dhelp 0.2 - a online help system

[Marco.Budde@hqsys.antar.com (Marco Budde)]

Moin Moin!

Today I've released the latest version of my HTML online help system for  
Debian. Bugs reports are welcome :).

                                     dhelp

What's dhelp?

   dhelp is an online help system for Debian GNU/Linux. A Debian package
   can register its HTML documents and dhelp builds an index of all
   documents. The user doesn't need a WWW server to browse the HTML tree.

Who to use dhelp

   If you have installed a WWW server on your system simply browse

     [1]http://localhost/doc/HTML/index.html

   If you haven't installed a WWW server use the dhelp command:

     $ dhelp

The .dhelp file

   Programs supporting dhelp have to install a .dhelp file in every
   directory under /usr/doc. For every HTML file that should appear in
   the dhelp index the .dhelp file have to contain the following section:

   <item>

   <directory>
          Defines in which section of the index the document should be
          linked. I suggest that you use the same names like in _Section:_
          in control. For example for game you would use games. A German
          document should linked to de/games and so on.

   <linkname>
          This short text appears as link text in the index. This is
          typical the filename without the .html suffix.

   <filename>
          The filename of the HTML file with a path relative to the
          .dhelp file. If your document is called
          /usr/doc/dhelp/test.html and the .dhelp is installed in
          /usr/doc/dhelp you must use test.html.

<description>
...
</description>

          A long description of the content of the document (optional).

   </item>

   You can have several <item> sections in one .dhelp file. At the moment
   the dhelp standard is supported by the following Debian packages:
   doc-linux-de, doc-linux-ja, doc-linux-sv, doc-linux-zh, fidogate, hwb,
   l3, and selfhtml.

Add a .dhelp file to the index

   To add a .dhelp file to the document index you have to call
   dhelp_parse:

     # dhelp_parse -a /usr/doc/directory

   I would suggest to add the following to your package postinst script:

if [ -f /usr/sbin/dhelp_parse ]; then
  /usr/sbin/dhelp_parse -a /usr/doc/directory
fi

   In postrm you should use:

if [ -f /usr/sbin/dhelp_parse ]; then
  /usr/sbin/dhelp_parse -d /usr/doc/directory
fi

Script for .dhelp file

   If the HTML files were produced using sgml-tools (linuxdoc-sgml) you
   can use this script to produce the .dhelp file.

#!/bin/bash

if [ -f .dhelp ]; then
  rm -f .dhelp
fi

for i in *[!0-9].html ; do

  # produce .dhelp
  echo "<item>" >> .dhelp
  echo "<directory>$1" >> .dhelp
  echo "<linkname>$i" >> .dhelp
  echo "<filename>$i" >> .dhelp
  echo "<description>" >> .dhelp
  ANFANG=$(grep -n "<P><HR><EM>" $i | cut - -f1 -d:);
  ENDE=$(grep -n "</EM><HR></P>" $i | cut - -f1 -d:);
  head -n $ENDE $i | tail +$ANFANG | sed -e 's/<P><HR><EM>//g' | \
   sed -e 's/<\/EM><HR><\/P>//g' >> .dhelp
  echo "</description>" >> .dhelp
  echo "</item>" >> .dhelp
done

   Run this script in every directory containing HTML files. If your
   documents should go in the German HOWTO section for example, you have
   to enter:

     # dhelp.build de/HOWTO

   If you have any comments or problems please feel free to send me a
   email: [2]mbudde@hqsys.antar.com

References

   1. http://localhost/doc/HTML/index.html
   2. mailto:mbudde@hqsys.antar.com

cu, Marco

--
Uni: Budde@tu-harburg.d400.de      Fido: 2:240/5202.15
Mailbox: mbudde@hqsys.antar.com    http://www.tu-harburg.de/~semb2204/


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