Skip to main content
B
BrettMcCorkle1-Visitor
1-Visitor
October 16, 2012
Question

DMP Context Sensitive Help System

  • October 16, 2012
  • 7 replies
  • 1517 views

Hello,


We're currently have a DMP web application deployed as a help system for an application. We're looking to enhance this by making it context sensitive. Does anyone have experience with implementing this? The documentation on the DMP JavaAPIstates "A file-name-to-ID mapping file named idmap.properties is generated during the publishing process."


I'm looking for this mapping file so I can identify the file id to call from the display method, but I can't find this mapping file. Does anyone know where it is or how I generate it? I can't find it in the WAR file the PE produces.


Thanks.

    7 replies

    C
    ClayHelberg18-Opal
    18-Opal
    October 16, 2012
    Hi Brett--



    You may need to publish as a "DMP Help System" rather than as a "DMP Web
    Application" to produce this file. It may be possible to use the version
    generated with a help system with a web application, I haven't tried
    that before.



    --Clay





    Clay Helberg

    Senior Consultant

    TerraXML


    N
    naglists1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    October 16, 2012
    I agree that there may be some ways to link into a DMP Consumer web
    application and via map file info but haven't done it and don't know anyone
    who has. Please post what you find.

    Tue, O
    B
    BrettMcCorkle1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    October 17, 2012

    Thanks guys. I've tried composing a DMP Help System, DMP Image (DMP and Input Image),and DMP Web Application.None of them produce this file (that I can find). I might have to go directly to PTC to find and answer on this one. I'll report back anything I find.


    I have noticed in working with DMP that the amount of information on it is considerably less than other Arbortext components; which made it kind of a bear for us to set up as a web app. I'm hoping we start seeing better information about all of its features.

    In Reply to Paul Nagai:


    I agree that there may be some ways to link into a DMP Consumer web
    application and via map file info but haven't done it and don't know anyone
    who has. Please post what you find.

    Tue, O
    N
    naglists1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    February 20, 2013
    Hi Brett,
    Were ever able to get more information on this?


    On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 8:30 AM, Brett McCorkle <
    brett.mccorkle@erieinsurance.com> wrote:

    > Thanks guys. I've tried composing a DMP Help System, DMP Image (DMP and
    > Input Image), and DMP Web Application. None of them produce this file
    > (that I can find). I might have to go directly to PTC to find and answer
    > on this one. I'll report back anything I find.
    >
    > I have noticed in working with DMP that the amount of information on it is
    > considerably less than other Arbortext components; which made it kind of a
    > bear for us to set up as a web app. I'm hoping we start seeing better
    > information about all of its features.
    >
    > In Reply to Paul Nagai:
    >
    > I agree that there may be some ways to link into a DMP Consumer web
    > application and via map file info but haven't done it and don't know anyone
    > who has. Please post what you find.
    >
    > Tue, O
    B
    BrettMcCorkle1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    February 21, 2013

    Thanks for the reminder, Paul. Here is the official response from PTC:


    I could not find anything other than the Arbortext Help topic you mentioned. A developer reviewed source code and found no mention of idmap.properties. As a result, we conclude this is an obsolete feature and has been worked out of the code.
    The Editor communicates with Help Center via java rpc. See APTPATH/packages/tools/_helpcenter.acl for examples of how the Editor does context sensitive help via the dmphelp() ACL function. The topic IDs are compiled into the Editor binary via a build process that extracts some IDs from the documentation source.
    For our own Help Center, we use the resourceid tag in the DITA topic prolog tag to hold a unique identifier for the topic. During the publishing process, the resourceid value is taken from the DITA source and put into a META tag in the head of the HTML topic. The META value is what the software looks for to find the right topic.

    So that explains why I couldn't find idmap.properties and gives some insight on how we're supposed to call specific topics and how PTC does it for their help.


    The push we had to do this fizzled out so we never ended up testing it out. If anyone has had any experience with it, I'd love to hear about what they did.

    N
    naglists1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    February 22, 2013
    There is sample code in help under Java API. The very last bit of code
    (ACL) shows a function dmphelp() ... I'll paste it at the end of my e-mail.
    I'm not able to get it to work after updating paths to match my install
    (for example, to "...editorinstall\hc". The very first java_static() is
    failing with [A30158] The Java method getDMPHelp has thrown an exception.
    (The rest fail, tooo ... help, map with the same message. The final
    java_instance() fails [A30133] No Java class for the object can be found.

    Chasing code through the Editor install ultimately leads back to a function
    I can't find: _hc_init().

    FWIW: In looking at the path in that sample and looking at my own DMC
    builds, it appears that the map is stored, at least in DMP 6.0 M010, in
    ../project/WEB-INF/toc/en_US.xml.

    Anyone have thoughts about getting that ACL to load my DMC build? Or even
    to load Help Center?

    function dmphelp(id=") {
    local dmproot = "c:/temp/dmc";
    local help = java_static('com.arbortext.dmp.help.LaunchDMP',
    'getDMPHelp', dmproot);
    local map = java_static('com.arbortext.dmp.help.PropertiesIdMapper',
    'getIdMapper', dmproot.'/project/WEB-INF/toc/english.properties');
    local helpid = java_instance(map, 'getMatchId', id);
    java_instance(help, 'display', helpid);
    }


    On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 2:40 PM, Brett McCorkle <
    brett.mccorkle@erieinsurance.com> wrote:

    > Thanks for the reminder, Paul. Here is the official response from PTC:
    >
    > I could not find anything other than the Arbortext Help topic you
    > mentioned. A developer reviewed source code and found no mention of
    > idmap.properties. As a result, we conclude this is an obsolete feature and
    > has been worked out of the code.
    > The Editor communicates with Help Center via java rpc. See
    > APTPATH/packages/tools/_helpcenter.acl for examples of how the Editor does
    > context sensitive help via the dmphelp() ACL function. The topic IDs are
    > compiled into the Editor binary via a build process that extracts some IDs
    > from the documentation source.
    > For our own Help Center, we use the resourceid tag in the DITA topic
    > prolog tag to hold a unique identifier for the topic. During the publishing
    > process, the resourceid value is taken from the DITA source and put into a
    > META tag in the head of the HTML topic. The META value is what the software
    > looks for to find the right topic.
    >
    > So that explains why I couldn't find idmap.properties and gives some
    > insight on how we're supposed to call specific topics and how PTC does it
    > for their help.
    >
    > The push we had to do this fizzled out so we never ended up testing it
    > out. If anyone has had any experience with it, I'd love to hear about what
    > they did.
    >
    N
    naglists1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    February 22, 2013
    I can load a topic in the webapp of a DMC library using the following
    pattern (and information culled from en_US.xml):

    Terms & ConditionsCookie settingsAccessibility statement