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VO Help Navigation System - HNS

Home : Developer Reference : AOS API Document : HNS

Date: 5 Feb. 2001
Available: 4 Feb. 2001
Last revision: 10 April 2001
Status: Draft
Compliant to AOS API Version: AOS 2.0b1
Revision: 2
Web: http://www.afteroffice.com/dev/api/HNS.html
By fui@afteroffice.com

Description

This API covered online help system implementing in VO. Developer may creates help content based on HNS to offer an integrated help system throughout VO.

HNS is a universal online help system to provide consistent interface for VO users. It provides easy interface for developer to make use of it for the first time, plus automatic topic management and index for searching and reference. No maintenance required for future upgrade.

Revision

1 (9 April 2000) Added simple SSI to support more customizable appearance.
2 (10 April 2000) Added note on escape use of the the [].

Usage

To use HNS, the following JavaScript must be included in the HTML file Header:

    <script language="JavaScript" src="http://aoimg.com/js/vohelp.js"></script>

For example:

    <html>
    <head>
    <title></title>
    <script language="JavaScript" src="http://aoimg.com/js/vohelp.js"></script>
    </head>

To show the help link on your page, use the following code:

Link with icon:

    <a href="javascript:vohelp('[SID]','[the.help.file]')"><img src="http://aoimg.com/menu/help14.gif" border=0 width=14 height=14></a>

Link without icon:

    <a href="javascript:vohelp('[SID]','[the.help.file]')">Help</a>

Where [SID] = the VO unique session ID
Where [the.help.file] = the help file name (only alpha numeric allow, no spaces). Help file name has the following format:
<3 digit number - the module number><dot><3 digit number - the page number><dot><theHelpFile>
E.g.: 000.100.mainscrn or 000.001.optScreen

Each developer module has a unique module number. VO reserved 000 to 100.

Once you have constructed the help link, make sure you have access to the VO help system in-order to build your help content online.

Simple Flow

  1. obtain your module code from VO (if not listed on the table), and request for help content access on your VO account.
  2. insert the header JavaScript on your HTML file
  3. build the help link
  4. go online to build your content

Help module code

VO Built-in000 to 100Reserved
Storage110
Project120
Bulletin121
Others150

Simple SSI

You may write some simple tags in HNS help content where recognisable by VO.

For example:
The usual help content:

    To send a email to yourself, click "Compose" and type
    yourName@yourDomain.com

Can be written as:

    To send a email to yourself, click "Compose" and type [name]@[host]

Where [name]@[host] will be presented as the user email.

Keys available:

TagNoteSample
[name]The user login name, usually the front part of the email before "@"myname
[host]The user domain, usually the part of the email after "@"company.com
[fullname]The full name of the userJohn King
[language]The language the user login asEnglish
[ip]The machine IP for the client202.190.99.191
[ucarGroup]The user UCAR groupUser
[ucarLevel]The user UCAR level10

To void the interpretion, where in the case that you wanted to show "[name]" exactly in the browser, you may write:
&#91;name&#93;