HtmlHelp samples and missing definitions

I've been trying everything under the sun to get "what's this" help to work
via HtmlHelp and keep running into dead ends. We've tested the CHM and .txt
file using eHelps TOP program to verify that everything is proper there.
Yet all attempts to extract popup context sensitive "What's This" help
results in a "No Topic Found" display. I am amazed at the total lack of any
sample code documentation in the DDK and the MSDN site which demonstrates a
successfully implementation of any HtmlHelp. If anyone knows of any samples
which provides the successful implementation, I would greatly appreciate
hearing on where I might find them.

Then, to make matters worse, when attempting to check and see what type of
error code HtmlHelp may be setting when it does fail my request, I learn
that there is absolutely no definition anywhere for the HH_LAST_ERROR
structure which one is supposed to use to obtain the error code. I had
expected to find it in the Htmlhelp.h DDK include file with all the other
macro and structure definitions, but was very surprised to learn it does not
exist. Does this mean I now have to locally specify the structure, unlike
all other HtmlHelp structures?

Walter
Tue May 04 15:12:20 CDT 2004

Del Fredricks wrote:
> I've been trying everything under the sun to get "what's this" help to work
> via HtmlHelp and keep running into dead ends. We've tested the CHM and .txt
> file using eHelps TOP program to verify that everything is proper there.
> Yet all attempts to extract popup context sensitive "What's This" help
> results in a "No Topic Found" display. I am amazed at the total lack of any
> sample code documentation in the DDK and the MSDN site which demonstrates a
> successfully implementation of any HtmlHelp. If anyone knows of any samples
> which provides the successful implementation, I would greatly appreciate
> hearing on where I might find them.
>
> Then, to make matters worse, when attempting to check and see what type of
> error code HtmlHelp may be setting when it does fail my request, I learn
> that there is absolutely no definition anywhere for the HH_LAST_ERROR
> structure which one is supposed to use to obtain the error code. I had
> expected to find it in the Htmlhelp.h DDK include file with all the other
> macro and structure definitions, but was very surprised to learn it does not
> exist. Does this mean I now have to locally specify the structure, unlike
> all other HtmlHelp structures?

I gave up on this totally and used a .HLP file to get context-sensitive
help for an applet. I noticed that the mouse control panel apparently
does exactly the same thing.

No question, the doc for HTML Help is just plain wrong. It describes
some product that wasn't shipped to the likes of us.

--
Walter Oney, Consulting and Training
Basic and Advanced Driver Programming Seminars
Check out our schedule at http://www.oneysoft.com

nospam
Tue May 04 15:34:21 CDT 2004

MS itself uses WinHelp for context help. HtmlHelp is not particularly good
because you can't use html formatting in context help, plain text only. It's
OK to have HtmlHelp for normal help and WinHelp for context one.


"Del Fredricks" <im.sick.of.spam@ask.i.might.tell> wrote in message
news:uUM4fneMEHA.556@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>
> I've been trying everything under the sun to get "what's this" help to
> work
> via HtmlHelp and keep running into dead ends. We've tested the CHM and
> .txt
> file using eHelps TOP program to verify that everything is proper there.
> Yet all attempts to extract popup context sensitive "What's This" help
> results in a "No Topic Found" display. I am amazed at the total lack of
> any
> sample code documentation in the DDK and the MSDN site which demonstrates
> a
> successfully implementation of any HtmlHelp. If anyone knows of any
> samples
> which provides the successful implementation, I would greatly appreciate
> hearing on where I might find them.
>
> Then, to make matters worse, when attempting to check and see what type of
> error code HtmlHelp may be setting when it does fail my request, I learn
> that there is absolutely no definition anywhere for the HH_LAST_ERROR
> structure which one is supposed to use to obtain the error code. I had
> expected to find it in the Htmlhelp.h DDK include file with all the other
> macro and structure definitions, but was very surprised to learn it does
> not
> exist. Does this mean I now have to locally specify the structure, unlike
> all other HtmlHelp structures?
>
>

PD
Tue May 04 22:38:28 CDT 2004

Del,

> I've been trying everything under the sun to get "what's this" help to work
> via HtmlHelp and keep running into dead ends.

