Providing online help for
users
Two ways to call help from an
application
PowerBuilder provides two principal ways of calling an online help
file from a PowerBuilder application:
-
Use the ShowHelp and ShowPopupHelp PowerScript functions in your
application scripts to call help topics. -
Declare the HTML Help API as an external function and use the
HTMLHelp function in your application scripts to call help
topics.
Using ShowHelp
ShowHelp is simpler to implement than the HTML Help API. You can use
the ShowHelp PowerScript function to search for help topics by help
context ID, by keyword, and by accessing the help file Contents topic (the
topic defined in the project file as the Help Contents topic).
ShowHelp can also be used with compiled WinHelp (.hlp) files.
ShowPopupHelp displays pop-up help for a control. Typically, you use
ShowPopupHelp in the Help event of a response window with the Context Help
property enabled. Events relating to movement of the cursor over a control
or to the dragging of a control or object are also logical places for a
ShowPopupHelp call.
For more information on the ShowHelp and ShowPopupHelp functions as
well as the Help event, see the section called “ShowHelp” in PowerScript Reference, the section called “ShowPopupHelp” in PowerScript Reference, the section called “Help” in PowerScript Reference.
Using the HTML Help API
Declaring and using the HTML Help API allows access to the full
range of HTMLHelp functions, many of which are not available in ShowHelp.
For example, using the HTMLHelp function, you can easily specify a window
type or window name in which to present a help topic.
To declare the HTML Help API as an external function:
-
Select Declare>Global External Functions from the menu bar of
any painter that accesses the Script view. -
Enter the function declaration in the text box and click
OK.This example declares the HTML Help API:
1234FUNCTION long HtmlHelpW(long hWndMain, &string lpszHelp, long uCommand, &long dwData) &LIBRARY "hhctrl.ocx"
For more information about the HTML Help API, see the online help
for the Microsoft Help Workshop or the documentation for your help
authoring tool. For more information about declaring and using global
external functions, see the section called “Declaring external functions” in PowerScript Reference and Using external
functions.