[Xerte] Re: Xerte 2 : Help File for Wizard Forms in PageTemplates, On-line Toolkits and Page Wizards

[Julian Tenney]

There is an <info> tag which will put information at the bottom of the screen for a page type.

<info><![CDATA[Here is info on this page]]></info>

It's bit restricted though, space wise, but could include a link to the real help in html format in the common folder, or online, maybe on the wiki.

<info><![CDATA[For info, click <a href="yourhelppage.htm">here</a>]]></info>


From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Kemp Johnathan
Sent: 27 April 2011 14:30
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Xerte 2 : Help File for Wizard Forms in PageTemplates, On-line Toolkits and Page Wizards


I recall a new page being added to PageTemplates a while back that allowed you to define non-rectangular hot-spots. At the time I found the Page's form a bit confusing. Because unlike other pages that had an option in the form to add a hot-spot to an image, this page worked differently. Hot-spots were added using Xerte's drawing capabilities. Some form of help file that I could have accessed whilst completing the page's wizard form could have explained this to me, showing me how to complete the wizard. This would have been really useful.

The issue of helpfiles became even more significant to me the other day.

I have been looking recently into how PageTemplates (and presumably therefore On-line Toolkits) and the Page Wizards can share a common set of .rlm files.

I think I have found a way of avoiding the need in Page Wizard .rlm files to have the "learningObject[0]" addition to data calls that currently forces the Page Wizard's .rlm files to be so different from the PageTemplates .rlm files. This should result in it being relatively simple to develop a new Page Wizard and to then port it across to PageTemplates or On-line Toolkits, thus making the Page Wizards a valuable platform for the community to use to develop new pages.

To demonstrate this I have been working on converting the Inventory Page Wizard for inclusion in a PageTemplates issue (At present the Inventory Page is unique to Page Wizards). It was this that raised the issue (opportunity) once again of having a help file.

The Inventory Page lets you define a series of group titles e.g. Auditory, Visual, Kinesthetic. It then allows you to define a series of questions in which each answer option can be allocated to one of the groups. Thus as users answer the questions they build up scores in each of the groups. On completion of the Inventory the user is presented with a graph or pie chart that displays their scores for each group, either as an absolute number or as a percentage. E.g. It might in the above example show the user as 20% Visual, 30% Auditory and 50% Kinesthetic.

To achieve the above the wizard form that supports the page has a number of options that take a little explaining. This is achieved in the Page Wizard by having a "read me" script block that does nothing in terms of how the page functions but just contains commented text that tells the page designer how to use the form. This can work in a Page Wizard as users of Page Wizards can access the underlying structure of the page. But as a solution it is a bit crude and not particularly user friendly. More critical is that this method cannot work in a PageTemplates / On-line Toolkit environment, because access to the underlying page structure is not available.

Page Templates and On-line Toolkits have a nice feature that is not available to Page Wizards and that is the display of a thumb-print image of the page, to help the user select the right page. This is achieved by having an image file for each page present in a "thumbs" folder. The appropriate file is referenced in the xwd file for each page.

I believe it would be useful and helpful to users if we could have another folder perhaps called "help" which contained a simple help file that described how to use each page template's wizard form? The vision I have is that on opening the page's wizard form that the form would provide a link to the help file and that on clicking the link the help file would open in a separate window so that you could refer to it whilst completing the form. If the wizard form was closed then the help window would close as well.

What would be even better is if this system could also work for the Page Wizard version so that the same help was available to Page Wizard users. There is already support in Page Wizards for the inclusion of files in a common folder that are then copied to the project's common folder if they are not already present. The Page Wizards could deliver their help file in a similar way.

It would be even better if support could also be provided in Page Wizards for the use of thumbnail images, but I realise that this feature is triggered before a wizard form is opened so may be impractical to implement for Page Wizards.

So what do people think?

Would a help-file for each page would be useful?

>From a technical point of view, if the idea is perceived as worthwhile, is it achievable?

Kind regards

Johnathan
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