124273 - RDF-ification of the help system

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Help Documentation, defect)

Description

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Help system should be more dynamic than it is now, and determine which content
to load based on what components are available. RDF-ification in patch to be
posted here shortly also provides a client-side search capability, some
sidebar-like panels on the left, and better use of templates there as well.

See spec at URL above for more info.

Comment 1

[rudman]

Setting nsbeta1+, 0.9.9 milestone. 

Comment 2

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: update for help system: rdfification

Updated patch from 67376: this one has been cleaned up, includes the fix for
the retired outlinerbody stuff (so now it works), includes some cleaning out of
the old, no-longer-used help files, has an updated toc and index.

Comment 3

[Joe Hewitt (gone)]

Comment on attachment 68454 [details] [diff] [review]
update for help system: rdfification

r=hewitt
sr=waterson (from earlier)

Comment 4

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: update to UI to get context sensitive help

We also have to change references to help.js to contextHelp.js in the UI where
openHelp() is being called. This patch is an update for all the places in
security that need the update. Working on the dozen or so others.

Comment 5

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: same thing for the editor dialogs that get context-sensitive help

This patch updates all references to help.js in the editor dialogs.

Comment 6

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: the real editor dialog update

actually, scratch that. This one is the real one. The syntax for opening help
has changed too: the function does not need to include the url anymore.

Comment 7

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: re-update in security: syntax change for openHelp

sigh...another update. This includes the help.js->contextHelp.js updates I made
in security but also has the update for the syntax of openHelp, which now
*doesn't* want to old url to the help window, chrome://help/content/help.xul,
but *does* want the key by itself of a full url like this:
chrome://help/locale/mozillahelp.rdf?key, where mozillahelp.rdf is the rdf file
at the top of the help system that spells out what content is available.

Comment 8

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: yet another patch (YAP)

update to preferences dialog: hooks context sensitive help back up post help
check-in

Comment 9

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: updating the AccountManager dialog for cs help

I think this is the last one we need: the AccountManger dialog also needs to be
updated to ask for help in the right way (i.e., without the
chrome://help/content/help.xul) and from the right file (contextHelp.js).

Comment 10

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Jag - Can I have your practiced eye on these updates to spots in the UI where
help is being asked for with context? I had to update the file that gets
included (contextHelp.js) and the syntax of openHelp(). 

Comment 11

[John Morrison]

Hey, Ian. Can you remove the 'xmlns:html' from the window element in 
'help.xul'. One, it's not needed, and two, the namespace 'REC-html40' is 
long obsolete.

Comment 12

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Roger, John. I'll pull it out next time I go in with an update. Thanks.

Comment 13

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: update to context-sensitive help: openHelp() takes a topic param or nothing; setHelpFileURI is used to specify other help content sets.

Comment 14

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: big patch that includes all the changes we need in the help viewer

This patch fixes the following bugs in one big schmear:

128098
128360
129061
92412
107188
130346

Comment 15

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

adding dependencies for a group of open bugs that need review

Comment 16

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

adding the anchor bug as a dependency. Navigation in the help viewer is pretty
well broken without link->anchors working.

Comment 17

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: some refinements to sooperpatch

the displayIndex() function uses jan varga's iteration instead of my own clumsy
go-to-a-big-number version, and the isMatch() function for checking RE's has
been cleaned up (but not actually changed).

Comment 18

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

adding the panel-sorting bug as a dependency. Patch in that bug adjusts the
attributes on the outliner for different panels.

Comment 19

[Blake Ross]

Looks good. Glad to see the search database. I was getting annoyed at the 
incoherent results that the current find returns.  What's the bug to expand the 
contents of the search database?

+  // search additional search datasources	
+  if (searchDatasources != "rdf:null") {
+  		if (!searchDS)
+			searchDS = loadCompositeDS(searchDatasources);
+	  doFindOnDatasource(resultsDS, searchDS, RDF_ROOT, 0);
+  }

Remove the tabs there.

+  //outliner = document.getElementById("help-index-outliner");
+  //sourceDS = outliner.database;
+  //if (!sourceDS) // If the index has never been displayed this will be null 
(sigh!).
+  //  sourceDS = loadCompositeDS(outliner.datasources);
+  //doFindOnDatasource(resultsDS, sourceDS, RDF_ROOT, 0);

Why is this commented out? Do you intend to uncomment it later?

-    if (!RE[i].test(text))
+    if (!RE[i].test(text))  

Unnecessary change.

What is the purpose of displayIndex? The comment doesn't really tell me. Is it 
supposed to close all the open toplevel help topics when you go to the index, 
or something?  If so, why?  Why only those and not open children?  And

+      var rowCount = oview.rowCount;
+      oview.toggleOpenState(i);
+      i = i + oview.rowCount - rowCount;

Isn't that last statement equivalent to i = i?

<button id="findButton" label="&gobtn.label;" oncommand="doFind()" flex="0"/>

This should have default="true" specified.

Comment 20

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Attachment: new sooperpatch based on blake's feedback

removed tabs, redid index-opening function (and added explanation in comments),
added sorting of search results (and unsorting of glossary results) from patch
in 131204, which you were asking about, added default=true to find button,
removed commented-out index-searching code.

Comment 21

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Blake
Thanks for looking at this! Here is a new version of the patch that includes the
sorting stuff from 131204 and the fixes you describe.

Comment 22

[Joe Hewitt (gone)]

Comment on attachment 75628 [details] [diff] [review]
new sooperpatch based on blake's feedback

sr=hewitt, contingent on fixing these nits:

Don't hard-code keyCode values like 13, use the constants in KeyEvent.DOM_VK_*,
see nsIDOMKeyEvent.idl

If you're incrementing a variable and don't need to store the previous value,
use ++i instead of i++

Comment 23

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Thanks Joe! I will put the changes you mention in. Now, Blake, if you can
r=blake it, I'll get all this stuff in in time for the help system usability
test that is scheduled for Thursday morning.

Comment 24

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Comment on attachment 75628 [details] [diff] [review]
new sooperpatch based on blake's feedback

author=pwilson, r=oeschger. There! Hewitt's suggested fixes are in. Has review.
Most of the search functionality is Peter's anyway, and he and I have been over
this code a dozen times.

Comment 25

[Ian Oeschger (gone)]

Help system rdf-ified. Marking FIXED.

Comment 26

[Terri Preston]

Indeed it is, marking verified as of win xp build 2002041206