JavaHelp supports the notion of a HelpSet that encompases all documentation information. There is a simple way to read a HelpSet, create a presentation for it, and interact with it and there is also a collection of Swing components that can be used directly for additional control. JavaHelp presents content using Swing's EditorKits, which provide for extensibility of content. JavaHelp also provides for extensibility of context via the notion of a NavigatorView; several views are standard. One of the standard views provides full-text search, which relies on a simple search package to communicate with search engines.
HelpSet is the main class, providing
access to a HelpSet file.
A visual presentation of a HelpSet can be obtained through
a HelpBroker which is an abstraction
that permits interaction regardless of the presentation
details;
the default presentation is DefaultHelpBroker.
An application can provide online help using only these two classes.
Helpsets can be merged dynamically or statically, and can be associated with Beans.
HelpModel models changes to the location within a
HelpSet--components that want to respond to these changes should
listen to events originating within the model (this is how
synchronized views work). TextHelpModel provides
additional information when the content is textual.
DefaultHelpModel is the default model that implements both
models.
JHelpContentViewer
is the Swing component for HTML content,
while context corresponds to several subclasses of
JHelpNavigator.
JHelp is a common grouping of these
classes into synchronized views of content.
NavigatorView which provides access to context
information, plus a way of presenting this information.
TOCView, IndexView, and
SearchView are standard views for table of contents,
index, and full-text search.
The standard views yield standard JHelpTOCNavigator,
JHelpIndexNavigator, and
JHelpSearchNavigator Swing components. The standard
views also provide access to the content--this access is
provides through subclasses
of TreeItem.
New views can be added, for instance a new TOC presentation can be obtained by subclassing TOCView and changing the JHelpNavigator returned by it.
Map between identifiers and URLs.
FlatMap and TryMap are two
implementations.
The main class used to associate specific content with graphic
objects is CSH, while DialogSupport
provides support in Dialogs (this may migrate to Swing at some
point).
javax.javahelp.search package. The reference
implementation provides a search engine that implements these interfaces,
but others can also be used. The specific search engine is part
of the information given to the search view. This separation
provides the full-text search functionality but does not
imposing specific formats.
For overviews, tutorials, examples, guides, tool support, and other documentation, please see the JavaHelp System User's Guide.