Download ConstraintsDownload ConstraintsHelpSets can be deployed on the server either packaged in archives, or as loose files. This table summarises the advantages of each way of offering the HelpSet.
| Feature | Loose | Archived |
|---|---|---|
| Browser and search engine friendly | possibly * | false |
| Parts will be downloaded only if required | true | false |
| Avoids download of updated helpset until help requested | true | false |
| Fast initial download | true | false |
| Fast to load linked documents (are they cached locally?) | false | true |
| Fast to reload documents (are they cached locally?) | false | true |
This can basically be summarised as follows. 'Loose' leads to download only of the required files, but every time they are needed. 'Archived' leads to slower initial caching, and forces update whenever help is updated, but means the help pages themselves will be loaded significantly faster.
* The most 'browser friendly' document
types will be HTML. 'Search engine friendly' only applies if the
search engine is 'told' the documents exist - this is usually achieved
by linking to the HelpSet page(s) from any existing web page that
is indexed. Further, it probably would
not work to link to the initial HelpSet (.hs) file
itself, since search engines do not attempt to parse and interpret XML - only links
to HTML (& RTF) files would be likely to have the content indexed
correctly.
Lazy downloads were considered and rejected. The default tools would need to be significantly refactored before they could work (or work well) with classes and resources that were downloaded lazily. Also, this effect can be obtained by launching the application help from a separate JNLP file.
These pages represent a project aimed at getting JWS hosting of JavaHelp, at the JavaHelp home site. They are made in the form they might eventually appear at the JavaHelp site, and as such, sometimes give false or misleading information.
Note to JavaHelp content developers:
Remove this message from src/conf/fragments/html.page.bottom.htmlf
before generating the build for the JavaHelp site proper!
JavaHelp ® TM of
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
JWS deployment/web pages brought to you by
Andrew Thompson of
PSCode.org.