Inside the MSDN & TechNet Libraries and the Microsoft Help Viewer

In my last post, I explained how to add a simple, text-only topic to your local Help Library. I also described how metadata connects content into the help system. Now let’s look at what we can do to make our topic a little more interesting. (Skip ahead to the hands-on tutorial if you’re not interested in the details.)

Links

There are three common link types in Help Library content: internal, external and image.

Internal links reference other topics within the local Help Library. They specify link targets by their topic ID alone—an approach we call “identity linking.” Since help topics are referenced without knowledge of their absolute or relative pathnames, topic linking does not depend on the structure of Library content. Why use this approach? The help system separates content, structure, presentation and behavior to enable extensibility and portability to future content formats.

It is the help runtime that maps topic IDs to their corresponding XHTML pages. The help runtime is called via the ms-xhelp API and we reference a specific help system topic by passing its ID into that API. The format of an ms-xhelp URL is:

ms-xhelp:///?Id=Microsoft.Help.ID

Here is an example of how the API is used inside a topic (the class=”mtps-internal-link” markup supports CSS formatting):

External links reference web pages outside of the Help Library and use standard HTTP URLs. Here’s an example of how external links are used inside a topic (the class=”mtps-external-link” markup supports link formatting):

Image links are used to embed images in topics. Embedded images generally reside in the same package (MSHC file) that contains the topic. An example image link:

Branding Package Controls

The appearance and behavior of Help content is defined by a branding package, basically a collection of CSS files, JavaScript, images and other resource files. The help system allows each catalog to specify its own branding package. For this post, we’ll limit ourselves to controls that are provided by the default branding package that ships with the Help Viewer. Using this branding package enables us to easily create topics that look and behave like Visual Studio help content.

The default Help Viewer branding package supports three commonly used controls we’ll look at today: CollapsibleArea, CodeSnippet and LanguageSpecificText.

Collapsible Areas

In Visual Studio Help content, collapsible areas group sections within a topic. They serve two functions: 1) provide formatting for the title of the section, and 2) enable the user to collapse entire sections when reading a topic. This is useful for extremely long topics or for FAQ pages.

Collapsible areas were only partially implemented in Help Viewer 1.x. They provide proper title formatting but they don’t provide a collapse feature. However, marking up your content with the CollapsibleArea tag ensures it can take advantage of this capability in future releases.

The CollapsibleArea control contains the area to be collapsed and specifies the title of the section. For example:

Note that, if Expanded="0", the area starts collapsed. Expanded="1" is the default.

Code Examples (CodeSnippets)

Many Visual Studio help topics contain code examples and syntax documentation. The help system CodeSnippet control displays formatted code examples in the user’s preferred development language. (Note that Help system “CodeSnippets” are not the same as Visual Studio “Code Snippets.”)

The help system automatically groups adjacent code snippets into a “snippet group” that enables readers to easily switch between examples in different development languages. A single CodeSnippet is expressed as follows:

The CodeSnippet control uses two separate tags to support source code formatting. The Language tag specifies the development language used for code colorization. The DisplayLanguage tag specifies the text to be displayed on the snippet tab. Supported tag values include:

Language-specific Text

It is common to use language-specific syntax in help documentation. Because syntax varies from language to language, the help system provides the ability to display text as a function of the reader’s chosen development language. This feature eliminates the need to author separate, redundant topics for each language.

The LanguageSpecificText control displays dynamic text based on the development language selected by the reader using the CodeSnippet control.

For example, the following language-specific text example is used frequently in Visual Studio content to modify namespace delimiters:

And here is the list of supported language tags:

Linking and Code Example Tutorial

Now it’s time to apply what you’ve learned. In this section, you’ll add links and use controls from the Help Viewer branding package to add code examples to your custom topic. This tutorial takes about 5 minutes and makes the following assumptions:

• Visual Studio 2010 (RTM or SP1) is installed on your machine.
• You have administrator privileges on your machine.
• You have successfully used the local Help Viewer to read EN-US help content.

When you’ve completed the exercise, you can remove the tutorial content without side effects to your help system.

Step 1: Create a Topic

To begin, create a folder for your help content and then create a topic in that folder. For the purposes of this tutorial, you’ll create a folder named “HelpTutorial2” in your main Documents folder.

