Overview for Developers

Information for Developers

There are three ways to make DotNet Help calls from your Windows application. The most basic way is to use the command line functionality of the DotNet Help Viewer. The other two ways are to use the HelpViewerClient (HVC) and HelpViewerEmbeddedClient (HVEC) classes. Use the command line version only if your application doesn't have access to the .NET 2.0 framework. Otherwise, you should use one of the other two methods.

Features of the DotNet Help CSH engine

Key differences between the HVC and HVEC classes

Using the API

The API is available in an SDK that you can download at http://www.madcapsoftware.com/downloads/flare020-ke5g.asp. You must add a reference to the appropriate DLL in your project to use the API.

In Visual Studio 2005, do the following:

  1. In the Solution Explorer, right-click the project.
  2. Click Add Reference.
  3. Select the Browse tab.
  4. Navigate to the appropriate .dll file and select it:
  5. Click OK.

Sample applications

There are two sample applications available in the SDK that demonstrate using the HelpViewerClient and HelpViewerEmbeddedClient classes.

Distribution

The Help Viewer must be installed on the user's machine that is using your application. The SDK contains a merge module that you can incorporate into an MSI-based installer to distribute the Help Viewer.

The following are instructions on how to include the merge module using Visual Studio 2005:

  1. In the Solution Explorer, right-click the MSI installer project.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Click Merge Module.
  4. Browse to the InstallMadCapHelpViewer.msm file and select it.
  5. Click Open.

See Also