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Posted to dev@netbeans.apache.org by Jaroslav Tulach <ja...@gmail.com> on 2017/11/09 08:07:58 UTC
Alternative JavaHelp viewer was: Give JavaHelp a chance!
Hello Jan.
2017-11-09 0:17 GMT+01:00 Jan Tosovsky <j....@email.cz>:
> Btw, what is the source for NetBeans help?
>
XML files. Like those at https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/tree/
master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide
>
> Some content is now distributed as JavaHelp, some is hosted here:
> https://docs.oracle.com/netbeans/nb82/netbeans/NBDAG/gs_
> nbeans.htm#NBDAG111
>
> From my point of view:
>
> JavaHelp
> + context sensitive help
> + search capabilities
> - HTML 3.2 with very limited CSS support
> - ugly UI
>
JavaHelp is an old unmaintained crap. That is for sure. On the other hand
it is a standard defining format that users of NetBeans Platform use to
register their own help sets.
> HTML based help (e.g. DocBook WebHelp)
> + HTML5, responsivity
> + search capabilities using Lucene search index
> - context sensitive help needs a special handling:
> (a) a special mapping 'context ID -> URL' is required
>
The mapping is defined by JavaHelp XML files like https://github.com/apache/
incubator-netbeans/blob/master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide/map.xml
and
https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/blob/master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide/ide.hs
<https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/blob/master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide/map.xml>
> (b) as opening a browser and passing an URL with a fragment identifier
> is buggy in Java, a special strategy has to be employed
>
> If the help source was DocBook, that WebHelp output could be generated
> quite 'easily'. But in this case I'd rather recommend my fork (yet to be
> distributed on GitHub) without jQuery/jQueryUI dependencies and with some
> additional features (responsivity, breadcrumb).
>
If we could process the existing .hs and map.xml registration files, then I
would more than welcome replacement of the ugly JavaHelp UI with something
more fresh.
-jt
Re: Alternative JavaHelp viewer was: Give JavaHelp a chance!
Posted by Oliver Rettig <Ol...@orat.de>.
Hi,
are there better alternatives for JavaHelp for usage of HelpSets in netbeans-
platform-based apps?
For existing platform apps migrating to version 9 it should be easy to add the
old JavaHelpSystem sice there is established an alternative to migrate, isnt
it?
best regards
Oliver
> Hello Jan.
>
> 2017-11-09 0:17 GMT+01:00 Jan Tosovsky <j....@email.cz>:
> > Btw, what is the source for NetBeans help?
>
> XML files. Like those at https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/tree/
> master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide
>
> > Some content is now distributed as JavaHelp, some is hosted here:
> > https://docs.oracle.com/netbeans/nb82/netbeans/NBDAG/gs_
> > nbeans.htm#NBDAG111
> >
> > From my point of view:
> >
> > JavaHelp
> > + context sensitive help
> > + search capabilities
> > - HTML 3.2 with very limited CSS support
> > - ugly UI
>
> JavaHelp is an old unmaintained crap. That is for sure. On the other hand
> it is a standard defining format that users of NetBeans Platform use to
> register their own help sets.
>
> > HTML based help (e.g. DocBook WebHelp)
> > + HTML5, responsivity
> > + search capabilities using Lucene search index
> >
> > - context sensitive help needs a special handling:
> > (a) a special mapping 'context ID -> URL' is required
>
> The mapping is defined by JavaHelp XML files like https://github.com/apache/
> incubator-netbeans/blob/master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/use
> rsguide/map.xml and
> https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/blob/master/usersguide/javahelp
> /org/netbeans/modules/usersguide/ide.hs
> <https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/blob/master/usersguide/javahe
> lp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide/map.xml>
> > (b) as opening a browser and passing an URL with a fragment identifier
> >
> > is buggy in Java, a special strategy has to be employed
> >
> > If the help source was DocBook, that WebHelp output could be generated
> > quite 'easily'. But in this case I'd rather recommend my fork (yet to be
> > distributed on GitHub) without jQuery/jQueryUI dependencies and with some
> > additional features (responsivity, breadcrumb).
>
> If we could process the existing .hs and map.xml registration files, then I
> would more than welcome replacement of the ugly JavaHelp UI with something
> more fresh.
> -jt
Re: Alternative JavaHelp viewer was: Give JavaHelp a chance!
Posted by Geertjan Wielenga <ge...@googlemail.com>.
But I would suggest we leave these ideas for later and remove JavaHelp
(jhall.jar and jsearch.jar) for the moment, so that we can release 9.0
Alpha, and also because JavaHelp is probably the least important feature of
Apache NetBeans.
Gj
On Thu, 9 Nov 2017 at 09:08, Jaroslav Tulach <ja...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello Jan.
>
> 2017-11-09 0:17 GMT+01:00 Jan Tosovsky <j....@email.cz>:
>
> > Btw, what is the source for NetBeans help?
> >
>
> XML files. Like those at
> https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/tree/
> master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide
> <https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/tree/master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide>
>
>
> >
> > Some content is now distributed as JavaHelp, some is hosted here:
> > https://docs.oracle.com/netbeans/nb82/netbeans/NBDAG/gs_
> > nbeans.htm#NBDAG111
> >
> > From my point of view:
> >
> > JavaHelp
> > + context sensitive help
> > + search capabilities
> > - HTML 3.2 with very limited CSS support
> > - ugly UI
> >
>
> JavaHelp is an old unmaintained crap. That is for sure. On the other hand
> it is a standard defining format that users of NetBeans Platform use to
> register their own help sets.
>
>
> > HTML based help (e.g. DocBook WebHelp)
> > + HTML5, responsivity
> > + search capabilities using Lucene search index
> > - context sensitive help needs a special handling:
> > (a) a special mapping 'context ID -> URL' is required
> >
>
> The mapping is defined by JavaHelp XML files like
> https://github.com/apache/
>
> incubator-netbeans/blob/master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide/map.xml
> <https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/blob/master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide/map.xml>
> and
>
> https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/blob/master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide/ide.hs
> <
> https://github.com/apache/incubator-netbeans/blob/master/usersguide/javahelp/org/netbeans/modules/usersguide/map.xml
> >
>
>
> > (b) as opening a browser and passing an URL with a fragment identifier
> > is buggy in Java, a special strategy has to be employed
> >
> > If the help source was DocBook, that WebHelp output could be generated
> > quite 'easily'. But in this case I'd rather recommend my fork (yet to be
> > distributed on GitHub) without jQuery/jQueryUI dependencies and with some
> > additional features (responsivity, breadcrumb).
> >
>
> If we could process the existing .hs and map.xml registration files, then I
> would more than welcome replacement of the ugly JavaHelp UI with something
> more fresh.
> -jt
>