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The OHJ Navigator Window

The navigator window is a tabbed control for navigating and finding topics in the help system. By default, the navigator window contains tabs for a Contents, Index, and Search. Authors can control several characteristics of the navigator window simply by setting parameters for the help system. For example, you can change the labels on the tabs and add icons. You could also display multiple tables of contents, for example, one for product help and one for a tutorial. For a more complex system, a Java programmer can create custom tabs, and the author can add them to the navigator window.

This topic contains the following sections:

• Contents Tab
• Index Tab
• Search Tab
• Custom Navigator Tabs

Contents Tab

The following illustration shows the navigator window with the Contents tab selected. The topics are displayed in a hierarchical tree. The contents and structure of the tree are specified by the author. Multiple file formats are supported for defining the tree.

When a user double-clicks a topic title in the table of contents, that topic is displayed in the topic window. The user may also open a topic in a new (additional) topic window, by selecting a button on the toolbar or by selecting a command from the right-click menu.

The table of contents has the following features:

• The item selected (highlighted) in the table of contents is automatically synchronized to the topic shown in the topic window. For example, if you click a hyperlink in a topic and jump to a new topic, the selection in the table of contents switches from the old topic to the new one.
• Unlimited levels of hierarchy are allowed.
• The list of items in the navigator window can be printed.

Index Tab

The following illustration shows the navigator window with the Index tab selected. The index is an alphabetical list of keywords associated with topics. The keywords are defined by the help author, and, like the table of contents, multiple file formats are supported for specifying the list.

The process for using the index is described below. The numbers in the list correspond to the numbers called out in the illustration below.

1. Text entry field. The user types a word or words in this field.
2. Keyword list. As the user types, the first keyword in the list that matches the typed letters is selected. As more letters are typed, a more accurate selection is made. Alternatively, the user can simply select a keyword from this list.
3. Topic list.The titles of any topics that are associated with the keyword selected in step 2 are displayed in this list. When the user double-clicks one of these titles, the topic is displayed in the topic window.

The index has the following features:

• One keyword can be associated with many topics, and many keywords can be associated with a single topic.
• Two levels of indenting are supported.
• When merging helpsets, one unified index is created with proper alphabetization for the entire index. (In other words, the entries are merged and resorted; they are not concatenated.)
• Indexes are properly alphabetized when translated into languages other than that used to create the index.
• Identical entries are collapsed to show only one.

Search Tab

The following illustration shows the navigator window with the Search tab selected. When a user types a word or phrase into the text field and selects Search, the titles of topics whose content contains that word or phrase are listed in the Results list at the bottom of the tab. When the user double-clicks a title, that topic appears in the topic window.

Users can set the following options when performing a search:

• Respect or ignore the case of letters in the search words (that is, turn case-sensitivity on or off).
• Only list topics that contain all the search words or at least one of the search words.
• Search based on a Boolean expression (AND, OR).

Search also has the following features:

• Results are ranked according to how well they match the search criteria.
• Previously entered search criteria are saved and can be displayed in a drop-down list.
• Results list the title of the topic and its source.
• Users can sort results by rank, topic title, or topic source.

The search database is generated when authoring the help system. The OHJDK (as well as authoring tools that support OHJ) includes a utility for generating this database, caled the Text Search Indexer. The search database uses an Oracle-defined file format. This search database is always used when you implement it on the client. You can also implement your own search on a server. For example, if you store your topics in an Oracle database, you can use the database's text processing capabilities to perform the search. (Note: You do not have to have an Oracle database to use OHJ.)

Custom Navigator Tabs

Among other features, the OHJ API allows you to customize the default OHJ user interface. For example, you can program custom tabs (called "navigators") in Java and add them to the navigator window. For example, you could provide a custom tab for Education, as shown in the illustration below.

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