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Oracle Help does not include a complete authoring environment. While it is fairly straightforward to author a help system without using an authoring tool, you may prefer to use a tool that supports Oracle Help directly, such as eHelp Corporation's RoboHelp or AuthorIT Software Corporation's AuthorIT.
Because Oracle Help's file formats are based on Sun Microsystems JavaHelp file formats, you could also start with any authoring tool that creates JavaHelp systems. However, you will have to add features specific to Oracle Help manually. Oracle Help also supports the control file formats from Microsoft's HTML Help 1.x, so you could start with a help authoring tool that supports HTML Help. Again, you will have to add any Oracle Help-specific features manually.
Oracle Help for Java (OHJ) and Oracle Help for the Web (OHW) use the same file formats, so you can author a help system once and display it without modification in both OHJ and OHW.
This topic contains the following sections:
The basic steps for authoring an Oracle Help help system are as follows. For more information about the files mentioned, follow the links to the file formats section of this Guide.
Write the HTML pages that comprise the topics of your help system.
Create a helpset file. This XML file identifies the help system and specifies many of its properties, including certain aspects of the user interface. For example, this is where you specify which "navigators" (generally displayed as tabs) are displayed. The standard navigators are Contents, Index, and Search. This is the main Oracle Help control file, and it is required.
Create a map file. This XML file maps topic IDs to HTML pages. These IDs are used in the API for context-sensitive calls; in table-of-contents, index, and link files; and in topic ID links in topic files. This file is required.
Create an index file. This XML file defines the keyword index that appears in the Index tab. If your help system does not have an index, this file is not required. However, if you don't have an index, you should not define an index tab in the helpset file.
Create a table of contents file. This XML file defines the table of contents that appears in the Contents tab. If your help system does not have a table of contents, this file is not required. However, if you don't have a table of contents, you should not define a Contents tab in the helpset file.
Generate a search index. This file contains the data used when a user searches for a word or phrase in the Search tab. This file is optional. However, if you don't have a text search index, you should not define a Search tab in the helpset file. If you aren't using an authoring tool to create your help system, you can use the indexing tool, which is included with Oracle Help. See Using the Text Search Indexer.
If you want to use associative links, create a link file. This XML file associates topics with associative link keywords. This file is optional.
Two authoring utilities are included with Oracle Help for Java. You can use these tools to help author an Oracle Help system if you don't have an authoring tool that supports Oracle Help. Follow the links below for more information on each:
Helpset Authoring Wizard. This wizard converts certain noncompatible help content and control files into files that can be used by Oracle Help. For example, you can use the wizard to create an Oracle Help system from files generated by RoboHelp 2000 for Microsoft HTML Help.
Text search indexer. This utility generates the search index file used in Oracle Help when a user searches on a word or phrase in the Search tab.
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