OHJ vs JavaHelp

My company is evaluating whether to commit to JavaHelp or OracleHelp for a long-term help system delivery standard. I've built a couple of help systems for each using WebWorks and, for JH, the Oracle Help Wiz. At this point it appears to me the main advantages of OHJ over JH are that OHJ has better image rendering support and better CSS support. On the other hand, OHJ seems to have a much smaller user base, so I wonder about future support. I'm also not clear on the status of Sun's JH development--although they stopped developing a while back, I have heard that they plan to start developing again. I'd like to hear any comments from others who have evaluated/implemented both, in terms of product comparison.
Thanks,
John Stewart
e-Security, Inc.

Hi, John.
A few other advantages of Oracle Help over Javahelp:
- We support JavaHelp file formats--plus we extended them to provide more features (see the Oracle Help Guide section called "Comparison to Javahelp File Formats" for information about we have that Javahelp doesn't)
- We also support our original file formats and MS HTML Help 1.x formats
- More features, including the ones we provide through our ICE, e.g., the topic-ID, popup, etc. protocols
- Better Java browser component, as Brian mentioned
- Ongoing development and proven accomplishments
- We provide a Java version and a web version (OHW of course), and the same helpsets work in both with little or no modification.
We've also got this forum you can use for support.

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Customizing OHJ for use in commercial application

My company is considering switching to OHJ from JavaHelp. I have converted our software to use OHJ for context sensitive help, but I have encountered some show-stopping problems - things we could do with JavaHelp we can't do with OHJ. It seems that OHJ does not expose as much as JavaHelp does when it comes to customizing the appearance of the GUI. Specifically -
1) We need to change the content of the menu bar to remove the "About" menu choice.
2) Also we need to control the title of the help screen(s). It seems this is possible for the Help Topic dialog via the .hs configuration (we'd prefer an API), but not for the Navigator dialog. Further, once the Help Topic is docked with the Navigator, custom titleing goes away and does not re-appear even after the two dialogs are undocked.
3) We need to be able to control the size and position of both dialogs when initially displayed, docked and undocked. There is a mechanism provided for the Help Topic dlg but not for the Navigator to do this, and again this only works when the two are displayed undocked. Of course we need to control the appearance in the initially docked position also, but the Navigator seems to provide no facility for this at all.
4) Similarly for colors, there seems to be only support for the Help Topic dlg to modify the colors and only via the .hs xml, not dynamically via an API.
Oracle has provided a nice help platform for the industry, but it seems the API does not expose enough customization control. Can you suggest any work arounds for us? We'd really like to use this product, but must be able to control the appearance. Thanks for any advice!

Hi Larph,
I use Proshow Producer with LR as well. Photodex have produced a free Lightroom Plug-in for Proshow that greatly simplifies the interface. Within LR, you can select various options for your slideshow, and LR will automatically export your selected photographs to Proshow, creating a new slideshow with your selected options. This works great for me.
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Migrating from JavaHelp to Oracle Help for Java

Currently we have a product in which we have implemented Sun Microsystem's JavaHelp as the Help delivery system. However, after evaluating Oracle Help for Java we would like to migrate from Javahelp to OHJ.
My question is, how difficult would this migration be from the Development side? I have been reviewing the Oracle Help for Java Developer's Guide and comparing it against the JavaHelp documentation but I haven't been able to get a clear idea of how different the implementation is.
Thanks,
Theresa

