Click here to Skip to main content
15,892,480 members
Articles / Desktop Programming / Windows Forms

Context Help Made Easy

Rate me:
Please Sign up or sign in to vote.
4.93/5 (53 votes)
2 Feb 2007CPOL10 min read 268.1K   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.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<root>
  <!-- 
    Microsoft ResX Schema 
    
    Version 2.0
    
    The primary goals of this format is to allow a simple XML format 
    that is mostly human readable. The generation and parsing of the 
    various data types are done through the TypeConverter classes 
    associated with the data types.
    
    Example:
    
    ... ado.net/XML headers & schema ...
    <resheader name="resmimetype">text/microsoft-resx</resheader>
    <resheader name="version">2.0</resheader>
    <resheader name="reader">System.Resources.ResXResourceReader, System.Windows.Forms, ...</resheader>
    <resheader name="writer">System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, ...</resheader>
    <data name="Name1"><value>this is my long string</value><comment>this is a comment</comment></data>
    <data name="Color1" type="System.Drawing.Color, System.Drawing">Blue</data>
    <data name="Bitmap1" mimetype="application/x-microsoft.net.object.binary.base64">
        <value>[base64 mime encoded serialized .NET Framework object]</value>
    </data>
    <data name="Icon1" type="System.Drawing.Icon, System.Drawing" mimetype="application/x-microsoft.net.object.bytearray.base64">
        <value>[base64 mime encoded string representing a byte array form of the .NET Framework object]</value>
        <comment>This is a comment</comment>
    </data>
                
    There are any number of "resheader" rows that contain simple 
    name/value pairs.
    
    Each data row contains a name, and value. The row also contains a 
    type or mimetype. Type corresponds to a .NET class that support 
    text/value conversion through the TypeConverter architecture. 
    Classes that don't support this are serialized and stored with the 
    mimetype set.
    
    The mimetype is used for serialized objects, and tells the 
    ResXResourceReader how to depersist the object. This is currently not 
    extensible. For a given mimetype the value must be set accordingly:
    
    Note - application/x-microsoft.net.object.binary.base64 is the format 
    that the ResXResourceWriter will generate, however the reader can 
    read any of the formats listed below.
    
    mimetype: application/x-microsoft.net.object.binary.base64
    value   : The object must be serialized with 
            : System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter
            : and then encoded with base64 encoding.
    
    mimetype: application/x-microsoft.net.object.soap.base64
    value   : The object must be serialized with 
            : System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter
            : and then encoded with base64 encoding.

    mimetype: application/x-microsoft.net.object.bytearray.base64
    value   : The object must be serialized into a byte array 
            : using a System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter
            : and then encoded with base64 encoding.
    -->
  <xsd:schema id="root" xmlns="" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:msdata="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-msdata">
    <xsd:import namespace="http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace" />
    <xsd:element name="root" msdata:IsDataSet="true">
      <xsd:complexType>
        <xsd:choice maxOccurs="unbounded">
          <xsd:element name="metadata">
            <xsd:complexType>
              <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element name="value" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" />
              </xsd:sequence>
              <xsd:attribute name="name" use="required" type="xsd:string" />
              <xsd:attribute name="type" type="xsd:string" />
              <xsd:attribute name="mimetype" type="xsd:string" />
              <xsd:attribute ref="xml:space" />
            </xsd:complexType>
          </xsd:element>
          <xsd:element name="assembly">
            <xsd:complexType>
              <xsd:attribute name="alias" type="xsd:string" />
              <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" />
            </xsd:complexType>
          </xsd:element>
          <xsd:element name="data">
            <xsd:complexType>
              <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element name="value" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" msdata:Ordinal="1" />
                <xsd:element name="comment" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" msdata:Ordinal="2" />
              </xsd:sequence>
              <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" use="required" msdata:Ordinal="1" />
              <xsd:attribute name="type" type="xsd:string" msdata:Ordinal="3" />
              <xsd:attribute name="mimetype" type="xsd:string" msdata:Ordinal="4" />
              <xsd:attribute ref="xml:space" />
            </xsd:complexType>
          </xsd:element>
          <xsd:element name="resheader">
            <xsd:complexType>
              <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element name="value" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" msdata:Ordinal="1" />
              </xsd:sequence>
              <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" use="required" />
            </xsd:complexType>
          </xsd:element>
        </xsd:choice>
      </xsd:complexType>
    </xsd:element>
  </xsd:schema>
  <resheader name="resmimetype">
    <value>text/microsoft-resx</value>
  </resheader>
  <resheader name="version">
    <value>2.0</value>
  </resheader>
  <resheader name="reader">
    <value>System.Resources.ResXResourceReader, System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</value>
  </resheader>
  <resheader name="writer">
    <value>System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</value>
  </resheader>
  <assembly alias="System.Drawing" name="System.Drawing, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />
  <data name="$this.Icon" type="System.Drawing.Icon, System.Drawing" mimetype="application/x-microsoft.net.object.bytearray.base64">
    <value>
        AAABAAIAICAQAAAAAADoAgAAJgAAABAQEAAAAAAAKAEAAA4DAAAoAAAAIAAAAEAAAAABAAQAAAAAAIAC
        AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAAAgAAAAICAAIAAAACAAIAAgIAAAICAgADAwMAAAAD/AAD/
        AAAA//8A/wAAAP8A/wD//wAA////AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
        AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALu7u7sAAAAAAAAAAAAAC7u7u7u7uwAAAAAA
        AAAAC7u7u7u7AAAAAAAAAAAAC7u7u7uwALu7AAAAAAAAALu7u7uwC7u7sAAAAAAAAAu7u7uwC7u7sAAA
        AAAAAAALu7u7C7u7sAAAAAAAAAAAu7u7sLu7sAAAAAAAAAAAALu7uwu7uwAAAAAAAAAAAAu7u7C7uwAA
        AAAAAAAAAAALu7sLu7AAAAAAAAAAAAAAC7uwu7sAAAAAAAAAAAAAALu7C7uwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC7uwu7
        AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAu7C7sAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALuwuwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC7C7sAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
        uwuwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAsLsAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALCwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
        AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
        AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA////////
        //////////8A///4AD//4AAf/4AAD/8AAA/+AAAf/AAAf/wAAf/4AAf/+AAf//AAP//wAP//8AH//+AD
        ///gB///4A///+Af///gH///4D///+A////wf///8H////j////4////+P////j////8////////////
        //8oAAAAEAAAACAAAAABAAQAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAAAgAAAAICAAIAA
        AACAAIAAgIAAAICAgADAwMAAAAD/AAD/AAAA//8A/wAAAP8A/wD//wAA////AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
        AAAAAAAAu7sAAAAAC7uwALAAAAC7sAu7AAAAC7sLuwAAAAALsLsAAAAAAAsLsAAAAAAAuwsAAAAAAACw
        sAAAAAAAALCwAAAAAAAAsAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA//8AAP8P
        AAD4AwAA8AMAAOAHAADADwAAwD8AAMD/AACB/wAAg/8AAIP/AACH/wAAx/8AAM//AADP/wAA//8AAA==
</value>
  </data>
</root>

By viewing downloads associated with this article you agree to the Terms of Service and the article's licence.

If a file you wish to view isn't highlighted, and is a text file (not binary), please let us know and we'll add colourisation support for it.

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.

Comments and Discussions