1. Use Windows Explorer to create the folder or from a command prompt:
   mkdir %userprofile%\Documents\HelpTutorial2
2. Launch Notepad.
3. Copy the following XHTML and paste it into Notepad:
   (Tip: If you lose carriage returns when pasting into Notepad, consider copying this XHTML from within Chrome or Firefox. The code examples in this topic will not display correctly if lines don’t break in the correct locations.)

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
   <head>
     <title>Links, Code Examples and Language-specific Text</title>
     <!-- Specify the topic content key: ID, locale and version -->
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.Id" content="ecab3be4-257f-4649-864b-761cfd9510c2" />
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.Locale" content="en-us" />
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.TopicLocale" content="en-us" />
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.TopicVersion" content="100" />
     <!-- Use the default branding package to render the topic -->
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.SelfBranded" content="false" />
     <!-- Place the topic in the TOC under the root node -->
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.TocParent" content="-1" />
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.TocOrder" content="0" />
     <!-- Enable topic access from the keyword index -->
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.Keywords" content="help content links" />
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.Keywords" content="Code Example (CodeSnippet)" />
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.Keywords" content="LanguageSpecificText" />
     <!-- Enable topic access via F1 help -->
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.F1" content="CodeSnippet" />
     <meta name="Microsoft.Help.F1" content="LanguageSpecificText" />
     <!-- Provide a description for use in the search results list -->
     <meta name="Description" content="This text provides an overview of this topic and is displayed in the search results list." />
   </head>
   <body>
     <h1 class="title">Links, Code Examples and Language-specific Text</h1>
     <div id="mainSection">
       <CollapsibleArea Expanded="1" Title="Content Linking" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">
         <p>There are three common types of links: internal, external and image.</p>
         <table class="members" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
           <tr>
             <th>Type</th>
             <th>Example</th>
             <th>Description</th>
           </tr>
           <tr>
             <td>Internal Link</td>
             <td><a class="mtps-internal-link" href="ms-xhelp:///?Id=1838dc17-b428-4db2-938e-10fa07f63e81">Help System Feature Overview</a></td>
             <td>Internal link to a topic in local Help system documentation</td>
           </tr>
           <tr>
             <td>External Link</td>
             <td><a class="mtps-external-link" href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspx">MSDN Library</a></td>
             <td>External link to the online MSDN Library</td>
           </tr>
           <tr>
             <td>Image Link</td>
             <td><img class="mtps-img-src" src="image.png" /></td>
             <td>Example of an embedded image</td>
           </tr>
         </table>
       </CollapsibleArea>
       <CollapsibleArea Expanded="1" Title="Language-specific Text" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">
         <p>This text adjusts to match the coding language selected in the SnippetGroup (below).</p>
         <ul>
           <li>Current code language: <strong>
             <LanguageSpecificText devLangcs="C#" devLangvb="VB" devLangcpp="C++" devLangnu="other" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">other</LanguageSpecificText></strong></li>
           <li>Namespace delimiter (example): <strong>XmlReader
             <LanguageSpecificText devLangcs="." devLangvb="." devLangcpp="::" devLangnu="." xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">.</LanguageSpecificText>Read Method</strong></li>
         </ul>
       </CollapsibleArea>
       <CollapsibleArea Expanded="1" Title="Examples" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps"><a id="exampleToggle" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><!----></a>
         <p>Note that all of the tabs in the SnippetGroup are populated with a code example.</p>
         <!-- Declare the SnippetGroup container -->
         <div id="snippetGroup" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
           <!-- Snippet for the VB language -->
           <!-- Language is the code colorization language -->
           <!-- DisplayLanguage is the tab title language -->
           <CodeSnippet EnableCopyCode="true" Language="VisualBasic" ContainsMarkup="false" DisplayLanguage="Visual Basic" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">
   Imports System
   ' A "hello, world" program in Visual Basic
   Module Hello
     Sub Main()
         MsgBox("hello, world")
     End Sub
   End Module
           </CodeSnippet>
           <!-- Snippet for the C# language -->
           <CodeSnippet EnableCopyCode="true" Language="CSharp" ContainsMarkup="false" DisplayLanguage="C#" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">
   using System;
   // A "hello, world" program in C#
   namespace HelloWorld {
     class Hello {
       static void Main() {
         System.Console.WriteLine("hello, world");
       }
     }
   }
           </CodeSnippet>
           <CodeSnippet EnableCopyCode="true" Language="ManagedCPlusPlus" ContainsMarkup="false" DisplayLanguage="Visual C++" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">
   // A "hello, world" program in C++
   main( ) {
     printf("hello, world");
   }
           </CodeSnippet>
           <CodeSnippet EnableCopyCode="true" Language="FSharp" ContainsMarkup="false" DisplayLanguage="F#" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">
   // A "hello, world" program in F#
   #light
   open System
   printfn "hello, world"
           </CodeSnippet>
           <CodeSnippet EnableCopyCode="true" Language="JScript" ContainsMarkup="false" DisplayLanguage="JScript" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">
   // A "hello, world" program in JScript
   print("hello world");
           </CodeSnippet>
         </div>
         <p>Singleton with tab and language colorization:</p>
         <CodeSnippet EnableCopyCode="true" Language="html" ContainsMarkup="false" DisplayLanguage="XHTML" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">
   &lt;html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt;
     &lt;head /&gt;
     &lt;body&gt;
       &lt;p&gt;hello, world&lt;/p&gt;
     &lt;/body&gt;
   &lt;/html&gt;
         </CodeSnippet>
         <p>Singleton with no tab, no colorization:</p>
         <CodeSnippet EnableCopyCode="true" Language="other" DisplayLanguage="" ContainsMarkup="false" xmlns="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/mtps">
   HRESULT SetDeviceEnumPreference(
     [in]  DWORD dwEnumPref
   );
         </CodeSnippet>
       </CollapsibleArea>
     </div>
   </body>
   </html>
   

