Window Help

You can specify the help symbol for windows in the following ways:

• By specifying the t_help argument of hiCreateWindow() or hiOpenWindow() when you create the window. This value becomes the return value of hiGetHelp(), which is passed to hiHelp().
• By placing the hiHelpSymName property on a symbol of the same name as the help string you specified as the t_help argument, after the window is created.
  For example:

  hiOpenWindow( ?appType "MyApp" ?help "MyAppHelp")
  putprop( ’MyAppHelp "MyHelpSymbol" ’hiHelpSymName)

You can specify the appID by putting the hiHelpAppName property on a symbol of the same name as the help string you specified as the t_help argument to hiCreateWindow() or hiOpenWindow(). For example:

hiOpenWindow( ?appType "MyApp" ?help "MyAppHelp")
putprop( ’MyAppHelp "MyApp" ’hiHelpAppName)

When a user clicks Help in a window, the hiGetHelp() function is called and its return value is passed to hiHelp(). If you specified the t_help argument of hiCreateWindow() or hiOpenWindow(), its value is used as the return value of hiGetHelp(). If you did not specify this argument, the return value of hiGetHelp() is the value of the t_appType argument that you set when you created the window.

For windows help to work correctly, either the t_help or appType argument or both must be set when you create the window.

hiHelp() first calls hiGetCommandName() to see if a command is running; if it is, the return value of hiGetCommandName() is used as the help symbol. If a command is not running, hiHelp() checks the help string it received from hiGetHelp() for the hiHelpSymName and hiHelpAppName properties. If the help string has the hiHelpSymName property set, its value is used as the help symbol, otherwise hiHelp() uses the help string as the help symbol.

If the help string has the hiHelpAppName property set, its value is used as the appID. If the property is not set or its value is nil, hiHelp() calls hiGetAppType() to get the application name of the current window, which it uses as the appID. If the application name on the current window is nil, hiHelp() uses dfii as the appID.

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