These pages should help:

http://helpware.net/htmlhelp/how_to_whatsthis.htm
http://www.mvps.org/htmlhelpcenter/htmlhelp/hhtutorials.html#whats_this
http://www.mvps.org/htmlhelpcenter/htmlhelp/hhpoptst.html

> there is absolutely no definition anywhere for the HH_LAST_ERROR
> structure which one is supposed to use to obtain the error code.

The structure is defined here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/htmlhelp/html/vsconstrhhlasterror.asp

--
Pete (Microsoft Help MVP)

Jeff
Wed May 05 07:28:44 CDT 2004

Are you referring to the popup window with text you get with Ctrl-F1 or by
clicking the ? icon (i.e. handling the WM_HELP message) or the "What's
This?" context menu you get when you right-click on a dialog item (i.e.
handling WM_CONTEXTMENU)?

If the former, it's almost painfully simple to do with HtmlHelp -- I've been
doing it with WTL dialogs & propsheets for years. It's so easy, in fact,
that you don't even need a help file. I posted some sample code to
microsoft.public.vc.atl the other day -- check out
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=%23o3UZ2QMEHA.1644%40TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl&rnum=1.

If the latter, I can't offer much help -- the last time I dealt with
WM_CONTEXTMENU, I used WinHelp.


"Del Fredricks" <im.sick.of.spam@ask.i.might.tell> wrote in message
news:uUM4fneMEHA.556@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>
> I've been trying everything under the sun to get "what's this" help to
work
> via HtmlHelp and keep running into dead ends. We've tested the CHM and
.txt
> file using eHelps TOP program to verify that everything is proper there.
> Yet all attempts to extract popup context sensitive "What's This" help
> results in a "No Topic Found" display. I am amazed at the total lack of
any
> sample code documentation in the DDK and the MSDN site which demonstrates
a
> successfully implementation of any HtmlHelp. If anyone knows of any
samples
> which provides the successful implementation, I would greatly appreciate
> hearing on where I might find them.
>
> Then, to make matters worse, when attempting to check and see what type of
> error code HtmlHelp may be setting when it does fail my request, I learn
> that there is absolutely no definition anywhere for the HH_LAST_ERROR
> structure which one is supposed to use to obtain the error code. I had
> expected to find it in the Htmlhelp.h DDK include file with all the other
> macro and structure definitions, but was very surprised to learn it does
not
> exist. Does this mean I now have to locally specify the structure, unlike
> all other HtmlHelp structures?
>
>

Walter
Wed May 05 07:58:43 CDT 2004

Jeff Henkels wrote:
> If the former, it's almost painfully simple to do with HtmlHelp -- I've been
> doing it with WTL dialogs & propsheets for years. It's so easy, in fact,
> that you don't even need a help file. I posted some sample code to
> microsoft.public.vc.atl the other day -- check out
> http://www.google.com/groups?selm=%23o3UZ2QMEHA.1644%40TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl&rnum=1.

What's all the stuff in MSDN about control ids and text strings that
somehow magically go into the HTML help file, then?

--
Walter Oney, Consulting and Training
Basic and Advanced Driver Programming Seminars
Check out our schedule at http://www.oneysoft.com

Del
Wed May 05 10:49:12 CDT 2004


That's exactly what I was attempting to do. Supposedly you provide the
.topic id in the popup structure instead of the actual string, and HtmlHelp
is supposed to find the What'sThis string in the CHM file. But alas, I have
not been able to get that to work.

"Walter Oney" <waltoney@oneysoft.com> wrote in message
news:4098E503.551B613D@oneysoft.com...
> Jeff Henkels wrote:
> > If the former, it's almost painfully simple to do with HtmlHelp -- I've
been
> > doing it with WTL dialogs & propsheets for years. It's so easy, in
fact,
> > that you don't even need a help file. I posted some sample code to
> > microsoft.public.vc.atl the other day -- check out
> >
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=%23o3UZ2QMEHA.1644%40TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl&rnum=1.
>
> What's all the stuff in MSDN about control ids and text strings that
> somehow magically go into the HTML help file, then?
>
> --
> Walter Oney, Consulting and Training
> Basic and Advanced Driver Programming Seminars
> Check out our schedule at http://www.oneysoft.com