Customizing the WebHelp Transform

[ultra9gogo]

Hello All,

I have a need to implement search and indexing functionality into my help system. The WebHelp transform provides this functionality. However, I want to have my own home page, without a table of contents on the side. Just a flat page with links.

Changing this would be done in the plugin I assume. However, looking at the code, I am unable to determine where this is done.

Can anyone advise?

Thanks!

[sorin_ristache]

Hello,

The Webhelp home page is created in the template called "create-toc-noframes-file" in the file:

Code: Select all

[Oxygen-install-dir]\frameworks\docbook\xsl\com.oxygenxml.webhelp\xsl\createMainFiles.xsl

If you want to customize the content of the Webhelp home page you may look at and modify this template.

The content of the Table of Contents pane on the left side of the Webhelp page is created in the template called "create-toc-common-file". You did not specify what you want to have in the flat page with links but you may want to look at the toc.html page created by this template.


Regards,
Sorin

[ultra9gogo]

Thanks Sorin. I'll have a look there.

[dagoss]

What would be the "best practice" for making customizations to that file without directly modifying it in the frameworks directory?

I recently made minor changes to it (adding <label> tags to the search and index forms and title attributes to the frames) but I felt like bad practice to touch it directly. There doesn't seem to be a built-in mechanism like the customization directory parameter used for DITA PDF customization.

[sorin_ristache]

No, there is no customization mechanism like a separate customization directory as for the PDF transformation. Extensive customizations like overriding the Table of Contents on the Webhelp home page require some XSLT modifications. However minor styling customizations and hiding of some elements can be done with a custom CSS set in the args.css parameter of the Webhelp transformation.

We will have a list of some frequent Webhelp customizations published soon on the website for sharing the experiences of other users who needed customizations. Also the User Manual will list some minor customizations.


Regards,
Sorin