I want to make a help/instructions page for my Java program but I really don't want to have to go through and program all the frames and searching and such. Is there a package or program that I can just insert the data into and it will read it and create the dialog? I couldn't seem to find anything about it on Google.
It doesn't have to look like this at all but I like having the table of contents and the search at least.
alt text http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/752f287397.png
Thanks
Java help system : https://javahelp.dev.java.net/
The windows help dialog you show is part of the Window Help subsystem. You could easily create a help file for that and launch it from your Java application, but it would be platform specific. If you want to implement cross-platform help functionality, you're probably going to have to implement it yourself, but you could probably do it simply by including a set of HTML resources and using an embedded lucene index to supply search functionalty.
Have you consider using a simple HTML based manual and/or website where all that information may be accessed through?
Pretty much like http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/ for instance where you have a main page and you can navigate the topics from there?
If that's a website ( rather than a local /doc directory ) you can have the extra benefit from having a full featured search engine index it for you.
See also: Google is the Help menu
After all, how many times do you use these help systems instead of searching the web?
Related
I am looking to build a web app that allows you to pick from options like color and size, essentially custom building your own item. Similar to this: http://www.mangobikes.co.uk/bikes/custom/custom-build-your-single-speed-bike
It needs to allow me to display different pictures depending on the choices, and its supposed to have 5 dropdown menus with options. Those options also have submenus to pick colors from.
I am new to Java, and not sure where to start. Is there maybe a good how-to somewhere on the internet? And if not, any hints on how to set it all up?
Thank you
It is quite difficult to answer such a broad question (and that's why it is downvoted), but sometimes it is also difficult for beginners to know where to look.
So some pointers then:
The first thing you want: "display different pictures depending on the choices, and its supposed to have 5 dropdown menus with options" is a matter of web user interface, so you can solve it with basic javascript and HTML (see Change image source with javascript as an example). You can do that in an offline html file (you don't need java for it).
Then I assume that you need some kind of backend to send the selected values and do whatever you need with them. Without more information and assuming you want to do it with java, maybe a good alternative to prototype it could be the spark java framework.
I am trying to have my custom file type .vrs (which for all intents and purposes is an rich text format).
I am pleased with what I have since I am self taught.
But am having difficulties associating that file with my program so that when a user double clicks it, it automatically open my document editor.
All searches so far have come up with either right clicking and setting the association, but this is not what I would need.
I may not have explained as well as needed so think Photoshop's .psd when you install Photoshop all psd files are automatically set to open when you double click them.
Hopefully I have been clear enough for you to help.
Also whilst the question is regarding Java any resource be it for C# C++ etc, would also be appreciated.
Thanks for your time and any responses.
This functionality is system dependent, and in Windows involves the registry. If you really want to delve into this, take a look at this post, which goes into great detail on how to accomplish programmatically setting a file extension association using C++. If this is helpful, please write back telling us how you solved the problem in your individual situation.
If that isn't helpful I would try this link instead, as it links to more resources and demonstrates a little C# code.
How can I control other applications using Java ?
I'm using the Mary Speech Synthesizer(Open source, Java). It can synthesize speech well , but it requires the text to be in a textbox in the application window itself and then a button to be clicked . For this project of mine
the text that needs to be realized is gonna be inbound from another java application . I need to know how I can place the text in the textbox and send a click to one of the buttons in the application .
I'm hoping to figure out a way to synthesize speech from a buffer later on but till then this seems like it's a way to get things working . Also , I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find other applications for this later on and this seems like a very interesting problem ..
Get the other application's API and call its methods accordingly.
If an application does not offer an API to interact with it, there is no simple solution to make it.
However, since the application is open source you can verify what type of licensing it has, and include a part of its source code in your Java application and call it properly.
I think your best option is to find a library that does the text synthesizing. Since controlling another java application required that java application to provide the necessary API for you to access it. As #Edmondo1984 told in his answer you can include the part of the code from the open source application(After checking the licence).
I need to setup an online help system for my Java application. Its totally swing based. On searching I found OHW is good.
Can anyone suggest me how to configure or setup OJW to an Java application. Any tutorial link will be very useful.
Thanks in advance...
I know I am not answering your question.. but we designed a help system for our java swing application as well. We felt html files were the best. The kind that has iframes and a small java script on the index page that will load the center frame based on a parameter you set in the URL. You can make context sensitive help with this. Also, there is a free editor out there for non-commercial application called helpndoc. Pretty good HTML editor and will generate the HTML files and/or chm file for you. http://www.helpndoc.com/
Also, if your java app is for a windows only system then you can go with just a chm file. You can open a chm file to show context sensitive help as well. The helpndoc tutorial shows you how.
If its cross platform then html files are the best.
I had to take a surveymonkey survey today, and the format was as follows: a question was asked, then after hitting the next button, the answer was displayed as "Answer: _" along with an explanation. For kicks, I'd like to make a program that could take this survey, answering any letter, then going to the next page and reading the answer, then going back and changing the answer to the correct one, then going 2 pages ahead and repeating.
I am familiar with Java and Python, but I'm not sure how to make them be able to "know" where the button is, and how to "read" text without unnecessary image recognition.
This is just a fun project, nothing serious, but I would appreciate any ideas to get me started.
Assuming that the text was just that (text rather than images), there are a few useful tools for you:
.Net WebControl - I've scripted this before from .Net. It has the advantage of making all of the JS on the page still work. I know this isn't Java, but it is surprisingly easy to work with for this kind of task.
Selenium - It is primarily a web testing framework, but it would be easy to script it from Java to auto-submit forms.
TagSoup for Java - If the pages do not have significant javascript code that needs to run, there are many HTML parsers for Java that could potentially be used to develop a scraper.
Would it be unrealistic to make it post to the survey monkey pages? You could then do some regex's to pull "answer:__" out and look for that pattern in the original page. It would definitely be easier than trying to click things in a browser, etc. Basically, write a java app or python for that matter that does http posts to the survey pages in order and uses regex's to find the next page, etc and then use a stack to keep track of the history.
Edit if this isn't clear, let me know, I'll clarify
Edit 2: I completely forgot about HTMLUnit, my bad. It is a testing framework like suggested by jsight but specifically for Java and functions very similarly to JUnit, however, because it is designed for testing web applications, it can be used to automate interactions with other sites
You can do it using a simple image search. First screenshot the a unique part of the button and save it. This will be used as the relative reference on where you click the mouse. Then during the actual running of the application, have a screenshot of the entire screen and find a part matching the previously saved image and then let the mouse click on the appropriate location based on the button image location.