP 9, you will probably notice that neither Winhelp not HTML Help Workshop is packaged with the product. This means that you must locate the associated products yourself to enable you author help files.
A second barrier is that you do not find help on how to use these tools to author help files in your VFP online help. In fact, if you are using either Winhelp or HTML help, you will have to learn how to use a different product to enable you add help to your package. Now if you are VFP 6 Programmer, perhaps Microsoft Help Workshop (Winhelp) was installed as part of the Visual Studio 6 tools group but you will quickly find that Microsoft Help Workshop is deprecated technology as a result of which Winhelp is not installed with Versions of Windows beginning With Windows Vista and Windows 7. Your Winhelp based files will have to be redone with HTML Help Studio or you will have to find a way of packaging Winhelp.exe (this is the old help viewer) with your applicant by yourself or you will have to leave your application on Windows XP (not a very attractive option is it?) On Windows Vista and Windows 7, you will find that HTML Help Viewer is installed by default.
This leaves us with the earliest form of Help files known to VFP Developers – the dbf style help! You will find little or no mention of this type of help on the VFP 9 help files. I suppose this is done on purpose to encourage VFP Developers to migrate to more modern generations of Microsoft Help technologies, and this may actually be a good thing in one way for why should VFP applications not look as modern as an application authored with any of the other Microsoft so-called ‘recommended developer tools’?
The lack of information on dbf-style help on the VFP 9 online help files does not indicate lack of support for dbf style help in VFP 9. For example, you can still use SET HELP TO command to indicate a dbf-style help file that is to be used with your VFP 9 application. The only major problem that newer VFP 9 developers will encounter in this regard is lack of information on how to go about putting these help files together. The Online help file that ships with Visual FoxPro 6/Visual Studio 6 provides step by step instructions on how to do this.
Recommendations for building and integrating Help files with VFP 9 applications:
Creating Help for Microsoft Help for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Applications part 1: Overview of what is involved
Published by Sylvester Alelele. October 1, 2010
Page | 3
In Microsoft parlance, both dbf style help and Winhelp are considered deprecated technologies and Microsoft will recommend using HTML Help. As a VFP 9 developer, we recommend you consider using dbf style help or HTML Help for your help projects and simply forget Winhelp. Our case for either Option is set our below:
The case for dbf Style Help: The dbf style help is native to Visual FoxPro and should therefore come naturally for VFP developers. When using dbf style help, you need not worry about issues of deprecated technology as is the case with Winhelp or earlier versions of HTML help. This also means that your help file will work with your VFP application on any platform that your VFP application will run. Perhaps the challenge for the VFP community will be to polish up dbf style help to accommodate graphics (the one drawback of this style of help) and perhaps create a special help viewer for it. Since Microsoft has announced that they will be no VFP 10, it follows that we should not expect Microsoft to offer compatibility with future Microsoft Help technologies when HTML Help Studio 4 becomes deprecated technology. How much better then to have a help system that is under the control of VFP developers that can be easily extended to meet the needs of the VFP community. This extensions could even include publishing to the Web. The richness of the VFP language allows us to do these things, including building a completely new help system. if you are a VFP developer, we recommend the use of dbf style help without hesitation.
The Case for HTML Help: HTML Help is Microsof’s latest generation help system. Building your help files with HTML Help workshop allows you to package a modern help file comparable to any help file packaged with Visual Studio 2008 applications or to bring your help system to the Web. This allows your application to be modern and to compare in functionality with applications created with other developer tools. However, you must download the HTML Help workshop from the Microsoft Web Site and learn to use it. You must also be on the lookout for the day that Microsoft decides that HTML Help Workshop is no longer the way forward to package help with Windows applications. If you must be modern then use HTML Help Workshop. The latest version of it should be version 4.74.
Conclusion:
Visual FoxPro developers will have two key options on how to package help with their application. They can use the older dbf-style help because it is reliable and native to VFP and runs the risk of being deprecated only if Microsoft creates a VFP 10. You can use the HTML Help Workshop simply because it is the most modern iteration of Microsoft Help technology and your VFP applications should look and feel as modern and cool as an application authored with any other developer tool. In any case, if and when new help technology arrives, VFP developers may find a way to integrate VFP with those new help technologies…who knows? We VFP Developers have always been a pretty self reliant bunch!
Creating Help for Microsoft Help for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Applications part 1: Overview of what is involved
Published by Sylvester Alelele. October 1, 2010
Page | 4
We do not recommend use of Winhelp because it is deprecated technology! Winhelp is no longer installed with Windows Vista nor is it installed with Windows 7 so your Winhelp files will not work on these operating systems unless if you a find a way to package Winhelp.exe with your application. If you have authored a help file with Winhelp, HTML Workshop provides guidance on how to migrate your existing Winhelp based files to HTML Help workshop. Part 2 of this article series will examine how to integrate a dbf style help system with a Visual FoxPro 9 application.
