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displaying Help documentation

Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2015 5:17 pm
by stevek2
Is there a way to use Jade method showHelp to display local html files from an application defined folder (on presentation client)?

I note from Jade documentation that showHelp only shows html file if the URL begin with http:// (or https://), however I would like to use file:/// to force local browser to the nominated folder (some of our customer sites do not allow access to C: drive folders)

I am experimenting with document authoring in different output formats trialling which works the easiest
Prefer to avoid the older style .chm files and rather work with latest (responsive) html output

Steve

Re: displaying Help documentation

Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 10:38 am
by BeeJay
You may be able to get this to work using _shellExecute to open the users default browser along the lines of the following:

Code: Select all

call _shellExecute( self.hwnd, "open", app.helpFile & self.helpKeyword, null, null, 1 );
You'd probably want code to make sure app.helpFile and self.helpKeyword are non null and app.helpFile is set to an appropriate base directory etc.

Note: If you're running in a Unicode Jade system, you'd use _shellExecuteUnicode instead of _shellExecute for the call statement.

Cheers,
BeeJay.

Re: displaying Help documentation

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 7:43 am
by stevek2
Thanks BeeJay

That answers two questions
1. call help file manually (though prefer Jade add this as a possible future feature to showHelp method)
2. was always wondering how to execute shell commands - now I know!

Appreciated

Re: displaying Help documentation

Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 9:22 am
by Jade Support
Please note that the RootSchema external functions _shellExecute and _shellExecuteUnicode are both unpublished and unsupported, and subject to change without notice.

If you want to call the Windows ShellExecute API you should create your own External Function definition. Alternatively, you could consider using supported JADE methods such as the example below.

This example opens the default browser for an htm file on the local hard drive.

result := node.createExternalProcess(null, "explorer C:\work\sample.htm", null, null, true, false, returnCode);

Regards,
Jade Support