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Articles / Desktop Programming / Windows Forms

Context Help Made Easy

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2 Feb 2007CPOL10 min read 268.5K   2.7K   274  
This article introduces a new way of instrumenting your code that enables help authors associate help topics with the application’s visual contexts at any time - even post-compilation – and to do so using the application’s user interface without the involvement of the developer.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Data;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace ContextHelpMadeEasy
{
    /// <summary>
    /// To be implemented by any control which provides a help context
    /// </summary>
    public interface IContextHelp
    {
        string ContextHelpID { get; }
    }
    /// <summary>
    /// Create PanelEx is just like a Panel, except that it implements
    /// IContextHelp
    /// </summary>
    public class PanelEx : Panel, IContextHelp
    {
        private string m_sContextID;
        public string ContextHelpID
        {
            get
            {
                if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(m_sContextID))
                    return this.Name;
                return m_sContextID;
            }
            set { m_sContextID = value; }
        }
    }
    public class TextBoxEx: TextBox, IContextHelp
    {
        private string m_sContextID;
        public string ContextHelpID 
        {
            get 
            {
                if( string.IsNullOrEmpty(m_sContextID) )
                    return this.Name;
                return m_sContextID;
            }
            set { m_sContextID = value; }
        }
    }

    public class ButtonEx : Button, IContextHelp
    {
        private string m_sContextID;
        public string ContextHelpID
        {
            get
            {
                if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(m_sContextID))
                    return this.Name;
                return m_sContextID;
            }
            set { m_sContextID = value; }
        }
    }
}

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License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Product Manager
United States United States
I've been programming in C, C++, Visual Basic and C# for over 35 years. I've worked at Sierra Systems, ViewStar, Mosaix, Lucent, Avaya, Avinon, Apptero, Serena and now Guidewire Software in various roles over my career.

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