Preserve Nav pane when calling individual topic

[tuehling]

I need the ability to navigate directly to topics with my WebHelp output. When I generate WebHelp using the "DocBook WebHelp (old)" scenario, this works properly. By properly I mean that the Nav pane with Content and Search is displayed on the left side. When I generate WebHelp using the "DocBook WebHelp" scenario, I only get the Nav pane when I call index_frames.html. The Nav pane is not displayed when I go directly to any other topic. I need to use the newer scenario. What do I need to do to get the Nav pane to display when I go directly to a topic? Thank you.

[sorin_ristache]

Hi,

I need the ability to navigate directly to topics with my WebHelp output.

Do you mean to load the frameset version of the Webhelp output (the format of the index_frames.html file), but set any node from the Content tree as the initial page displayed in the right side content panel, instead of the default initial page (which is the first node of the Content tree)? That is not possible in the frameset version (the index_frames.html file). That is possible only in the internal frames version (the index.html file): just pass the following URL to the browser: out/webhelp/index.html#<path-to-page-from-right-side-panel>, where you replace <path-to-page-from-right-side-panel> with the relative path to the section file that you want to load in the right-side panel, relative to the out/webhelp/ directory, for example: subdir1/subdir2/mySection1.html, or mySection2.html.

Getting the same effect with the index_frames.html file would require you to edit the index_frames.html file and replace in the following code fragment:

Code: Select all

function getHTMLPage(){

    var currentPage = "ch01.html";

the path of ch01.html with the path of your initial right-side page, for example ch02s01.html:

Code: Select all

function getHTMLPage(){

    var currentPage = "ch02s01.html";

When I generate WebHelp using the "DocBook WebHelp" scenario, I only get the Nav pane when I call index_frames.html.

The left-side panel called Content should always be present in the Webhelp output, in both the internal frames version (index.html) and the frameset one (index_frames.html). Do you get the same result on one of the Docbook 5 sample documents from the default Oxygen project (the project file samples/sample.xpr opened in the Project view)? If yes, can you send us the output directory of your transformation, that is samples/docbook/v5/out/webhelp? If not, please send us a sample Docbook XML document for reproducing the problem.

The Nav pane is not displayed when I go directly to any other topic. I need to use the newer scenario. What do I need to do to get the Nav pane to display when I go directly to a topic?

Please use the index.html version of the Webhelp output for opening the Webhelp in browser directly to a specific topic/subsection. If you must use the index_frames.html version you will need to edit the index_frames.html file as I said above.


Regards,
Sorin

[tuehling]

Thank you. Using index.html#<path-to-page-from-right-side-panel> as you described works exactly as I need it to.

Also, the Nav pane DOES appear when I call index.html or index_frames.html...not sure what I was doing wrong before but I must have worked myself into a frenzy.