Web Help

A Web Help system created with HelpSmith can be easily integrated with your web application. You can link to a specific topic by using the URL parameters described below.

The common format for a URL address to a specific topic of a Web Help system is as follows:

"http://www.mywebsite.com/webhelp/index.htm?parameter=value#anchor",

where:

http://www.mywebsite.com/webhelp - is the actual location of the Web Help system on your computer, network, or web server.

index.htm - the main file generated with HelpSmith when you export your project to the Web Help format.

?parameter - one of the supported parameters such as ?context or ?id to link to a topic by its Context Id or by its textual Id respectively.

value - the actual Context Id or textual Id of the topic to display, as specified in your help project.

#anchor - an optional parameter indicating a bookmark name in the specified help topic.

Linking to a Help Topic by its Context Id

To link to a topic by its Context Id, use the following URL format:

.../index.htm?context=20, where 20 is the Context Id of the topic that should be displayed.

Linking to a Help Topic by its Textual Id

To link to a topic by its textual Id, use the following URL format:

.../index.htm?id=Topic20, where Topic20 is the Id of the topic that should be displayed.

Creating Direct Links to Topic Files

From your website or web application, you can also use links that follow directly to topic files of your Web Help system. When the user visits such a link, it will automatically load the Table of Contents and other navigation frames. However, by adding the string ?frames=0 to the URL, you can disable loading of the frames when needed.