The ARK Help System - Revision history

Guy: /* Item level */

2014-07-04T17:04:09Z

‎Item level

Guy at 16:56, 4 July 2014

2014-07-04T16:56:38Z

Guy at 16:04, 4 July 2014

2014-07-04T16:04:58Z

Jessogden: /* Configuring the subform */

2014-06-25T15:29:28Z

‎Configuring the subform

Stuarteve at 14:46, 9 June 2014

2014-06-09T14:46:25Z

Stuarteve: Created page with "As of version 1.2 - a field-level help system has been introduced to ARK. The help system works by using the Markup system to attach chunks of Markup to specific fields. The..."

2014-06-09T14:38:51Z

Created page with "As of version 1.2 - a field-level help system has been introduced to ARK. The help system works by using the Markup system to attach chunks of Markup to specific fields. The..."

New page

As of version 1.2 - a field-level help system has been introduced to ARK.

The help system works by using the [[Markup]] system to attach chunks of Markup to specific fields. There is very little configuration needed to enable the help system.

A new subform conf will need to be entered in the settings.php file:

<pre>

$conf_mcd_help =
array(
'view_state' => 'max',
'edit_state' => 'view',
'sf_nav_type' => 'nmedit',
'sf_title' => 'help',
'sf_html_id' => 'help', // Must be unique
'script' => 'php/subforms/sf_help.php',
'op_modtype' => FALSE, //if each modtype uses same fields (see below)
'fields' =>
array(
)
);

</pre>

This needs to be named $conf_mcd_help, otherwise the help system will not be able to find it. The subform has one 'op' value that can be applied:

'op_textile' => TRUE

If this op is specified, then the help will be printed using the Textile tool - which means it can be used to print complex formatted HTML (along with images, etc.). For more information on Textile see this link: http://txstyle.org/

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 ==Item level==
-Turn on op_help in the record nav, so that would be $conf_entry_nav for the data entry pages. This will enable the help button in the record nav and set up the help to work properly.
+Turn on op_help in the config array for the record nav: that would be $conf_entry_nav for the data entry pages. This will enable the help button in the record nav and set up the help to work properly.
 This will then try to find markup with a nickname for that page view and that type of item:

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 The help is displayed using a subform (sf_help.php) which can be either placed "inline" in the page or within an overlay. By default the help buttons fire an overlay, javascript is required to show or hide the inline help panels
-By default, help is OFF. You enable help using op_help at all 4 help levels.
+By default, help is OFF. You enable help at all 4 help levels as follows.
-* Page Level - in page settings (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
+==Page Level==
-Beyond this, there is very little configuration needed to enable the help system. The most important thing is to configure an sf_conf:
+In the page settings (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
-==Configuring the subform==
+==Item level==
 A new subform conf will need to be entered in the page_settings.php file:
@@ Line 47: / Line 70: @@
 If this op is specified, then the help will be printed using the Textile tool - which means it can be used to print complex formatted HTML (along with images, etc.). For more information on Textile see this link: http://txstyle.org/
 ==Other things to bear in mind==
-The help uses the Markup system to attach the help to the fields. Therefore, the contents of the help can either be edited directly from the help subform - or using the Markup Admin tools. By default the system assumes the nickname of the markup is 'help_' concatenated onto whatever the field_id is. For instance, the help for a field with id 'conf_field_description' would be 'help_conf_field_description'. It is possible to specify a different nickname, by including the option 'op_help_nname' in the field and setting a new nickname.
+The help uses the Markup system to attach the help to the fields. Therefore, the contents of the help at the subform level can either be edited directly from the help subform - or using the Markup Admin tools. By default the system assumes the nickname of the markup is 'help_' concatenated onto whatever the field_id is. For instance, the help for a field with id 'conf_field_description' would be 'help_conf_field_description'. It is possible to specify a different nickname, by including the option 'op_help_nname' in the field and setting a new nickname.
 As the names for the nicknames of the markup are usually help_ prefixed on the name of the field -  the length of the nname field in cor_tbl_markup maybe too short. If you get an Error when updating or adding help related to the size of the field in the database then run this SQL command to fix it:

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-As of version 1.2 - a field-level help system has been introduced to ARK.
+As of version 1.2 - a contextual help system has been introduced to ARK.
-The help system works by using the [[Markup]] system to attach chunks of Markup to specific fields. There is very little configuration needed to enable the help system.
+The help system works by using the [[Markup]] system to display help relevant to the context. There are 4 contexts in which help might be displayed, these are:
 ==Configuring the subform==
@@ Line 33: / Line 49: @@
 ==Configuring the navigation==
-The help is currently launched using an icon in the title bar of the subform that contains the fields you want help for. This is setup in the sf_conf 'sf_nav_type' configuration option. Currently the help icon will appear when sf_nav_type is set to 'full' or 'help'.
+The help is launched using an icon (anchor tag) in the title bar of the area you want help for (eg the record nav or the sf nav).
 ==Other things to bear in mind==

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 ==Configuring the subform==
-A new subform conf will need to be entered in the settings.php file:
+A new subform conf will need to be entered in the page_settings.php file:
 <pre>