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New Blog Posts: Merging Reports - Part 1 and Part 2

Assigning help file for Report Design form

edited November 2009 in General
We have aan app based on the Report Explorer demo. In the report
designer, if I click on Help, Help Topics, no help opens. In debug, I
have found that this is because the ReportBuilder code is looking for
RAP.HLP in the Delphi tree, rather than in the application tree.

In our initialization, we have code that sets the help file, thus:

FReportExplorer.Designer.HelpFile :=
ExtractFilePath(Application.ExeName) + 'Help\RAP.HLP';

This worked in our previous release, but that was based on an older
version of ReportBuilder. We are not on version 11, and I wonder if you
could point me to a wiki entry, or other location where I can find an
explanation of how to set this file. I'm assuming we have failed to
satisfy the specification of the file, and that ReportBuilder is
therefore defaulting to look for it in the Delphi install path.

Thanks,

--

Bill

Comments

  • edited November 2009
    I recommend using the TppDesigner.OnHelp event. Set the aHelpFile parameter.

    Example:

    procedure TmyEndUserSolution.ppDesigner1Help(Sender: TObject; var aHelpFile,
    aKeyphrase: string; var aCallHelp: Boolean);
    begin
    aHelpFile := 'Help\Rap.hlp';
    end;




    Best regards,

    Nard Moseley
    Digital Metaphors
    www.digital-metaphors.com
  • edited November 2009
    ?Thanks for the succinct reply. I tried it, just as you said, but still no
    luck.

    In my ReportExplorer code, I have this:

    FReportExplorer.Designer.OnHelp := SetDesignHelp;

    My SetDesignHelp prototype is correct, and I can see the assignment being
    made at run time, but setting a breakpoint in SetDesignHelp, it never fires.



    --- posted by geoForum on http://www.newswhat.com
  • edited November 2009
    Are you using HTMLHelp (.chm)? If so, I've run into problems with that
    (maybe fixed by DigiMeta, now).

    --
    Steve Weston
  • edited December 2009

    What version of RB are you using? It works in my testing here with RB 11.06

    Another option is to override the Help menu item.

    Here is an example that shows how to override the Designer Help menu. It
    also shows how to invoke WinHelp or HtmlHelp.

    uses
    WinHelpViewer,
    HtmlHelpViewer,
    ppDesignLayoutMenu;

    begin

    TppDesignerMenu(ppDesigner1.Menu).HelpMenu.HelpTopics.OnClick :=
    HelpTopicsClickEvent;

    ppDesigner1.ShowModal;

    end;


    procedure TForm1.HelpTopicsClickEvent(Sender: TObject);
    begin
    // call WinHelp Help
    // Application.HelpFile := ExtractFilePath(ParamStr(0)) +
    'LearnReportBuilder.hlp';
    // Application.HelpCommand(HELP_FINDER, 0); // winhelp call

    // call HTML Help
    Application.HelpFile := ExtractFilePath(ParamStr(0)) +
    'LearnReportBuilder.chm';
    Application.HelpCommand(HELP_CONTENTS, 0);

    end;



    Best regards,

    Nard Moseley
    Digital Metaphors
    www.digital-metaphors.com
  • edited December 2009

    Note: In my example above, include either WinHelpViewer or HtmlViewer but
    not both.

    --
    Nard Moseley
    Digital Metaphors
    www.digital-metaphors.com



    Best regards,

    Nard Moseley
    Digital Metaphors
    www.digital-metaphors.com
  • edited December 2009

    I just posted an example to this thread that can be used to display Html
    help.


    --
    Nard Moseley
    Digital Metaphors
    www.digital-metaphors.com



    Best regards,

    Nard Moseley
    Digital Metaphors
    www.digital-metaphors.com
  • edited December 2009
    Thanks, Nard. That's a new development that I wasn't aware of.

    --
    Steve Weston
This discussion has been closed.