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

[Kemp Johnathan]

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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