Hello Theresa,
Thanks for considering Oracle Help.
There isn't much you have to do with your source content and control files. With the exception of the full text search index, the Oracle Help control file formats (helpset, index, map, etc.) extend the JavaHelp formats. So you can use the JavaHelp control files as is, or you can extend them with the Oracle Help extensions. For a quick overview of differences, see the following page in the Oracle Help Guide:
1. Go to http://otn.oracle.com/ohguide/help/.
2. Click "Oracle Help File Formats."
3. Click "Comparision to Javahelp File Formats."
To create an Oracle Help full text search index, run through the Helpset Authoring Wizard and remove the existing JavaHelp search view and have the wizard generate an Oracle Help Search index
on the following wizard page. For the Helpset Authoring Wizard doc:
1. Go to http://otn.oracle.com/ohguide/help/.
2. Click "Authoring Oracle Help Systems."
3. Click "Using the HelpSet Authoring Wizard."
Alternatively, change the helpset file by hand. For the doc:
1. Go to http://otn.oracle.com/ohguide/help/.
2. Click "Oracle Help File Formats."
3. Click "Helpset File."
Then run the indexer. For doc:
1. Go to http://otn.oracle.com/ohguide/help/.
2. Click "Authoring Oracle Help Systems."
3. Click "Using the Full-text Search Indexer."
On the development side, the APIs are different, but they are also very
simple. You create a Help object, add HelpSets, and associate topic-ids
with java UI components using the CSHManager as described in the
Oracle Help Guide:
1. Go to http://otn.oracle.com/ohguide/help/.
2. Click "Oracle Help for Java Developer's Guide."

OHJ wintype

Hello,
A short question about the oracle help for java system. To change the appearance of the help window (the title, size and so on..) you are supposed to use settings within the <wintype> tag. But no matter what I do I cannot get my changes within the <wintype> tag to have an impact of the actual window that I gets.
I have tried to set the wintype as the default one and I have also tried to mark all the topics in the map file to use that wintype but my help window still looks the same.
Is there something that I have forgotten to do that makes the OHJ system to still use some default (in javahelp, for example, you have to call the method hs.createHelpBroker("name_of_help_win_type"), is there something similar in OHJ?
I uses context sensitive help and my window are docked by default.
Thanx in advance
Sandra

Hi again,
Now it seems to work when the Help object are created with the "dockedByDefault" parameter set to false, but not if I set it to true.
Is this a known problem or should it work even if the windows are docked by default?
Thanks for all the help.
Sandra

Error in JavaHelp

Hello:
I have JWS app I've been working on for a long time. I just added JavaHelp to it. I got it all working nicely on my local machine. When I went to deploy in JWS, I ran into a permission problem. JavaHelp is included as an extension, and I've set <security> to <all-permissions/> in both JNLPs, but I still get the following exception:
Parsing failed for null
Exception caught while parsing nulljava.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.util.PropertyPermission user.home read)
java.lang.NullPointerException
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  at javax.help.plaf.basic.BasicFavoritesNavigatorUI.installUI(BasicFavoritesNavigatorUI.java:235)
  at javax.swing.JComponent.setUI(JComponent.java:647)
  at javax.help.JHelpNavigator.setUI(JHelpNavigator.java:257)
  at javax.help.JHelpNavigator.updateUI(JHelpNavigator.java:276)
  at javax.help.JHelpNavigator.<init>(JHelpNavigator.java:105)
  at javax.help.JHelpFavoritesNavigator.<init>(JHelpFavoritesNavigator.java:62)
     ... more omitted
Here are my JNLP files:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jnlp spec="1.0+"
codebase="http://www.mydomain.com/"
href="mydomain.jnlp"
version="0.14">
  <information>
    <title>My Client</title>
    <vendor>MyCompany, LLC</vendor>
    <description>MyCompany rules.</description>
    <homepage href="http://mydomain.com"/>
    <offline-allowed/>
  </information>
  <resources>
    <jar href="mydomain.jar"/>
    <j2se version="1.5+" href="http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se"/>
    <extension name="Java Help" href="lib/javahelp.jnlp"/>
  </resources>
  <application-desc main-class="com.mydomain.core.Main"/>
  <security>
    <all-permissions/>
  </security>
</jnlp>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jnlp spec="1.0+"
codebase="http://www.digibunker.com/"
href="lib/javahelp.jnlp"
version="2.0">
  <information>
    <title>Java Help</title>
    <vendor>Sun Microsystems</vendor>
    <description>Java Help System.</description>
    <homepage href="http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/desktop/javahelp"/>
    <offline-allowed/>
  </information>
  <resources>
    <jar href="lib/jh.jar" download="lazy" part="JavaHelp" />
    <jar href="lib/jhall.jar" download="lazy" part="JavaHelp" />
    <jar href="lib/jhbasic.jar" download="lazy" part="JavaHelp" />
    <jar href="lib/jsearch.jar" download="lazy" part="JavaHelp" />
    <j2se version="1.5+" href="http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se"/>
  </resources>
  <component-desc>
  <security>
    <all-permissions/>
  </security>
</jnlp>
Any and all help welcomed.
Thanks, Dan
Edited by: dlamet on Jan 8, 2010 5:40 PM