4. Save the file as: %userprofile%\Documents\HelpTutorial2\topic2.html
5. Close Notepad.
6. Right click on the MSDN image below and “Save picture as…” image.png in the HelpTutorial2 folder.
   

Step 2: Create a Package

Next, place your topic in a package.

1. In Windows Explorer, right click on the topic2.html file you created in Step 1 and send it to a Compressed (zipped) folder named mycontent2.zip.
   
2. Drag image.png into the mycontent2.zip folder.
3. Rename the mycontent2.zip folder to mycontent2.mshc. (Click ‘Yes’ on the Rename dialog that pops up.)

Step 3: Create a Book

The last step in preparing your content is placing your package in a “book”. As you’ll recall from my previous post, a book is a collection of packages and is defined in an asset manifest file named HelpContentSetup.msha.

1. Launch Notepad.
2. Copy the following XHTML content and paste it into Notepad:

   <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
     <head />
     <body class="vendor-book">
       <div class="details">
         <span class="vendor">My Company</span>
         <span class="locale">en-us</span>
         <span class="product">My Custom Content</span>
         <span class="name">More Custom Topics</span>
       </div>
       <div class="package-list">
         <div class="package">
           <span class="name">mycontent2</span>
           <span class="deployed">true</span>
           <a class="current-link" href="mycontent2.mshc">mycontent2.mshc</a>
         </div>
       </div>
     </body>
   </html>
   

3. Save the file as:
   %userprofile%\Documents\HelpTutorial2\HelpContentSetup.msha
   (Tip: Set the “Save as type” dropdown list in Notepad to “All Files (*.*)” )
4. Close Notepad.

Step 4: Install the Book

Launch the Help Library Manager in administrative mode and install the book from disk. If you’re unsure how to do this, follow the install instructions from my previous post.

Step 5: Explore Your Content

Select “View Help” from the Visual Studio Help menu. Note that your topic appears in the Table of Contents as a child of the root node:

If you select this topic you’ll see the following page:

To Learn More

This tutorial covers the basics of the Visual Studio Help Viewer branding package. To learn more about designing content for the Microsoft Help Viewer, check out these resources:

• The Help Viewer 1.0 SDK goes into greater detail on how to create, brand and deploy content.
• For more complex projects, I highly recommend using a help authoring tool.
• The Help Guy blog is a good resource for anyone creating Help Viewer content.
• Microsoft Help MVP Rob Chandler has assembled a nice overview of Microsoft Help Viewer 1.0.