Displaying Help Topic in adf application

This post gives the clear understanding and steps to apply Help into your application. ADF Faces  provides the easy way to create the online or components level Help topics for the adf application. As per the oracle documentation given by oracle 19.5 Displaying Help in components
I created a sample application based on that. 

Sample UI of the application with HelpTopic, 

 

1.       Create a fresh Fusion Web Application and create a .properties file in the ViewController project. (ex : TestHelp.properties)

2.       Add the key values in the property file as follows,

  

 Property file for the Help is different  from normal resource bundle file

Syntax to define key values in the property file,  

PREFIX_KEY_INSTRUCTIONS

 

PREFIX_KEY_DEFINITION

All your key values should end with _INSTRUCTIONS and _DEFINITION

_INSTRUCTIONS– shows the instruction text as a small popup(refer sample UI)

_DEFINITION– shows the icon(?) with the defined text as small popup(refer sample UI)

PREFIX_ - identifies the Help keys in the Resource bundle, this will given in the HelpTopicId in the component attribute.

 

 3.       Create a class(ex: SampleHelpProvider.java) that extends oracle.adf.view.rich.help.ResourceBundleHelpProvider and implement the getExternalUrl(…) method- in case if you need to open any external URL or to customize the logic.

 

4.       Register the TestHelp.propertiesfile and the Help provider class in the adf-settings.xml file. By default your application will not have the adf-settings.xml file. You have to create the file externally in file system under the below folder location \.adf\META-INF\. 

 

After creating adf-settings.xml file, close and re-open your application, then only it will appear in the Application Resources area, you can find under ADF META-INF folder as shown in the above image 

adf-settings.xml, 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252" ?>

<adf-settings xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/settings"

              xmlns:wap="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/settings/share/http/config">

<adf-faces-configxmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/faces/settings">

<help-provider prefix = "RBHLP_">

<help-provider-class>view.SampleHelpProvider</help-provider-class>

<property>

<property-name>baseName</property-name>

<value>view.helpfile.TestHelp</value>

</property>

</help-provider>

</adf-faces-config>

</adf-settings>

 

Note (Important): 

     "Always register the do the adf-settings.xml configuration in the outer most application."

   Because adf-settings.xml is a resource of application not for specific project.  So when you create adf library and use it in another project adf-settings.xml will not be added in the jar. So have a common HelpProvider class at top most application.

  

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External URL outcome,

 

Internal application url outcome,

To use other types of Help providers like XLIFF or El, all you have to do is minor  change in adf-settings.xml. Go through the below link for more idea,

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24382_01/web.1112/e16181/af_message.htm#CHDHIGIA

Download sample here