AndrewThompson64
Thanks for the quick response. I downloaded your app (very good idea BTW!) and ran it against my JNLP file. It reported a number of issues to me, but I don't understand them. I subsequently located the JNLP spec 6.0.10 here and went through it carefully. (I ended up discovering some nice features I added to my file.) I ended up with the following file, but the errors seem to be the same. The output is below the JNLP.
Is it possible that your app is analyzing against an outdated version of the JNLP spec? It's all that I can figure. Perhaps you could explain just one or two of the node errors to get me started. Thanks again! Dan
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jnlp spec="1.0+"
codebase="http://www.digibunker.com/"
href="digibunker.jnlp"
version="0.14">
  <information>
    <title>DigiBunker Client</title>
    <vendor>DigiBunker, LLC</vendor>
    <homepage href="http://www.digibunker.com"/>
    <description kind="tooltip">Automated media back up.</description>
    <description kind="one-line">The DigiBunker client makes protecting your media files easy.</description>
    <icon href="http://www.digibunker.com/images/icon-32.png"
version="1.0"
width="32"
height="32"
size="6243" />
    <offline-allowed/>
    <shortcut>
      <desktop />
      <menu />
    </shortcut>
  </information>
  <security>
    <all-permissions/>
  </security>
  <resources>
    <j2se version="1.5+" href="http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se"/>
    <jar href="digibunker.jar" main="true" />
    <extension name="Java Help" version="2.0" href="lib/javahelp.jnlp">
      <ext-download download="lazy" />
    </extension>
  </resources>
  <application-desc main-class="com.judedavid.eros.core.Main"/>
</jnlp>
Content type application/xml does not equal expected type of application/x-java-jnlp-file
cvc-complex-type.2.4.a: Invalid content was found starting with element 'homepage'. One of '{description, icon, offline-allowed, shortcut, association, related-content}' is expected.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.a: Invalid content was found starting with element 'j2se'. One of '{jar, nativelib, extension, property, package}' is expected.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.d: Invalid content was found starting with element 'security'. No child element is expected at this point.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.a: Invalid content was found starting with element 'homepage'. One of '{description, icon, offline-allowed, shortcut, association, related-content}' is expected.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.a: Invalid content was found starting with element 'j2se'. One of '{jar, nativelib, extension, property, package}' is expected.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.d: Invalid content was found starting with element 'security'. No child element is expected at this point.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.a: Invalid content was found starting with element 'homepage'. One of '{description, icon, offline-allowed, shortcut, association, related-content}' is expected.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.a: Invalid content was found starting with element 'homepage'. One of '{description, icon, offline-allowed, shortcut, association, related-content}' is expected.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.a: Invalid content was found starting with element 'j2se'. One of '{jar, nativelib, extension, property, package}' is expected.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.a: Invalid content was found starting with element 'j2se'. One of '{jar, nativelib, extension, property, package}' is expected.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.d: Invalid content was found starting with element 'security'. No child element is expected at this point.
cvc-complex-type.2.4.d: Invalid content was found starting with element 'security'. No child element is expected at this point.
XML encoding not known, but declared as utf-8
Codebase + href 'http://www.digibunker.com/digibunker.jnlp' is not equal to actual location of 'file:/Y:/Moonlighting/JudeDavid/site/athena/public/digibunker.jnlp'.
Downloads can be optimized by specifying a resource size for 'digibunker.jar'.
The resource download at digibunker.jar can be optimized by removing the (default) value of download='eager'.
The resource download at digibunker.jar can be optimized by removing the (default) value of main='false'.
It might be possible to optimize the start-up of the app. by specifying download='lazy' for the digibunker.jar resource.
Lazy downloads might not work as expected for digibunker.jar unless the download 'part' is specified.
Resource type com of resource http://digibunker.com is not one of the allowable types of jar.
Report for http://www.digibunker.com/lib/javahelp.jnlp

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