Creating a Help Page

Application Builder includes built-in attributes to create Help for your application. Creating Help for your application involves the following steps:

  1. Create a dedicated Help page and Help region.

  2. Define page Help text.

  3. Define item Help text.

  4. Create a navigation bar icon to link to your Help page.

Help created in Application Builder displays on a dedicated Help page. To access Help, users click a link that takes them to a dedicated Help page. This Help page displays page and item Help topics specific to the page they are viewing.

Topics in this section include:

Creating a Help Page and Region

The first step in creating Help for your application is to create a dedicated page and Help Text region.

To create a Help Text region:

  1. Create a page for your Help. See "Managing Pages in an Application".

  2. Navigate to the Page Definition of your Help page. See "Accessing a Page Definition".

  3. Under Regions, the Create icon.

  4. When prompted to select a region type, select Help Text.

  5. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Defining Help Text

You define Help text for a page or single item by editing attributes. Ideally, you would define these attributes as you create your application. For simplicity, however, the following procedures describe how to define this text after the fact.

See Also:

"Item Help"

Topics in this section include:

Defining Help for a Page

To define page Help text:

  1. Navigate to the Page Definition for the page for which you want to add page Help. See "Accessing a Page Definition".

  2. Under Page, click the Edit page attributes icon to view the existing page attributes.

  3. Scroll down to Help.

  4. Enter your Help text in the field provided.

  5. Click Apply Changes.

Repeat the previous procedure for each page requiring page Help text.

Defining Help Text for an Item

To define item Help text for an item:

  1. Navigate to the Page Definition for the page for which you want to add item Help. See "Accessing a Page Definition".

  2. Under Items, click the name of the item you want to edit.

  3. Scroll down to Help Text.

  4. Enter your Help text in the field provided.

  5. Click Apply Change.

Repeat the previous procedure for each item requiring Help text.

Editing Multiple Item Help Topics Simultaneously

If you are including item Help in your application, you can edit multiple item Help topics at once using the Bulk Edit Item Help report.

Accessing the Bulk Edit Item Help Report

To view the Bulk Edit Item Help report:

  1. On the Workspace home page, click the Application Builder icon.

  2. Select an application.

  3. On the Tasks list, click Application Reports.

  4. Click Page Components.

  5. Under Items, click Item Help Text.

    A report displays at the bottom of the page.

  6. In Bulk Item Help Report, you can:

    • Update existing Help topics. Edit the Help text that appears and click Apply Changes.

    • Link to the Page Definition containing the item by clicking the page number.

    • Link to the Page Item by clicking the item name.

Seeding Item Help Topics

If your application does not yet contain item Help, you can perform a mass update of default Help text.

To seed item Help topics:

  1. Access the Bulk Edit Item Help report as described in the previous topic.

  2. Click Seed Item Help Text.

  3. In Default Help Text, enter the default text to appear in all Help topics.

  4. Click Apply Changes.

Searching for Existing Item Help Topics

You can search for existing Help text, or for an item label.

To search for existing item Help topic:

  1. In Help Contains, enter keywords.

  2. Click Go.

Searching for an Item Label

To search for an item label:

  1. In Help Contains, enter keywords.

  2. Click Go.

See Also:

"Viewing Application Reports"

Creating a Help Navigation Bar Entry

Once you have created your Help, the next step is to create a navigation bar entry so users can link to it.

To create a navigation bar entry:

  1. Navigate to the Page Definition. See "Accessing a Page Definition".

  2. Under Navigation Bar, click the Create icon.

  3. For Attributes:

    1. Sequence - Specify the sequence for this component. The sequence determines the order of evaluation.

    2. Alt Tag Text - Enter ALT text for navigation icons that are images. If you do not specify an image name, then this text displays.

    3. Icon Image Name - Enter the name of the image that displays.

    4. Image Height - Enter the height of the image.

    5. Image Width - Enter the width of the image.

    6. Text - Enter additional text to display with the image. You can include text or use icons with no text. This attribute is optional and can be translated.

    7. Click Next.

    Next, specify the target location.

  4. For Target:

    1. Target is a - Select Page in this application.

    2. Page - Specify the page number of the help page you created in "Creating a Help Page and Region".

    3. Request - Enter the following:

      &APP_PAGE_ID.

      By specifying substitution string &APP_PAGE_ID as the Request, you are instructing the Application Express engine to display Help text for the current page when the user clicks this icon.

    4. Click Next.

  5. Click Create.