• New Features
  • Demo
  • Limitations
  • Enhancements
  • What's Next
  • Licensing
  • Availability
  • jHelp is a drop-in hypertext help system for Java™ applets and applications. Completely new and redesigned, jHelp is much more powerful than its predecessor, Applet Help Browser II... so much so, we've renamed it.

    jHelp is essentially a parser and formatter that displays help files coded in HTML2. It can be displayed as a pop-up frame, or embedded as a panel within a container object. It is very easy to use.

    New Features

    Vastly improved OOP design.
    Extensive support of HTML2, including in-line images, lists, block-structured text, etc.
    Improved, fully-functional Back/Forward navigation.
    Improved internal/external linkage.
    Improved image loading.
    Very forgiving HTML parser.
    True, left mouse button hyperlinks (other mouse buttons are ignored.)
    Improved text searching.
    Improved appearance, easily customized.
    Support for FONT, along with SIZE, COLOR and FACE atrributes.
    Page properties (background , text and link colors) controlled by HTML document's BODY tag.

    Demonstration

    jHelp is primarily intended to be deployed as a pop-up hypertext help subsystem, for use in java applets and applications. This use is demonstrated on the jHelp Frame demo page.

    In addition to the pop-up frame, jHelp can also be implemented as an html browser widget.

    You may wish to browse the javadoc documentation of the jHelp package.

    Limitations

    Anchor names(<A NAME=...)must be a single word, without spaces.

    TAG items not supported will simply be ignored by jHelp.

    These consist of the following:

  • BASE
  • ISINDEX
  • LINK
  • FORM
  • META
  • NEXTID
  • TAB
  • TABLE
  • XMP
  • Although UL, OL, DL, DIR and MENU lists are supported, the COMPACT attribute is ignored. Ordered lists (OL) are currently implemented as bulleted lists.

    The WIDTH attribute of PRE is ignored.

    The <A ...> hyperlink anchor only supports the HREF and NAME attributes.

    IMG attributes ALT, ISMAP and ALIGN=TOP are not supported. (MIDDLE and BOTTOM alignments are supported. ABSMIDDLE is treated the same way as MIDDLE.) Unless otherwise specified, the default alignment for images is BOTTOM.

    Some scaled images display improperly under Navigator and Explorer. In the appletviewer, they will not display until the text canvas is redrawn, such as following a resize. As a result, the WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes are currently ignored in this version, until this issue is understood and resolved.

    The cursor used when passing over hyperlinks under the Netscape Java implementation is Frame.CROSSHAIR_CURSOR. Other implementations will use Frame.HAND_CURSOR.

    Special characters, &#32; through &#255; are implemented. Character entities proposed in HTML2 and implemented under HTML3 are not officially recognized in this version of jHelp, although support for amp, gt, lt, copy, quot, reg and nbsp is provided as a convenience.

    Finally, while every effort has been made to prevent jHelp from crashing in the presence of bad HTML, we strongly recommend running help source files through an HTML lint program, such as Weblint. We've found that even popular, dedicated HTML editors can churn out an occasional blooper, which will probably not produce the expected appearance of your document.

    Reference: Berners-Lee, T. and D. Connolly, Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0, Internet Engineering Task Force, September 22, 1995

    HTML Enhancements

    Although a few less applicable tags have been omitted, some handy ones are supported that are not officially a part of HTML2. The include the BGCOLOR, TEXT and LINK color attributes of the BODY tag.

    Colors can be specified with either hex RGB triplets, such as "#FFFFFF" or "FFFFFF", or with a standard AWT color name, such as "blue," "lightGray," etc.

    The BASEFONT tag, with attributes SIZE (absolute, not relative) and FACE have also been added.

    What's Next?

    Implementing tables would be very nice, and if we can find a way to do this without crippling performance we will do so.

    Another possible enhancement is to permit loading pre-parsed help source files. This will result in an inititial performance gain, and will also help prevent unauthorized alteration of help file content.

    Licensing

    jHelp is neither freeware nor shareware. It is available to developers through scaleable licensing options, based on distribution.

    Option   # of End-Users        w/Source        No Source
    ------   --------------        --------        ---------
      A      per server            n/a             $20
      B      50 or less            $130            $90
      C      51 - 150              $260            $180
      D      151 - 300             $390            $270
      E      301 - 500             $520            $360
      F      over 500              $650            $450
    

    All prices are in U.S. Dollars.

    Availability

    jHelp is available for a no-cost evaluation to permit you to determine its suitablity for your application. The evaluation pack consists of the fully functional jHelp package, with documentation and sample programs. Source code for the jHelp package is not available for evaluation.

    For further information, please send email with your name, company, and licensing option in which you are most interested.


    jHelp Copyright © 1996 by William Giel.
    All Rights Reserved.