[LON-CAPA-dev] Help text

Fri, 03 May 2002 17:42:40 -0400

Dear Guy:

3 cans of worms here...

This is a brief synopsis of help screen effort.

worm-can #1: where in /home/httpd/html do the documents reside?
and where in CVS?

...currently the status is...
<file>
<source>loncom/html/adm/help/searchcat.html</source>
<target dist='default'>home/httpd/html/adm/help/searchcat.html</target>
<categoryname>interface file</categoryname>
<description>
Help page for the search engine.
</description>
</file>

worm-can #2: what do the help pages look like?
...currently the status is...

And the vision was that every help page have the following
template of beginning html code.

<body bgcolor='#ffffff'>
<a name='helptop' />
<img align='right' src='/adm/lonIcons/lonhelplogos.gif' />
<h1>Search Catalog</h1>
<hr />
<form>
<input type='button' onClick='self.close()' value='Close this help
window' />
</form>

worm-can #3: It would be nice to automagically construct
indexes of the help pages, not just for the interface, but
also for the underyling code documentation.
I do have some code which does this nicely for 
POD sets, but have yet to incorporate.

(Ideally, the interface help pages would streamline nicely
down the vertical partition toward the actual documented
code base.  But...priorities...priorities..)

Practically speaking... umm... searchcat.html is the only
online interface help page so far.

I remember a little debate and indecision regarding
creating httpd/html/adm/help versus
httpd/html/res/help versus httpd/html/help etc.

There was even the discussion and undecided issue as to
whether or not the public should be able to look at the
interface help screens.  Or, should only the LON-CAPA login
users see the help screens

So... to answer your question... kinda sorta yes
there are directories for help pages.

Regards,
Scott

Guy Albertelli II wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I wanted to create some webpages of help text to integrate into
> LON-CAPA
> 
> do we have a directory for help webpages yet?
> 
> --
> albertel@msu.edu        BM: n^20 t20 z20 qS
> Guy Albertelli -7-8-7-  O-
>     My personal happiness depends on the suffering of others.
> _______________________________________________
> LON-CAPA-dev mailing list
> LON-CAPA-dev@mail.lon-capa.org
> http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-dev

-- 
Scott Harrison -- Graduate Student
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Mich. State. Univ., East Lansing, MI
harris41@msu.edu, 517-353-0998