[dev] Help links

[Jan Schneider]

Zitat von Duck <duck at obala.net>:

> I would like to change the behaviour of Help link in the menu. Currently we
> are displaying the link to the help pop-up window that renders the help.xml,
> that is mainly not translated. I would like to see this link to drive the
> user to a WIKI page, as pages can be modified by the support team without
> administration intervention (or even by advanced users). We should allow to
> pass the link the the wiki, on which is will be append the AppHelp string
> (example HermesHelp). With this we can use the site wiki or a common wiki
> pages or a general help render page like prefs to render this page with the
> original application menu on the top.

I agree that the current situation is not satisfying, especially  
regarding the translation, but also because the help files are not  
updated regularly.

But I don't think the proposed solution would really help. For one,  
you need internet access. This might not be an issue on the first  
sight, but having access to the horde server on the intranet doesn't  
automatically mean that the users have internet access too.
Second, given the experience we have with the wiki so far, I doubt  
that this is going to work as you envision it.

I suggest a different approach: the current help system was a nice  
exercise in xml processing, and I bet that why Jon did it this way.  
But it would help translators a *lot* if they wouldn't have to  
translate in two places. So why not converting the help system to  
something that utilizes gettext? All help strings would be translated  
in the application's po file then. (It's probably also debatable  
whether we want to stick with gettext for Horde 4, but that's a  
different story).
Additionally, to pick up your original idea, I do think it would make  
sense to add a link to application pages on our wiki from the help  
system. These could be starting places for introductions, tutorials,  
tips, etc.

Jan.

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