Categories: How To | S60

This page was last modified 06:55, 25 September 2007.

From Forum Nokia Wiki

This acticle is intented to give general overview about how to create context-sensitive (CS) help files for S60.

Basics

• Context-sensitive help document is represented as a compiled resource file. This file can be read and rendered by Help (S60) application that is part of the SDK and included in all phones. (Applications can invoke this Help application to display context-sensitive help.)
• A tool called "CS Help compiler" is part of the S60 SDK and can be invoked by Epoc32\tools\cshlpcmp.bat <params>.
• CS Help compiler creates help files based on information contained in a project file (*.cshlp). The project file holds references to all input data required to generate the compiled help file (*.hlp)
• Help files consist of a number of topics. Each topics have content (title, body, etc.) and an identifier. The topic identifier can be used by applications to invoke the right help page.

Input files

The help project file references to the following resources:

• CS Help rich-text source file (rtf). It contains all text to be compiled to the help file. Paragraph styles are recognised by the CS Help compiler.
• Images can be also compiled into CS Help by CS Help compiler. The location of the images must be specified in the project file and referenced in the rtf file
• It is also possible to specify a Customisation file in Help project file. It enables customizing the look and feel of the compiled Help document

Output files

The Help compiler generates the following files.

• Compiled CS Help

Help files must be copied to \resource\help directory on the phone and have the extension "hlp".

• Context header

This file contains a list of string constants that enables applications to invoke certain topics.

More info, links

Help file usage

• CS Help Reference - information about help related file formats
• CS-Help Guide - a very detailed step-by-step guide to create context-sensitive help
• S60 SDK contains a minimal sample application under S60Ex\HelpExample

Known Issues

Known issues with context-sensitive help