Using help sets in a web browser

According to the JavaHelp specification, the topics of your documentation project are stored in HTML format. They are commonly usable with any web browser. Additional information from your project however, such as the table of contents, is stored in XML format. To view a help set including a table of contents tree in a web browser requires some extra work.

HelpExpert takes this extra work from you and automatically produces help sets ready to use with nothing more than a web browser.

To open a help set with a web browser

Example

If your help set was saved to c:\data\docs\myhelpset the URL to open from your browser would be file:c:/data/docs/myhelpset/index.htm

The process in detail

When producing a help set as described in 'Creating help sets', HelpExpert adds three files to the target directory:

Important: Upon installation of HelpExpert, file JavaHelpTOC.jar is created in the directory HelpExpert was installed to. Above process only works if this file always is kept in the directory, application HelpExpert is stored in.

Note that at the client using a web browser to view a help set, nothing more is required than above files. There is no need to distribute the JavaHelp runtime environment or other component to a client machine. Only a Java enabled web browser is required.

Advanced users can adjust above mentioned files to their individual needs. If, for instance in a corporate intranet, applets always are stored at a central location, file JavaHelpTOC.jar can be moved from the help set directory to that central location and file toc.htm can be adjusted accordingly.